All images courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.

Desde Hollywood had the pleasure of attending the Global Press Conference of FROZEN 2 in Hollywood.

The following artists and filmmakers participated in the event: Songwriters Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, actors Evan Rachel Wood, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Director Chris Buck, Director/writer/Walt Disney Animation Studios CCO Jennifer Lee and Producer Peter Del Vecho.

Read below some of the most interested things that they had to say, and watch the anticipated animated sequel this Friday.

Jennifer Lee on how the sequel started its path

“I think it really started about a year after the first film came out. We did a small short and when we saw the characters animated again, we got emotional because we missed them. Peter had been traveling around the world, and this one question kept coming up, which was: Why does Elsa have powers? Then there were more questions: What the girls were meant to do with their lives? They’re on the precipice. They finally got together. What happened? Where were their parents really going?

It just kept rolling, and we realized that we had those questions, so we naively said, ‘We have more story to tell, and we’re not ready to leave this world. We love this world.’ There’s never been a musical sequel to a feature film, so we were going into the unknown, completely. We just knew that we loved the characters and we wanted to be with them again, and we couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen to them.”

FROZEN 2

Idina Menzel on coming back to the world of Frozen

“There’s the macro and the micro. There’s returning to this family and this beautiful film and this project that’s gifted us with so much joy in our lives, where I get to connect with another human being like Kristen, who’s this sister, and make beautiful art, which is something that we’re proud of. Then there’s taking that out into the world. It never really ended because I’m singing the music from it all the time, all over the world, and looking out to an audience and seeing people of all ages, really singing this music and reminding me how they’ve been touched by it, and how they’ve learned to celebrate that thing inside of them that makes them feel extraordinary in the world.”

Kristen Bell on her connection to her character and co-protagonist

“It definitely never really ended. I’m very similar to Anna. I try to infuse a ton of me into this character, maybe more so than I’ve ever done. Even though we’re roughly the same age, since my early 20s, I have been living for Idina. She was on Broadway very young and just blew up, and I remember when I was studying in New York and watching her onstage. She’s my idol. It was very cool and terrifying to be told by Disney, ‘Maybe go to Idina’s house, before this table read, and prepare a song, just so we can hear what you guys sound like together.’ So I drove to her house, stood by a piano, and was terrified. My palms were sweating. But it was almost immediate, this genuine sisterly bond.”

FROZEN 2

Idina Menzel on tackling powerful songs like the new “Into the Unknown”

“Kristen and Bobby can write such memorable, impactful melodies,” Menzel said, “but also tell a story and involve your character, through all of that, which is quite a gift. I can just go in there and have fun. The only thing that I do is that I warm up a lot because I know that they’re going to push me to hit the tops of my range. And on a good day, I do. I’m like, ‘Let’s go for some of these high notes.’ And then, when I’m out in the middle of Amsterdam on a tour and I have a cold, I have to take it down a key because they’re really challenging songs.”

Josh Gad on portraying a different version of Olaf

“Right around the time that we were going into production, I told them a story about when my oldest child was about five-years-old. She was sitting at the table and laughing and, all of a sudden, tears started streaming down her face. She looked at me and my wife and went, ‘What if I don’t wanna grow up?’ It was so unbelievable. We all have had that experience, as kids, but it’s so traumatic that you just forget about it.

That’s the way I feel about Olaf,” Gad continued. “In the first movie, he was this innocent ball of naiveté who was willing to go out into the summer sun because he didn’t know any better. In this movie, he’s almost gone from toddler to fully grown child, where now he’s starting to ask those questions that don’t always have easy answers. From a comedic perspective, that gave me so much to play with. But more importantly, from an emotional arc, it was just such a beautiful journey of that moment in life when you start to realize that maybe the world isn’t just raindrops and lollipops, and roses.”

Jennifer Lee on crafting a story that is a bit darker and more mature than the first one

“Sometimes we forget, but if you go back to old traditional fairy tales, they always have a moment that gets a little scary. That’s part of what fairy tales are for. They’re so that you, as a child and as a person in your life, can experience things, safely in the seat. Then it helps you cope with life. I think that’s really important . . . we’ve had incredible responses from kids going through those moments and just coming out the other side with triumph. For us, we grew up in those fairy tales, and we didn’t want to be afraid of it.”

FROZEN 2

Kristen Bell on what she hopes that the audience takes away from the film

“There are a few times in life where you get this paradox of feelings. One of them, which is my very favorite, is the moment when you wake up from a nap, and you know you don’t have to get up and you’re still in dreamland, and you can just stay there for a while, but you’re awake. The other one is when you have the feeling that you are ultimately fulfilled because all of these different types of love that we’ve explored–self-love, familial love, romantic love–are all full, and you feel like you’re capable of going out in the world and accomplishing things. It’s that feeling between purpose and fulfillment and drive. So I hope that when people leave, they feel fulfilled, but they also feel like stepping into the unknown might be exciting.”

View this post on Instagram

Here we go again… into the unknown! #Frozen2

A post shared by Nestor Bentancor (@desdehollywood) on

FROZEN 2 will be released in theaters on November 22.

Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf are going far in the forest to learn the truth about an ancient mystery of their kingdom.