FROZEN
When Walt Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger showed up at the premiere of film Frozen on Nov. 27, he was already sure that the animated musical about two sisters was something special, a return to the magical essence that made Disney, well, Disney. By the time he got to the credits, he had choked up. "I was glad I was wearing [3-D] glasses," he says. "It was my proudest moment as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company."
• What this means for morale, says Iger, is harder to quantify, but also important. Disney Animation is no longer the frumpy second fiddle to Pixar. "I was very lucky that I came into an environment where the number one creative process is the story," Lee says. "It was like a startup because of this creative freedom and this energy." Although the impact of one film won't rock Disney's gargantuan bottom line -- especially since ESPN contributes so much of the profit -- animation is, and will always be, the emotional core of the business. Says Iger: "If you think long term about what Disney is and the success and the vitality of the brand, this is a very, very important event." Is it me, or is it getting warm in here?
• Then came Frozen, based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, an idea that had kicked around Disney since the 1940s. Lasseter, whose first job was at Disney Animation, remembered a series of paintings of a frozen world and dug them out of storage when he came back. "I never forgot those paintings," he says. "They were so incredibly beautiful." Lasseter showed them to Chris Buck, the director of Tarzan, who had left Disney in the dark years, and helped convince him to come back. Later, he brought in Jennifer Lee, a screenwriter on Wreck-it-Ralph who is also the first woman to direct an animated Disney feature. Frozen's story is both timeless, as a classic Disney tale should be, and modern (both sisters are strong protagonists with a modern sensibility rather than passive females awaiting a man).
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• The tale of two estranged sister princesses who must come together to de-ice their homeland,Frozen is racking up the big numbers. It was the No. 1 all-time Disney animation debut, and it is expected to soon pass The Lion King in overall box office; it's been nominated for two Golden Globes and may get an Oscar nod; it's the No. 1 album on both Amazon and iTunes.
• Frozen's impact goes far beyond the movie theater, making it a key example of the synergy Iger has become known for during his Disney tenure. Anna and Elsa, the lead characters in the movie, have already become top-selling toys, as has Olaf the snowman, and a Frozen attraction at Disney's theme parks would be another logical step. Its music, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, is a natural for Broadway. In my house, for example, the movie's songs, such as "Let It Go," and "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" have become the soundtrack to our lives, thanks to my daughters.
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• Frozen also has what Disney (DIS) calls "franchise" potential, which means that its characters and themes will translate across the company to everything from toys to theme park rides to interactive characters. It's a big deal, because there are only a relative handful of franchise brands at Disney. "They're not just making money inside of that film window," says Tony Wible, senior media and entertainment analyst at Janney Capital Markets. "In that Disney fashion, they set it up across the whole spectrum."
• In his interview with Fortune, Iger confirmed for the first time that Disney is in discussions to develop a show, though there is no set time frame. "We're not demanding speed," he says. "We're demanding excellence."