Millions of families might not ever have built that snowman, if an executive's early creative note on the Disney blockbuster “Frozen” had been followed.Jennfier Lee, the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation and the co-director of “Frozen,” confessed that the beloved character Olaf — a plucky snowman who accompanies his human friends on a journey to save their matriarch — was the first thing she wanted to slash from the 2013 project when she came on board.Lee accepted the...
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Jennifer
Lee
Chief Creative Officer
The Oscar-winning writer-director responsible for the two most successful animated features of all time (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”), Lee led Walt Disney Animation Studios to a pair of Oscar nominations for best animated feature in 2022 for “Encanto” and “Raya and the Last Dragon,” winning the studio its fourth statuette in the category for the former. This year also saw Disney’s animated feature “Strange World,” featuring the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union, and its short-form animated series “Baymax!” and “Zootopia+” on Disney+. In November 2023, the studio will celebrate its 100th anniversary with “Wish,” about a girl in a magical kingdom (voiced by Ariana DeBose, with original songs by Julia Michaels) who discovers a star that can make dreams come true. Lee conceived the film with her “Frozen” partner Chris Buck, who is directing along with Fawn Veerasunthorn.