Walt Disney Animation Studios Welcomes Reindeer For ‘Frozen’

There really is a scarcity of news for Disney’s eagerly anticipated 53rd Animated Feature, Frozen, so we post what we can find.

This past week (March 19 to be exact), Walt Disney Animation Studios had a special VIP guest: a reindeer! the reindeer was brought into the studio as reference for the animators on Frozen. As you can probably guess, the animators were busy sketching and anthropomorphizing (wait, is that a word?) the reindeer (lovingly named Sage) for reference for the reindeer character in the film named Sven.

Feature Animation Coordinator Laura Meredith and effects animator Bruce Wright both posted pictures of the (one-antlered) reindeer on their Instagram and Twitter, respectively.

What’s more (and this is a real treat for you animation addicts), Story Supervisor Paul Briggs actually posted some of his sketches on his blog! (If you read the comments, he also mentions that Disney is working on revealing something new “very soon”! Wohoo!)

If you’re as big a Disney fan as we are (and trust us, we’re huge on Disney), you’ll probably remember that this is something of a Disney tradition. Animals have been brought into the studio premises since Walt’s day, so that animators get a good idea of their actions and movements. Keen-eyed Disney fans will remember that this was the case with two well known animal movies, Bambi and The Lion King (when a lion almost bit Jeffery Katzenberg’s head off).

It’s nice to know that Disney is going the extra mile to make Frozen another classic.

Suggestion to Disney: hurry up with the concept art/teaser trailers!

Disney’s Frozen- a CGI musical starring Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell and Jonathan Groff- will release November 27, 2013.

Thanks to our friends over at AnimatedViews for the news!