![]() We continue to offer a free 2-week trial of WrapPRO. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time.Greetings!"Frozen" might be the stuff of whimsy, but the stakes behind the Walt Disney franchise couldn't be more serious. That was evidenced by our Wednesday scoop that Kristen Bell, Josh Gad and Idina Menzel are set to receive $60 million packages for "Frozen 3" and "Frozen 4." Those are jaw-dropping numbers, but they make more sense when you break down the stakes. The "Frozen" series has been one of the studio's most successful, with the first two entries each grossing more than a billion dollars at the box office, and with merch and associated theme park rides generating billions more each year. With moviegoers — and families in particular —more likely than ever to gravitate toward known-quantities, there are few more recognizable brands than seeing Elsa, Anna and Olaf again. But not everyone is happy about it, with one unnamed animation director complaining to our Drew Taylor that the payout to the three essentially amounted to the cost of the film itself, with directors and animators who spend years of their lives on these projects getting paid pennies in comparison. These massive paydays don't come out of nowhere. There has been a steady progression of richer packages given to A-list stars who voice the biggest animated films. The trend of replacing traditional voice actors, and playbook of centering an animated film on big-name actors, kicked off one all-important moment in the history of animation and voice acting. Read on for all the details, and have a great weekend everyone! Roger Cheng
Taylor runs through the history of how A-list stars began to dominate animated films, and notes how it began with Robin Williams' performance on "Aladdin"...
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