“Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” is coming to an end ― and not a minute too soon, according to many Pixar fans.
Moviegoers were largely critical of the short film, which runs more than 20 minutes and airs ahead of the box office hit “Coco.” Rumors circulated last week that the backlash had inspired the Disney-owned Pixar to remove the short, and Mashable reported it would be pulled on Dec. 8.
But Disney told Entertainment Weekly on Sunday that the short was always meant to air for a limited time.
“This was always promoted as a limited run so it’s not really a story — the end of our Olaf theatrical play is coming next week,” a Disney representative told the publication. “All our ads and messaging called it as such.”
“Coco” co-director Adrian Molina responded to the criticism of the Olaf film in an interview last week.
“It is longer than, I think, any other short that has ever been attached to one of these films, so I’ve heard that that has taken people by surprise,” Molina told HuffPost.
Pixar feature films are known to be preceded by animated shorts, but Molina said showing a lengthier version was “a little bit of an experiment.”
“This year was a particular situation where we had two films out from Pixar in the same year,” he said, adding that “Cars 3” was paired with a short in the works called “Lou.”
Despite the negative reviews of the “Frozen”-themed addition, “Coco” has been warmly greeted by audiences and critics alike. The film, which is inspired by Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebration, took the No. 1 spot at the box office during its Thanksgiving-weekend opening, and has remained on top since. In less than two weeks, it has also become Mexico’s highest-grossing movie ever and received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Film.
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