“Once Upon a Snowman” (out now on Disney+) is an utterly charming and inventive animated short that takes place during the events of the first Frozen. If you’ve ever wondered where Olaf (played once again by Josh Gad) was after Elsa created him, this is for you. (And honestly for anyone who loves high-quality, emotionally fulfilling animated goodness.) It’s the perfect extension of the franchise and a much-needed shot of Walt Disney Animation Studios magic in a year painfully devoid of such wonder (Raya and the Last Dragon, the latest movie, was supposed to open at Thanksgiving but will now be coming March 2021).

So you can imagine what a thrill it was to get to chat with producer Peter Del Vecho and head of animation Becky Bresee, who helped bring “Once Upon a Snowman” to life. We talk about where the story came from, if it was always intended to arrive on Disney+, and what it was like finishing an animated feature (Raya) at home. 

Collider: Where did this idea first come up? I know you guys talked a lot on the Frozen 2, press tour about kids asking you about where Elsa got her powers. Were people asking you where Olaf came from?

DEL VECHO: It actually started with [director] Trent [Correy] after the first movie he was working, I believe, as an intern or an apprentice. And he was looking at the amount of time from when Elsa creates Olaf and she just walks away from him. And then much later in the movie he runs into Anna and Kristoff and [Trent] asks, "How did that happen? What how did he learn to talk? How did we learn to walk? What happened in that time?" It really came from him and I'm not sure it's a question necessarily that people had. But when you think about it is a really good question to ask.

BRESEE: He actually told me that he thought for sure, once he thought that I could go on the internet and see all these questions about "What happened to Olaf?" There was nothing.

DEL VECHO: It always starts with someone being curious to answer a question and what is the story behind it when you answer that question.

Becky, what was the most difficult challenge in terms of animation on this short?

BRESEE: Yeah, I feel like because we know the characters so well and the world that as far as challenges go, I think that's more the technical, because we had to bring over some... The snow from Frozen and also the characters, some of the scenes needed to be reanimated because the roots have changed so much. We couldn't just import animation. Things like that were challenging, but as far as Olaf goes, we know him so well and the sincerity and the story. And so I feel because we had just come off with Frozen 2 and everyone is so familiar that it was a pretty, it was a nice transition with this.

Do you have a little bit more elasticity because it's a short and not in the main continuity of Frozen?

DEL VECHO: Yeah, as long as again, we stay true to who the characters really are. We don't stray from that. It does allow you to tell a shorter story without the constraints of having it needing to add up to a full movie. But I think staying true to who the characters are, is probably the most important aspect of it.

BRESEE: And everybody brings their passion with them. And I don't think they put less work into a Short than we would into a feature because it's the characters that we're really trying to do right.

DEL VECHO: And remember is we finished the short right on the heels of finishing Frozen 2. So everyone had that enthusiasm of finishing the movie and we're able to continue that right into the short.

Was it always meant to be on Disney+ or was this just a fortuitous happening?

DEL VECHO: No, I think the advent of Disney+ made us realize, "Oh, there is another form where we could tell the story that Trent has wanted to tell actually since the first movie."

I wanted to talk about the chase sequence, which is the sort of showstopper in this short. How difficult was that to stage?

BRESEE:  That scene was done by Alex Snow, who always in our movies the one that comes up with very big ideas, and he also animated in Frozen 2, the sequence where Olaf is telling the story of Frozen. And he came up with making him into paddle with the sticks. He came up with so many different ideas that it was really fun to see it, but some of them we were like, “That might be a little too bizarre.” He came up with a snowball one where he's running on his hands. It's just funny because those aren't things we asked him to do. He just came up with it and ran with it. Those are the joys of our job is seeing what people bring to the table.

Do you remember anything that was too bizarre?

BRESEE: On this one? I think that was the most bizarre I ended up in the short.

Are you running out of new avenues to utilize these characters in and expand the story?

DEL VECHO: I think all of us are currently working on new movies. I'm kind of overseeing all the feature animated movies now with Disney. Although I am co-producing on with Osnat [Shurer] on Raya. And Becky is animating on Raya, which are actually finishing animation in the next couple of weeks so that's a very different property. We're really proud of it, it’s coming out great. But it was a transition to working from home, which obviously none of us expected to be making a full-length feature remotely. So that presented its own challenges. But, look we love the Frozen world, we love the Frozen characters. We currently don't have any plans beyond this, but there's still a lot of passion to that franchise.

You brought up Raya and the Last Dragon, how much of that production was at home and what was that like for you, Becky?

DEL VECHO: I'd say most of it.

BRESEE: Yeah, I rolled on in the middle of February because there are different roll-ons for animators. And then we went home in the middle of March. Most of my work has been done from home, which early on sounds challenging and daunting just because it's... We always had ways to work from home, but fully involved in it. The technology team stepped up and did amazing work to get everybody up and running to the point where after a couple of weeks, I kind of felt like it was my desk at work. I mean, there are some differences but... It’s still the same thing, we're driven by our love for these characters and the story is amazing.

DEL VECHO: I mean, the one thing that made it slightly easier is as a team, we did get to work together in the building. So at least we, even though we had transitioned to home, we brought those relationships with us.

Was it just totally overwhelming for you, Peter? I mean, cause you're overseeing however many movies as well.

DEL VECHO: Well, if you asked me a year ago, could we make a full, feature-length animated movie at the same quality at home? I probably would have doubted that that was possible. What is amazing is we always say that necessity is the mother of invention. There is so much passion to tell these stories that we just figure it out. We figure out a way to make it work. And yes, it's difficult, communication is far more difficult on Zoom than it is in person but it doesn't prevent us from communicating. It doesn't prevent us from doing the work.

“Once Upon a Snowman” is available now on Disney+. Raya and the Last Dragon will be released on March 12, 2021.