Frozen was and is a bona fide cultural phenomenon and I’m willing to bet Frozen 2 will make similarly big waves at the box office. However, it seems that the general moviegoing public does have limits as to how much Frozen they want in their lives. At least, judging by the frosty (get it?) reception received by the 22 minute short Olaf’s Frozen Adventure that was screened before Pixar’s Coco. The reaction to it’s been so bad, in fact, that Disney actually pulled the damn thing from all screenings of the film.
Aside from 22 minutes seriously stretching the definition of an animated ‘short,’ Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is a nauseatingly calculated slice of faux-holiday cheer delivered by a gurning snowman monstrosity that only just squeaked into ‘likeable’ territory in the original film. Worse yet, it simply lacked the spark of comedy, adventure and fairytale sincerity that helped Frozen reach such a wide audience.
But it’s not all bad news for the studio’s ‘short,’ as it’s been moved over to television and began airing on ABC this week. Not only that, but unsurprisingly, it’s performing a lot better on the small screen than it did on the big, as it pulled in 5.7 million viewers when it debuted as a holiday special last night. While that’s not a massive number by any means – for comparison’s sake, The Big Bang Theory brought in 13.5 million in that same time slot on CBS, while Thursday Night Football on NBC did 7.7 million – it also isn’t something to scoff at.
If nothing else, it’ll have Disney feeling a bit better about the whole thing, especially since Olaf’s Frozen Adventure got absolutely torn apart by audiences in theaters. Now, though, they’ve had the ‘short’ viewed by an additional 5.7 million people, which means more toy sales for the Mouse House this holiday season. Which, ultimately, was probably the end goal of this whole endeavor anyways.
Tell us, what did you think of Olaf’s Frozen Adventure? Were you into it, or were you just waiting for it to end? Sound off down below with your thoughts!
