Oscars: Frozen 2 Songwriter Speaks Out on Best Animated Film Snub

Unlike its 2013 predecessor, 2019's Frozen 2 came home empty handed at the 92nd Academy Awards. [...]

By Spencer Perry

Unlike its 2013 predecessor, 2019's Frozen 2 came home empty handed at the 92nd Academy Awards. The first film walked away with two Oscars, winning both Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature (the first time that a Walt Disney Animation Studios movie had ever won the award), but its sequel was only nominated for Best Original Song, and lost to "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" from Rocketman. Though losing to Sir Elton John is almost a given, songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez did have something to say about Frozen 2 not being nominated at all for the Best Animated Feature, attributing it to bias in the film industry.

"We were surprised.," Kristen Anderson-Lopez told Variety. "We were surprised and it's a shame because Jennifer Lee is one of the great female directors. She's the first female of a Disney (animated) musical, and she's the first female head of Disney Animation. The fact that it's not being celebrated in the way that I think it should be just speaks to an unconscious bias that I think is happening in our industry that we need to talk about."

Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 4 ended up taking home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, beating out Universal's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Netflix's I Lost My Body and Klaus, and Laika's Missing Link. It's worth noting that when Frozen was originally nominated in 2014 that it didn't have any other Disney competition going up against it, with all of the Disney love this year seemingly going to Toy Story 4.

It's not all doom-and-gloom for Frozen 2 though, as the film became the highest grossing animated movie of all time earlier this year. The film ended its theatrical run with $1.43 billion at the global box office, beating out the original Frozen which earned $1.27 billion. Frozen 2 will be available for digital purchase on February 11th, so you can watch it again on iTunes, Vudu, Amazon, Movies Anywhere, and more. Two weeks later, on February 25th, Frozen 2 will be available on Blu-ray 4K Blu-ray, and Steelbook and pre-orders are live now.

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