Once Upon a Snowman Review

October 21, 2020 at 8:20pm
By Jason Stettner

Once Upon a Snowman is a Disney+ Original short film that aims to provide the origin of how Olaf came to be. It’s a sense of discovery, and a search for identity across this chilly wasteland. That’s more of an epic description than what’s really deserved here however.

It’s just a small several minute long short that follows the snowman getting a nose and falling into the backdrop of scenes from the original movie. It’s really not something I needed to know lore wise, felt unnecessary. At the same time; for those fans of the movie that really want the full well rounded experience, you’ll want to watch this.

It lifts off with the iconic musical number of “Let It Go” and has some smaller connections to the movie throughout. Keep in mind that this is a short, it’s very swift and then gone. It doesn’t really leave a lasting impression, but fills a minor gap I suppose. I think they could have went for something deeper here, but the individual that like Olaf will be satisfied.

Josh Gad reprises his role as Olaf here, sounds about the same as usual. So, voice wise it’s the snowman. The animation work here was great, definitely felt like it belonged within the original film and had some expected cameo appearances during certain transitional scenes. I suppose it hit the mark for those moments in time.

The Conclusion

Once Upon a Snowman is a decent short animated effort, it fills in some gaps yet at the same time wasn’t necessarily needed. The spots it filled in during the film weren’t really areas I had ever needed to see more of. I suppose the hardcore fans would enjoy this one, getting just that much more out of it.

Maybe we’ll even see an extended version option in the future that filters these moments in, that might be neat. I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was fine. It’s not terribly long, gets some music in there and just carries on for those one part of the film. They really could have dug deep, but went light for sure.

Once Upon a Snowman Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Disney

Rating Overall: 7.0