Frozen is melting Disney CEO and Chairman Igers heart not just because of the cold， hard， cash its generating but also because the success of the film appears to show that Disney Animation Studios is finally， finally back in the groove.

The tale of two estranged sister princesses who must come together to de-ice their homeland， Frozen racked up the big numbers. It was the No. 1 all-time Disney animation debut， and won the Oscar for best animated film at the 86th Academy Awards； its the No. 1 album on both Amazon and iTunes.

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. Its a big deal， because there are only a relative handful of franchise brands at Disney.

In the Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg heyday between 1984 and 1994， Disney Animation rolled out one musical blockbuster after another. There was The Little Mermaid， The Lion King， Beauty and the Beast， and many others. And then the pixie dust dried up. For years， the offerings were listless and underperformed. Morale dropped and talent departed as companies like Dreamworks and Pixar took the lead in animation.

And so， starting seven years ago， two of Pixars co-founders， John Lasseter and Ed Catmull， began to split their time between Pixar and Walt Disney Animation， in hopes of rekindling that Disney magic. Rather than trying to graft Pixars thriving culture onto Disneys struggling one， they determined that the goal was to resurrect what had made Disney so special in the first place—the technically audacious， yet magical， fairy tale.

They did import one key Pixar attribute： They put the director， rather than the studio chief or the animation head， in charge of the story. Unlike many studios， Pixar lets the director determine the arc of the narrative. Technology is used in service of the story-telling rather than as its starting point. It began to catch hold with Tangled （2010） and Wreck-it-Ralph （2012）， each of which outperformed financial and critical expectations.

Then came Frozen， based loosely on Hans Christian Andersens 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.”

Frozens 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 Disneys theme parks would be another logical step. Its music， written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez， is a natural for Broadway. For example， the movies songs， such as Let It Go， and Do You Want To Build A Snowman？ have become the soundtrack to our lives.

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. Although the impact of one film wont rock Disneys gargantuan bottom line， 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.”

《冰雪奇緣》正在融化迪斯尼公司首席執(zhí)行官兼董事長(zhǎng)伊格爾的內(nèi)心，不僅僅是因?yàn)樗谏衫浔?、硬邦邦的鈔票，還因?yàn)檫@部影片的成功似乎表明，迪斯尼動(dòng)畫工作室終于重新回到了巔峰。

《冰雪奇緣》講述了兩位疏遠(yuǎn)的公主姐妹歷經(jīng)艱辛團(tuán)聚在一起，最終為她們的家園解除冰封的故事。這部電影創(chuàng)造了一系列重要的數(shù)字：它是有史以來首映周票房最高的動(dòng)畫電影，并獲得了第86屆奧斯卡最佳動(dòng)畫長(zhǎng)片獎(jiǎng)；它是亞馬遜網(wǎng)站和iTunes商店銷量最高的電影專輯。

此外，《冰雪奇緣》還具備迪斯尼公司所稱的“特許經(jīng)營(yíng)”潛力。它意味著，這部電影的人物和主題將經(jīng)由這家公司的各個(gè)部門，最終轉(zhuǎn)化為數(shù)不勝數(shù)的產(chǎn)品，從玩具到主題公園、游樂設(shè)施，再到互動(dòng)角色，不一而足。這是一筆龐大的買賣，因?yàn)榈纤鼓峁灸壳爸挥袨閿?shù)不多的特許經(jīng)營(yíng)品牌。

1984年至1994年之間，也就是邁克爾·艾斯納和杰弗里·卡森伯格執(zhí)掌迪士尼動(dòng)畫的鼎盛時(shí)期，這家公司推出了一部又一部令人嘆為觀止的音樂劇。其中，最耳熟能詳?shù)漠?dāng)屬《小美人魚》《獅子王》和《美女與野獸》。隨后，精靈之塵終于枯竭。多年來，這家工作室的作品總是無精打采。隨著夢(mèng)工廠和皮克斯等公司強(qiáng)勢(shì)崛起，后來居上，迪斯尼動(dòng)畫的士氣愈發(fā)消沉，人才紛紛出走。

于是，從7年前開始，皮克斯公司的兩位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人約翰·拉塞特和埃德·卡特莫爾便著手分配他們?cè)诘纤鼓釀?dòng)畫和皮克斯的工作時(shí)間，以期重新激發(fā)潛伏在迪斯尼動(dòng)畫身上的那股魔力。他們不是嘗試著將皮克斯公司蒸蒸日上的文化移入陷于困境的迪斯尼動(dòng)畫，而是確定了另一個(gè)目標(biāo)：重振起初讓迪斯尼動(dòng)畫如此獨(dú)特的事物——在技術(shù)上大膽突破，充滿奇幻的童話故事。

迪斯尼動(dòng)畫的確引入了皮克斯的一項(xiàng)關(guān)鍵特色：他們讓導(dǎo)演而不是工作室高管或動(dòng)畫主管負(fù)責(zé)整個(gè)故事。不同于許多動(dòng)畫工作室，皮克斯讓導(dǎo)演決定敘事的弧線。技術(shù)被用來服務(wù)于故事敘述，而不是充當(dāng)電影的出發(fā)點(diǎn)。2010年和2012年相繼推出的《魔發(fā)奇緣》和《無敵破壞王》讓迪斯尼動(dòng)畫嘗到了甜頭，這兩部電影的票房收入和評(píng)論反響均超出了預(yù)期。

隨后，迪斯尼動(dòng)畫工作室推出根據(jù)安徒生童話《冰雪女王》改編而成的《冰雪奇緣》。其實(shí)，早在上世紀(jì)40年代，迪士尼公司就萌生了這個(gè)想法。當(dāng)初拉塞特（他首份工作就就職于迪斯尼）回到迪斯尼動(dòng)畫工作室的時(shí)候，他依然記得那一系列描繪冰凍世界的畫作，并從儲(chǔ)藏室中把它們重新挖掘出來?！拔覐膩頉]有忘記那些畫，”他說，“那些畫面堪稱美輪美奐，簡(jiǎn)直令人難以置信?！?/p>

《冰雪奇緣》的影響力范圍遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出電影院，從而使其成為伊格爾執(zhí)掌迪斯尼動(dòng)畫期間賴以成名的協(xié)同效應(yīng)的一個(gè)重要例證。這部電影的主角安娜和艾莎，以及雪人奧拉夫已經(jīng)成為最暢銷的玩具，在迪斯尼主題公園開發(fā)《冰雪奇緣》景觀將是另一個(gè)合乎邏輯的步驟。出自羅伯特·洛佩茲和克里斯汀·安德森·洛佩茲之手的電影音樂也非常適合在百老匯演出。這部電影的歌曲，比如《隨它去》和《你想堆雪人嗎？》，已經(jīng)成為我們?nèi)粘Ｉ畹谋尘皹贰?/p>

伊格爾說，這部電影對(duì)員工士氣的帶動(dòng)作用很難量化，但非常重要。迪斯尼動(dòng)畫再也不是老氣橫秋、屈居皮克斯之下的二等公民。珍妮弗·李說：“讓我倍感幸運(yùn)的是，我來到了一個(gè)把故事擺在創(chuàng)作過程首位的環(huán)境之中。”盡管一部電影的影響還無法撼動(dòng)迪斯尼公司龐大的營(yíng)收根基，但動(dòng)畫片畢竟是并且將永遠(yuǎn)是這家娛樂業(yè)巨頭的情感核心。伊格爾說：“如果以長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)的眼光來考慮迪斯尼公司的本質(zhì)，以及這一品牌的成功和活力問題，那么這就是一個(gè)極其重要的事件?！?