Remember when the runtime Pixar’s Coco was increased by nearly a third of the film’s total length due to the fact that Disney attached the 22-minute short film Olaf’s Frozen Adventure to it? It was a brutal experience, especially for families who just wanted to take their kids to see a Pixar movie.

Well, Disney is at it again with a new Frozen short film focusing on Olaf. Thankfully, Once Upon a Snowman clocks in around only seven minutes, and you can watch one minute of it right now

Once Upon a Snowman Clip

Everyone knows that Olaf was created by Elsa in the midst of her “Let It Go” ballad in the original Frozen. What Once Upon a Snowman presupposes is…maybe there’s more to the story? The new short film basically puts the focal point on Olaf in the middle of Elsa’s song, and then watches as he slowly becomes self-aware and has a bit of an identity crisis in the most Olaf way possible.

Look, I get that Olaf is the comedic relief of Frozen, and he makes kids and adults crack up equally. And Josh Gad is still thoroughly enjoyable as the character too. But I feel like we’re getting away from the magic of the original Frozen, especially since this short shows that certain key events in the movie were accidentally caused by Olaf, thereby chipping away at some of the movie’s magic. It’s not necessarily ruining Frozen, because the short still has its moments, but it’s starting to feel like Disney isn’t sure what to do with these characters anymore.

Once Upon a Snowman is directed by Trent Correy, an animation supervisor for Olaf in Frozen 2 and Dan Abraham, a veteran story artist who worked on the “When I Am Older” sequence in Frozen II. We talked to both of the filmmakers, who offered some insight into where the idea came from and how their movie was inspired by both Back to the Future Part II and Pixar’s Up short film Dug’s Special Mission. Read all about it right here, and stay tuned for another interview with the short’s head of animation Becky Bresee and franchise producer Peter del Vecho.

Once Upon a Snowman is available to stream starting today, exclusively on Disney+, but Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is also out now on Amazon, so it sounds like you have a hard decision ahead of you, because there’s no way you have time for both.

Everyone knows that he likes warm hugs, but few know the whole story about Olaf’s first moments—until now. The previously untold origins of the innocent and insightful, summer-loving snowman who melted hearts in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 2013 Academy Award®-winning “Frozen,” and its acclaimed 2019 follow-up, “Frozen 2,” are revealed in the all-new animated short. The film follows Olaf’s first steps as he comes to life and searches for his identity in the snowy mountains outside Arendelle.

The post ‘Once Upon a Snowman’ Clip: Watch Olaf Become Self-Aware in the Animated Short Available on Disney+ Today appeared first on /Film.