Trivia / Olaf's Frozen Adventure

• Ascended Fanon: Although its canonicity is questionable, this Disney-published short gives some weight to a couple of popular fan theories:
  • The original film left it ambiguous whether the family in Oaken’s sauna was his own or just customers. This short portrays them as being his family, though it remains mum on the other half of the theory that the eldest man is Oaken’s husband.
  • Much of the fandom already assumed Arendelle was a part of Norway. This short portrays it as being so.
• Breaking News Interruption: The December 2, 2021 airing of this special on ABC had its timeslot pre-empted by an ABC News special about the Alec Baldwin incident on the set of Rust. It would be rescheduled to December 8th.
• Dueling Works: With Trolls Holiday, which aired on TV the same week this special was released into theaters. Despite doing well at the box office with the feature it was paired with, many people, both Frozen fans and normal viewers, despised the short because of its focus on Olaf instead of Anna and Elsa, and was way too long for a theatrical short, with some people either outright refusing to see Coco or arriving late in order to avoid the short. Eventually, theaters got the hint and removed the short after two weeks. Mexican audiences were so annoyed with it that theater chains pulled it after a week. Also, the short's merchandise failed to move off store shelves (both at the Disney Store and in normal retailers) and didn't sell as much as the Trolls Holiday merchandise or the merchandise of fellow Disney franchise Moana. This caused Trolls to reign victorious.
• Early Draft Tie-In: The novelization has the Norwegian cake being in the shape of Arendelle instead, implying that the change was relatively late in development.
• Edited for Syndication: Some of the scenes were cut when the special ran on ABC:
  • The opening logos, though the closing logo remained intact.
  • Olaf's line "House number one".
  • Anna and Elsa rounding up the citizens to find Olaf.
• Franchise Killer: In an odd way. Due to the negative reception it had when paired with Coco, there have been no further shorts shown with Pixar movies since Incredibles 2.
• Not Screened for Critics: It was not included in critical screenings of Coco, meaning critics didn't tell audiences about it beforehand.
• Out of Holiday Episode: Sirius XM's Disney Hits channel plays songs from this special even when it's not Christmas. To make matters more confusing, the song they play the most, "That Time Of Year", specifically mentions holiday traditions in its lyrics.
• Playing Against Type: John de Lancie plays a character in the short, one who only says a few lines before leaving with his wife. This character isn't a snarky Anti-Hero like Q or Discord, but a normal human.
• Promoted Fangirl: Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel, the songwriters for this short, were already big fans of Disney and of Frozen in particular when they were hired.
• Short Run in Peru: Released with Coco in Mexico nearly a month ahead of its US release. It also released digitally and aired on TV in Latin America before its airing on ABC.
• Throw It In!: As he does in the franchise's other instalments, Josh Gad ad-libbed many of Olaf's lines in this short.
• What Could Have Been: In the promotional campaign, directors Stevie Wermers-Skelton and Kevin Deters revealed a variety of outlandish ideas for shorts they had considered creating before coming up with a Christmas Special, including:
  • Olaf getting a new sibling named Loaf, who would have been a caricature of Larry David.
  • Olaf starring in a variety show.
  • Olaf being stuck in a crevasse for hours.
  • Olaf befriending a large marshmallow.

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