Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, we’ll revisit the phenomenon of Frozen and the Frozen Summer Fun events that took at a bunch of Disney Parks in the mid 2010s.
Last weekend, Inside Out 2 passed The Lion King (2019) to become the highest-grossing animated film of all-time. To those of us who follow the box office, this is a pretty exciting moment because it puts an end to the debate of whether The Lion King or Frozen II was the highest-grossing animated film ever, giving us a truly animated film to call the victor. The Frozen franchise has two of the five highest-grossing animated films of all-time, with Frozen setting the record in 2013 and becoming only the second animated film ever to gross the billion dollar mark worldwide (after Toy Story 3).
Frozen was such a hit that it basically took over all things theme park for a few years with limited time experiences at four different Disney resorts around the world including today’s featured park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Incidentally, the event was known as Frozen Summer Fun, which seems like a bit of an odd choice for a movie so related to snow, but hey they wanted to get things in there as quickly as possible.
At Hollywood Studios, the event started on June 4, 2014 with a parade, multiple meet and greets and the Frozen Sing-Along Celebration (which is still there to this day). Basically, everything in the park was decked out in all things Frozen and that includes the nighttime activities with the Frozen Fireworks Spectacular bringing the night to a splendid end.
The Frozen Fireworks Spectacular took a much different approach than the traditional fireworks show by starting out with what amounted to a stage show. The setup was similar to the Frozen Sing-Along with a forest-like background in the back and Anna hopping on stage to chat with the audience. She talked for a bit before bringing Kristoff and Olaf on stage to join in the fun. They partook in some banter about Arendelle and all things summer before Olaf let us know about his favorite summer activity, watching fireworks, But not just any fireworks, as he was particularly a fan of fireworks that involved songs.
With that, the fireworks kicked off and were pretty simple at first, just showcasing the abilities of the people of Arendelle. The real fun began when the fireworks started matching up with some of the heavy hitter songs like “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and “Love Is An Open Door.” The fireworks had some matching snowmen and hearts, which were a fun preamble before “For the First Time in Forever” to wrap up the first section of the show.
Frozen Fireworks Multi-Angle Full Show
Via YouTube
The fireworks had gotten so intense that Olaf began to melt and the emergency lever needed to be pulled. Elsa ran to the rescue of Olaf because though some people are worth melting for, now was not the right time. With Elsa around, there was one song missing from the earlier fireworks and it was the big one “Let It Go.” The song is the perfect finale song for nearly any Disney fireworks song, so why wouldn’t it work perfectly here, as well?
As a part of Frozen Summer Fun, the show was exclusive to the summer months, but it did get a second summer along with a second iteration of Frozen Summer Fun before its last show on September 7, 2015. It’s really fun to see special celebrations like these ones get exclusive fireworks shows, especially with a unique strategy behind it.
All in all, the Frozen Fireworks Spectacular was a really cool way to end the Frozen Summer Fun for the day, especially by serving as a combo stage show and fireworks. It had a little bit for all the Frozen fans out there and closed the day perfectly for guests of all ages.
Via My E-Beat
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!