Frozen II broke the unadjusted record of worldwide opening for an animated film, with $358.5 million at the box office.
The film is the highest-grossing film, sequel or otherwise, in the Disney Animated Canon (box office over $1.431 billion).
It is also the highest-grossing animated film period, depending on how one feels about The Lion King (the concept of which was rather closer to the live-action remakes ala The Jungle Book due to being photorealistic, but since it lacks any live-action human character it's often categorized as animation). Disney firmly considers Frozen II as beating that record and not 2019's The Lion King.
Trivia Tropes:
Acting for Two: When Elsa sees the memories in Ahtohallan, Alan Tudyk voices the Arendellian soldier that questions Runeard about the dam, as well as the original Northuldra leader that Runeard murders. Archival dialogue is also used from his performance as the Duke of Weselton from the first film when the character is shown among the memories.
Creator Couple: Husband-and-wife duo Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez return to write and compose the songs for the franchise, after having done the first movie, the Frozen Fever short, and the Broadway musical.
Content Leak: Two different high-quality digital leaks note The first one had hardcoded English subtitles, while the second did not of the movie illegally surfaced online a week before the sing-along version was released.
The Danza: Halima V. Hudson voices the character Halima. It's implied that the character Halima's last name is Hudson as well because she works at a place called "Hudson's Hearth."
Dawson Casting: Taken even further than in the first film, with Idina Menzel voicing now 24-year old Elsa at the age of 48, 39-year old Kristen Bell as 21-year old Anna, and 34-year old Jonathan Groff as 24-year old Kristoff. Also applies to 66-year old Alfred Molina as King Agnarr, who's presumably in his 30's or 40's during the prologue.
Development Gag: An early idea for the second film was for Hans to return and undergo a Heel–Face Turn, but this was ultimately scrapped due to fears that it would undermine the effectiveness of the first film's twist. In the finished film, Elsa refers to Hans as an "unredeemable monster", intended as a subtle jab towards this original idea.
Early Draft Tie-In: In the final version of the film, Anna and Elsa, particularly the bond between them, together form the fifth spirit, the bridge between magic and humanity. According to a podcast interview with Jennifer Lee, earlier drafts only had one sister, Elsa, as it, at least one book published around the time of the film still refers to her as such.
Fake American: For consistency with the rest of the cast, the English Alfred Molina voices Agnarr with an American accent.
The Italian version has the subtitle "Il Segreto di Arendelle" ("The Secret of Arendelle").
The Vietnamese version is subtitled "The Queen of Ice and Cold". It's shown as "The Queen of Ice and Cold 2" on tickets and programs, as it's the name of the previous installment.
Given the amount of autumn imagery we've seen in the trailers, its domestic (North America) release is in November, when it's autumn/fall in that part of the world, which is quite fitting.
The beginning of the film also happens the same day a Harvest Festival is meant to take place. The movie's original release date was November 27th, the day before Thanksgiving in the US; it was eventually moved to the Friday before, but still capitalizes on Thanksgiving weekend.
Memorial Character: As detailed in the documentary Into The Unknown: Making Frozen II, the character of Ryder is named for co-director Chris Buck's late son Ryder Buck, who was killed in a car accident in October 2013, one month before Frozen was released. He was also to whom he, Jennifer Lee, and Peter Del Vecho dedicated their Best Animated Feature Oscar to in February 2014.
Missing Trailer Scene: Some scenes from the trailers don't appear in the movie, such as a scene where Iduna kisses young Elsa's hand, Anna slashing with Kristoff's sword (which he doesn’t have in the finished product) at something that had been approaching them from behind, Elsa protecting Olaf from flames, young Iduna carrying a baby reindeer with a bunch of other Northuldra standing on the dam, and young Agnar being caught in a mini-tornado under the amused gaze of young Iduna. We also never hear Pabbie warning that Elsa could lose herself in magic, or Matthias asking where Elsa learned magic.
In Frozen, Anna and Elsa's parents were voiced by animation legend, Maurice LaMarche, and co-director/writer, Jennifer Lee respectively. In Frozen II, their voices are now provided by Alfred Molina and Evan Rachel Wood.
Child actresses Hadley Gannaway and Mattea Conforti replace both Livvy Stubenrauch and Eva Bella as the voices of Young Anna and Young Elsa (although the latter two are still heard as snowy manifestations of Young Anna and Young Elsa). Mattea played Young Anna as part of the Original Broadway Cast of Frozen (2018).
King Runeard's construction of a dam that weakens the Northuldra's guardian spirits directly mirrors the Norwegian government's damming of the Alta river in the Finnmark, which displaced a Sami village, disrupted reindeer and salmon migrations and sparked a turning point in the fight for Sami rights.
Refitted for Sequel: An early cut scene from the first film, back when Elsa was still a villain who froze Arendelle on purpose, is Anna saying "That's no blizzard—that's my sister!". The line "That's my sister!" was reused in the sequel.
Originally was scheduled for a November 27, 2019 release, six years to the day of the release of the first Frozen (2013). However, the release date was bumped forward a week to November 22nd.
A rare, highly publicized home release example, as the film’s addition to Disney+, originally scheduled for June, was bumped up to March 14, 2020, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Role-Ending Misdemeanor: After Pierre Taki, Olaf's Japanese voice actor, was arrested for cocaine usagenote It is customary in Japan to invoke damnatio memoriae to media personalities suspected of drug charges due to the stigma associated with drug use, hence why works involving drug suspects are more often than not purged or amended to remove any references to said individuals., Disney announced plans to replace his Japanese voice actor for all Frozen related material, including the first movie (to maintain consistency with the sequel) and Kingdom Hearts III, in this case being replaced with Shunsuke Takeuchi instead.
Sequel Gap: Slated for exactly six years from the release of the first film, moved to five days shorter.
Most of the books, such as the Golden Book adaptation, the read-along, and the official picture book adaptation, leave out the flashbacks and the ending to avoid this. However, a couple of books including a general franchise book and an artbook spoiled the ending, including Anna becoming queen of Arendelle in the epilogue.
Early trailers edited a ring Kristoff is holding out of a scene clip of him and Anna talking. While a fuller clip unambiguously showcasing it was later released, fans already knew what it when the edited versions were released because a doll set included it as a prop.
Merchandise and books also spoiled that Bruni the salamander is the fire spirit.
Elsa's outfit she changes into during "Show Yourself" was also spoiled by a display in Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City, as well as an ad for the soundtrack on Twitter, which played whenever one scrolled past it.
Throw It In!: Several of Olaf's lines—notably the scene where he calls out for the non-existent "Samantha" and a majority of the Previously on… gag—were reportedly ad-libbed by Josh Gad.
Troubled Production: While downplayed compared to its predecessor, the Disney+ documentary Into The Unknown reveals that the film had several issues that had to be ironed out through the latter end of its production, with the initial cut having to be heavily reworked following a test screening in May 2019 note Though well-received by older viewers, many of the younger children were confused by the more mature and nuanced moments in the film, which was toned down in the final cut to be more accessible to them. Instead of pushing the film back, the decision was made (though it’s unknown if this was by Disney or the film crew) to meet the scheduled release date which was only six months away, causing the crew to put in painstaking amounts of time and effort to finish it. While the reviews weren't quite as strong as the predecessor's critical acclaim, Frozen II was still well-received and is currently the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
Vanilla Edition: This is the first entry in the Disney Animated Canon where its home media menus are not cinematic, and also the first to have an unnamed scene index.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The crew still had no clear idea of who the voice calling to Elsa was at the start of production, and only settled on it after about half the scenes were completed.
which displaced a Sami village, disrupted reindeer and salmon migrations and sparked a turning point in the fight for Sami rights.
