Los Angeles (AFP)

"The Snow Queen" had shattered box office records and melted the hearts of the youngest, forever marking several generations with the song "Liberated, Delivered". After six years of waiting, Disney will finally present the sequel to one of his greatest animation hits.

Queen Elsa, Princess Anna and Snowman Olaf are back for this soberly titled movie "The Snow Queen 2", whose world premiere was held in Los Angeles on Thursday night.

Inspired by an eponymous tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the first episode followed Anna's journey to find her sister Elsa, struggling with uncontrolled glacial powers.

The sequel (theatrical in France on November 20, the 22nd in the United States) focuses on the history of the royal family of Arendelle and promises to answer the interrogations of the fans, in particular on the origin of the astonishing powers of the Elsa.

"But this is just one of many questions," insisted Jennifer Lee, still in charge of episode 2, at Disney's D23 rally for her fans in California. "Why was Anna born that way?" Where did the two sisters' parents really go when the boat sank, is there really a happy ending? "

- "A real phenomenon" -

In "The Snow Queen 2", a mysterious voice comes back to haunt an Elsa grown up. She exhorts him to leave the castle where she runs happy days to embark on a new quest that will take her to a distant enchanted forest.

In 2013, "The Snow Queen" had created a surprise by becoming the most lucrative animated film in history, raising nearly $ 1.3 billion worldwide. His record lasted six years, until the remake of the "Lion King" came to rob him of the crown.

"It had become a real phenomenon, the music, the characters, the story really had an echo," recalls Paul Dergarabedian, a specialist in media analysis for Comscore.

The success is all the more remarkable as "The Snow Queen" is a creation, unlike many Disney productions that have been content to extend or revisit classics such as "The Lion King" or "Aladdin" recently.

- New tubes -

"It's great to have your archives, to relaunch the favorite stories of Disney (...) But it's a different thing to create something from scratch and get a movie that has become one of Disney's biggest franchises, "continues Paul Dergarabedian.

The success was such that Jennifer Lee was appointed Artistic Director of Disney Animation Studios after John Lasseter's departure in 2018 on charges of sexual harassment.

In the original version of "The Frozen", Anna and Elsa will find their voice of the first opus, respectively Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, who sang the famous song awarded at the Oscars.

In French version, however, Anaïs Delva was replaced by the singer and actress Charlotte Hervieux. Emmylou Homs will continue to be the voice of Anna and comedian Dany Boon that of the snowman Olaf.

Let the parents get ready: "The Snow Queen 2" also promises us new hits of the sort of "Liberated, Delivered", like "In another world" ("Into the Unknown" in VO) an extract of which has already been unveiled.

According to Mr. Dergarabedian, the enthusiasm generated by this second installment should "propel him to a first weekend of operation of at least $ 100 million" in the cinemas of the United States and Canada.

And it's hard to imagine "that it does not bring in at least a billion dollars worldwide," he says.

© 2019 AFP