"Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" is a song from Disney's 2013 animated feature film, Frozen. It is sung by Anna in three different ages: five, nine, and eighteen.
Summary[]
In the song, Anna is convincing Elsa to get out of her room so they can go play outside, to no avail. However, when Anna was 18, she tried to convince Elsa to at least leave the room, as since their parents died, they have nothing but each other.
The song is reprised in the Broadway adaptaion by Olaf, Anna and Kristoff, shortly after the trio leave Elsa's Ice Palace and fall off a cliff, resulting in Olaf landing in pieces and needing to be rebuilt.
Lyrics[]
5-Year-Old Anna: (giggles) Elsa? (knocks)
Do you wanna build a snowman?
Come on, let's go and play!
I never see you anymore
Come out the door
It's like you've gone away!
We used to be best buddies
And now we're not
I wish you would tell me why!
Do you wanna build a snowman?
It doesn't have to be a snowman...
8-Year-Old Elsa: Go away, Anna.
5-Year-Old Anna: Okay, bye.
(Speech)
8-Year-Old Elsa: (gasps)
King: The gloves will help. See? Conceal it.
8-Year-Old Elsa: Don't feel it.
Both: Don't let it show.
9-Year-Old Anna: (laughs, knocks)
Do you wanna build a snowman?
Or ride our bike around the halls?
I think some company is overdue,
I've started talking to the pictures on the walls!
(Hang in there, Joan.)
It gets a little lonely,
All these empty rooms,
Just watching the hours tick by...
(tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock)
(Speech)
12-Year-Old Elsa: I'm scared! It's getting stronger!
King: Getting upset only makes it worse. Calm down.
12-Year-Old Elsa: No! Don't touch me! Please, I don't want to hurt you.
15-Year-Old Anna: See you in two weeks.
18-Year-Old Elsa: Do you have to go?
King: You'll be fine, Elsa.
(Instrumental break)
15-Year-Old Anna: (knocks) Elsa?
Please, I know you're in there
People are asking where you've been
They say, "have courage" and I'm trying to
I'm right out here for you,
Just let me in
We only have each other,
It's just you and me
What are we gonna do?
Do you want to build a snowman? (sighs)
Young Anna: It's snowing! Elsa? (knocks)
Do you want to build a snowman?
Come on, let's go and play!
I never see you anymore
Come out the door
It's like you've gone away!
We used to be best buddies
And now we're not
I wish you would tell me why!
Do you want to build a snowman?
It doesn't have to be a snowman...
Young Elsa: Go away, Anna.
Young Anna: Okay, bye.
(Speech)
Young Elsa: I'm doing everything you said, Papa! The gloves are helping!
King: Good, but there will come a day where you will have to stand before your people without them. You must be prepared for anything, Elsa. Now, again.
Young Elsa: Conceal it, don't feel it.
Both: Don't let it show.
Young Anna: Do you want to build a snowman?
Or ride our bike around the halls?
I think some company is overdue,
I've started talking to the pictures on the walls!
(Hang in there, Joan.)
It gets a little lonely,
All these empty rooms,
Just watching the hours tick by...
(tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock)
(Speech)
Young Elsa: It's getting stronger! I can't laugh, I can't cry, I can't dream! I can't live without it bursting out!
Queen: This is too much for her. We shouldn't go. Come here, my poor child.
Young Elsa: No! Don't touch me! Please, I don't want to hurt you.
Queen: Anna, it's time.
Young Anna: I'm going to miss you.
Queen: We'll just be gone for a couple of weeks, my sunshine.
Young Elsa: I can't do this on my own.
King: You can, you must. I'm proud of you.
Young Elsa: I'll try not to let you down, Father.
(Instrumental break)
Chorus: Aaaaaah...
Bishop: (speaking) In the name of our king and queen lost at sea, Arendelle shall honor their ways until our young queen comes of age. May they rest in peace.
Young Anna: Elsa?
18-year-old Anna: Elsa?
Please, I know you're in there
I'm just wondering you've been
Do you maybe want to take a walk
Or sit and talk
Or let me in
Are you ready for tomorrow?
It's your big day
Is there anything I can do?
21-year-old Elsa: Do you want to build a snowman?
Olaf:
Do you want to build a snowman?
I would help you, but, alas
Right now I'm rather incomplete
Without my twigs and feet
And most importantly my a...bdomen
Anna:
Though everything's in pieces
We've got your back
Kristoff:
Even better, we've got your butt!
Olaf:
Success! You've built a snowman
A handsome, virile, humble snowman
Do you want to build a snowman?
Come on, let's go and play
I never see you anymore
Come out the door, it's like you've gone away
We used to be best buddies, but now we're not
I wish you would tell me why
Do you want to build a snowman?
Doesn't have to be a snowman
Okay, bye
Do you want to build a snowman?
Or ride our bike around the halls
I think some company is overdue
I've started talking to the pictures on the walls
It gets a little lonely, all these empty rooms
Just watching the hours tick by
Do you want to build a snowman?
It doesn't have to be a snowman
Okay, bye
Oh-oh
Please I know you're in there
People are asking where you've been
They say, "Have courage" and I'm trying to
I'm right out here for you, just let me in
We only have each other
It's just you and me
What are we gonna do?
Do you want to build a snowman?
It doesn't have to be a snowman
Do you want to build a snowman?
It doesn't have to be a snowman
Okay, bye
Okay, bye
[Verse 1]
Olaf: Do you wanna build a snowman?
Come on, I'd know you do
Elsa's made a magic winter show
With summer snow
For Sven and me and you!
Sven: *grunts*
Olaf: We're going to Elsa's Ice Palace
You, and you, and you
All of you! See you there!
[Verse 2]
Do you wanna build a snowman?
Come on, let's go and play!
Elsa wants to give us all some fun,
She's making everyone
A snowy summer day!
Oh, you're going to Elsa's Ice Palace!
Sven's going, I'm going!
It'll be so beautiful! See ya there!
Sven: *grunts*
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Before the final script, there were minor differences:
- Instead of "Please let me in," it was "Just let me in."
- Instead of "Just you and me," it was "It's just you and me."
- The line "Hang in there, Joan" has been suggested to be anything but a distraction in terms of subtext: Anna is in a sense really saying, "Hang in there, Elsa." Ballad writer Leonard Cohen described Joan of Arc as "a cold and lonesome heroine," much like Elsa. Both were accused of sorcery, and both would find fire to be their nemesis. (This is due to elemental affiliation in Elsa's case, much like the aquatic creatures who were also threatened in The Little Mermaid.)
- There is more dialogue in the movie version than the soundtrack version.
- While beautifully rendered, the painting of Joan of Arc is historically inaccurate. Joan never used a shield in battle, and instead should have been carrying her standard: a large white banner depicting the Risen Jesus Christ flanked by angels with the words "JESUS MARIA." The standard may have been omitted to avoid any overt religious imagery.
- Elsa provides a tacit answer to this song during her own number, "Let It Go", as one of the very first things she does is build a snowman.
- As a child, Anna is voiced by two of the film crew's daughters: first, she is voiced by Katie Lopez, daughter of songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and then, she is voiced by Agatha Lee Monn, daughter of director Jennifer Lee. Coincidentally, Jennifer Lee recorded the sole line of Anna's mother, Iduna.
- Despite the song's cheerful title and tone in the beginning, the song is quite sad and tragic, as many sad events took place during this song: the deteriorating friendship of Elsa and Anna, their growing loneliness due to being isolated from society and each other, and the death of their parents, which left them both orphaned, sad and alone.
- At the end of the film, viewers can hear the instrumental reprise of the song along with "For the First Time in Forever" (known as "Epilogue") while everyone in Arendelle is skating and in the credits. It can also be heard on the DVD and Blu-ray's main menu with a sort of "mash-up" between "For the First Time in Forever". The "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" instrumental reprise could be a reference to how at the end the sisters were finally reconnecting.
- After Elsa thaws Arendelle, right when Anna says "I knew you could do it," a horn is playing the melody of the chorus, symbolizing the sisters have reunited and Elsa has finally controlled her powers.
- The bridge of this song contains an instrumental that foreshadows "Let It Go"; particularly (and very appropriately) to the musical accompaniment to its lines, "Don't let them in, don't let them see..."
- Josh Gad, the voice of Olaf, said on the ABC documentary "The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic" that "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" is his favorite song in the film and that it almost did not make the final cut.
- In the first two verses, Anna's knock is the distinctive "Shave and a Haircut".
- The Disney Channel Circle of Stars did their own version of the song in 2014.
- Elsa apparently clearly remembers Anna singing this song, for she takes Anna for a bike ride around the halls in Frozen Fever.
- Elsa has much shorter hair than she does for the majority of the film.
- The song is referenced in Frozen II when, before reviving Olaf, Elsa asks Anna "Do you want to build a snowman?".
- The song is frequently played on the radio at Christmastime, despite not being based on Christmas.
- Ingrid references the song, in the Once Upon a Time episode, "Breaking Glass".
- Honey Lemon references the song in the Big Hero 6: The Series episode "The Present".
- In Deadpool 2, Wade points out that this song sounds similar to "Papa Can you Hear me?" from Yentl. This is called back in Deadpool & Wolverine, when Blind Al asks Wade this, but he says he can't.
- The song is referenced twice in Once Upon a Time:
- First in the episode "White Out", when Anna uses the alias Joan when she meets David in the Enchanted Forest.
- Then again in "Rocky Road", when Elsa asks Ingrid if she has ever built a snowman, obviously referencing Olaf.
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