'Frozen' Director Reveals She Almost Cut Olaf From Movie

Olaf is one of the most beloved Disney characters in the last ten years, but he almost wasn’t even in Frozen!

On Sunday night (December 4) at the Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards, Frozen co-director Jennifer Lee revealed that her first note for the 2013 movie musical was to cut the funny snowman who likes warm hugs.

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At the awards show, Jennifer was presented the Distinguished Storyteller award by Josh Gad, voice of Olaf himself, and she shared about joining Frozen after it was already in development.

“Josh is Olaf,” she said in her speech, noting that after watching an early cut of the movie, “My first note was ‘kill the snowman.’”

However, after a staff animator worked out a three-page treatment with Josh in mind following a late night TV appearance of his, Jennifer “found him irresistible,” according to Variety.

Olaf went on to become a fan-favorite character and has even had multiple spinoff shorts revolving around him.

Frozen has gone on to win several big awards, including two Oscars and two Grammys. It was then adapted into a Broadway musical, which was nominated for several Tony and Olivier awards. The show closed on Broadway, but is currently running productions across the world and is on a National Broadway Tour across North America.

If you didn’t know, Jennifer is also chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, and has co-written many Disney animated films, as well as co-directed both Frozen movies and the Frozen Fever short.