Josh Gad says ‘Frozen”s strong female characters resonate with daughter

TORONTO – Comedy star Josh Gad has voiced characters for several animated films, but his work on the new Disney 3D feature “Frozen” is particularly poignant as it features two strong female siblings who resonate with his young daughter.

“The most thrilling part of this entire journey has been the opportunity to share this with her, because she loves these kinds of movies,” the former star and co-creator of TV’s “1600 Penn” said this week during a stop in Toronto.

“I have a second daughter on the way, so this … couldn’t be more appropriate for my environment, because they’re going to be two little sisters,” continued Gad, whose nearly three-year-old is due to become a sister on Valentine’s Day.

“So to have this movie in particular to look back on as my contribution to the Disney canon is (a source of enormous pride) for me.”

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” “Frozen” follows the icy adventures of sisters Anna and Elsa, voiced by “Veronica Mars” star Kristen Bell and Broadway sensation Idina Menzel.

Menzel’s Elsa is a poised princess who has the ability to freeze things, but she’s unable to control her power and inadvertently sets off an eternal winter in the kingdom.

When Elsa flees into the snowy mountains to avoid inflicting further damage, bumbling and feisty sister Anna (Bell) embarks on a dangerous mission to find her.

Along the way, Anna meets brawny mountaineer Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), mystical trolls and sweet snowman Olaf (Gad).

“The Book of Mormon” co-creator Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote “Frozen”‘s eight original tunes.

The score is from Christophe Beck, whose credits include the Oscar-winning short “Paperman” and the upcoming “Muppets Most Wanted.”

The film — opening in theatres on Wednesday — is co-directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, who also wrote the screenplay and is the first female director in Disney Animation feature history.

Lee and Buck “have done an incredible job of … bringing one of the most female-empowering stories to the Disney animated canon that I’ve ever seen,” said the bespectacled, curly-haired Gad.

“This one seems to stand even more above the rest, because it really is about sisterhood, it’s about siblinghood.”

The ever-optimistic Olaf is the film’s comic relief, representing the innocence of the girls’ childhood, when Elsa created him.

Gad said he thought of Olaf as a child trapped in a snowman’s body.

But “I did not envision this in my wildest dreams,” he added, holding up a stuffed Olaf toy in a downtown hotel room.

“It’s crazy. … There are some that you push on the belly and my voice comes out, and that is a very surreal experience for my daughter who, I think she thinks it’s like some form of black, dark magic — that daddy’s throwing his voice into an inanimate object snow monster creature.”

Olaf takes many tumbles throughout the film and Gad had to voice a lot of screams and breathy expressions in the studio.

“If the video ever got out of me recording my dialogue in the studio I would be committed, because there are no inhibitions, there can’t be,” said the 32-year-old, noting the animators and directors recorded video of his voice sessions to get inspiration for Olaf.

“You have to just go for it, and so you’ll run in place, you’ll fall, you’ll do crazy things to get the right sound.”

Gad said Olaf’s simple-minded nature has parallels with some of his previous endearing roles, including that of goofy Skip Gilchrist from “1600 Penn” and naive Elder Cunningham from the Tony Award-winning musical smash “The Book of Mormon.” His other roles include the dishevelled roommate to Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in the film “Love & Other Drugs.”

“I think I’m definitely a kid at heart, and I think it’s why I enjoy playing characters like this so much, is because there’s no inhibitions whatsoever,” said Gad, who got a Tony nomination for Elder Cunningham, a role he originated.

Gad has also voiced characters in 2010’s “Marmaduke” and last year’s “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” and is signed on to the upcoming animated film “Me and My Shadow.”

His other upcoming projects include a biopic on late comedian Sam Kinison, whom he’ll play.

Gad has also co-written “Triplets,” the sequel to Ivan Reitman’s comedy “Twins,” which is set to star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Eddie Murphy.

He said he watched “Twins” “over and over again” growing up in Hollywood, Fla.

“Going back and revisiting those characters is such a huge treat, and writing for three of my kind of icons growing up — Schwarzenegger, DeVito and Murphy — what do you even say? You’ve got to pinch yourself.”