You Can Now Watch Coco Free Of Olaf's Frozen Adventure Short

As anyone who enjoyed Coco in theatres recently may know, the delightful Dia de los Muertos , Mexican-inspired tale is preceded by a Frozen short. Not just any Frozen short: the animated short, titled “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” is a whopping 21-minute long and features literally four separate songs.

That’s long enough for people to wonder whether or not they’re in the right theatre. That’s long enough for people to question their decision to haul their litter of squirming, impatient kids to the theatre. That’s way the hell too long, Disney! And four songs? Four songs? God help us.

The 21-minute long short isn’t exactly the most heartrending thing Pixar’s ever produced. Pairing Coco , a movie about deeply Mexican traditions featuring a Mexican cast, with Frozen , a movie about white sisters whom no one has been able to escape for literally years now, is more than a bit culturally tone-deaf. Was Coco , Disney’s first all-Latin movie, really the place to insert a horrible ad for Frozen 2 instead of one of Pixar’s heartfelt artisan creations?

“Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” was actually supposed to air on ABC as a TV special around the jolly ol’ holidays, according to John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Disney and Pixar animation (who has recently taken leave over “missteps”). Lasseter and the filmmakers decided the feature was just so special and so cinematic it just had to be see in theatres.

“When we put shorts in front of features, I always love to have shorts that contrast, that aren’t about the same subject or setting or environment, but with this, both stories are incredibly emotional and so much about family that they really fit,” Lasseter said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “And both celebrate two completely different holidays, so I think that was also fun to put them together.”

But the tons of moviegoers who catapulted Coco to the top of the Thanksgiving box office, over even Justice League , have complained. At length. You can read a catalog of complaints in a lengthy Reddit thread. Some theatres in Mexico stopped playing the short altogether.

(By the way? Olaf’s Frozen Adventure did not screen for critics before Coco . That was a special treat just for the plebs, I guess.)

In response to the outcry, Disney has directed theatres to remove the Frozen short effective Dec. 8. The request from Disney also asks theatres to use that time to hold extra Coco screenings, a win-win for all of us.

For those of us who can’t get enough of Frozen (I assume you are all tiny children! Bless you all, tiny children), Frozen 2 airs Nov. 2019. But Coco ’s airing now and has an A+ CinemaScore. Go see that.