TV Special Review: Olaf's Frozen Adventure

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Some laughs

Cons: Too long overall

The Bottom Line:

Christmas traditions

Olaf finds humor in search

Short nothing special

The Search for Tradition

While the devotion to Frozen is dying down some, there are still enough fans to make follow up stories understandable, which is why we got to revisit our friends in Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, a 22-minute story that premiered before Pixar’s new film Coco.

We return to Arendelle just in time for Christmas.  Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) are thrilled to be opening up the castle to the citizens of their country.  After the ringing of the bell, which officially signals the start of the holiday, they are planning to have an open house.  However, the citizens aren’t interested in staying because they have their own traditions to get back to.

While Elsa and Anna are disappointed, it’s Olaf (Josh Gad) who is truly upset since Anna and Elsa don’t have a tradition of their own.  And so Olaf sets off with Sven to search the kingdom for the perfect tradition for his friends.  Will he find it?

This short definitely has some fun moments.  If nothing else’s there are Kristoff’s (Jonathan Groff) traditions.  Remember, he was raised by trolls, so you can imagine what some of them are.  Olaf is a funny character all by himself, and he carries much of the story.

However, it feels drawn out.  Overall, this is a long 22 minutes.  And the songs don’t help.  The special opens with a song clearly meant to riff off songs from the original, but it is obviously a pale imitation.  The version Olaf sings while searching for traditions is actually fun and clever.

Really, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure feels like a television Christmas special, which explains why it’s now been pulled from the theater and is going to air on ABC.  That’s where it should have stayed, in my opinion.  It’s fun a time or two, especially for fans of the original, but it isn’t going to become a tradition.