Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Of all the characters in the Frozen franchise, Olaf seems to have the most endurance, and that’s because of Josh Gad. Much of what Olaf does is the product of Gad’s improvisation skills, which allows him to make lots of different shorts and other programming for Disney and Disney+. The newest series is Olaf Presents, where he does his 90-second versions of some new-era Disney classics.
OLAF PRESENTS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Olaf (Josh Gad) introduces his version of The Little Mermaid; he appears in the shell bikini of Ariel and says, “I don’t want to be half a fish anymore!”
The Gist: In Olaf Presents, the ubiquitous snowman from the Frozen franchise performs his versions of 5 recent Disney classics — that aren’t Frozen, of course.
As he performs his 90-second takes on The Little Mermaid, Moana, The Lion King, Aladdin and Tangled, he gets help from his reindeer buddy Sven (whose grunts are voiced by Frank Welker), his cuddly “little brothers” the Snowgies, and Marshmallow (Paul Briggs), the ice monster that Elsa created in the first film.
For the most part, though, Olaf plays all the parts, using his snowy body to show Ursula’s tentacles or rope to mimic Rapunzel’s hair. But, he somehow manages to get the gist of each film in just about 90 seconds per episode.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? These shorts have the feel of At Home With Olaf, the shorts Gad and the Disney animators made in 2020, during COVID. The shorts are based on a scene in Frozen II where he acts out the first film in 90 seconds.
Our Take: You may think that after eight years, including two movies, a holiday special, various shorts and other appearances, we’d all be sick of Olaf by now. But, darn it, Olaf Presents is pretty funny.
Why? Because we’ve seen the five movies he’s acting out, in some cases many times. Considering they span the past three decades of Disney animation, the so-called “new era”, this also means that you could be the parent who saw The Little Mermaid or The Lion King a million times, or that parent who saw Moana a bajillion times (like we have).
Since we know the plots of these films by heart, seeing Olaf (and Gad) acting the plots out in his Olaf way — overexplaining some scenes and acting out others — just makes us chuckle. We especially liked how he explained Mufasa’s death on The Lion King, because it was pretty darned long and complicated, and Simba’s dad didn’t just die immediately. It’s the same thing we’ve all thought as we saw either version of the movie, so we like the fact that Gad and Olaf have voiced our frustration in a funny way.
What Age Group Is This For?: Olaf Presents is suitable for all ages. My almost-7-year-old laughed herself silly at Olaf’s antics, and she’s almost as tired of Olaf as we are.
Parting Shot: At the end of his performance of The Little Mermaid, Olaf stands next to Sven and says, “I’m married, and I have feet!”
Sleeper Star: We don’t know if Welker did new Sven noises or these were just borrowed from sessions from the films, but we love that the veteran cartoon voice actor (the voice of Fred from Scooby-Doo for the last 52 years!) makes a character out of animal noises.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find. In his performance from Moana, he spells out exactly what made that movie PG; the scene where Maui pees in the water, something that was only alluded to in the actual film.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Olaf Presents shows why Olaf, and Gad’s performance, has endured for almost a decade. He knows how to improvise funny stuff, and it leads to a refreshing take on some familiar Disney IP.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
