Jennifer Lee is good at giving animated characters something worth wanting: recognition, or a sister who understands them. We like her scripts when they stay with those needs; the detours are often much less interesting.
Fi1m perspective
The medal in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) matters because Ralph has never been thanked. Jennifer Lee and co-writer Phil Johnston make that need easy to understand while establishing the rules of an arcade universe. Directed by Rich Moore, her first major Disney screenplay gives us a reason to care before the kart racing begins to outlast its welcome. She is at her best when she keeps such a simple desire in view.
With Frozen (2013), Lee moved into directing alongside Chris Buck while also writing the screenplay. Their version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen turns the queen from a villain into a frightened elder sister, and the quarrel between the sisters gives the early scenes their urgency. Lee developed the script with the songwriters, and the first forty minutes give the songs plenty of work to do. Then the writing leaves Elsa in her palace while the others make their way up the mountain. The most interesting character is sidelined for too long, a frustrating choice from the writer who made her interesting.
Her story credit on Zootopia (2016) sits within a larger collaboration, so we would not claim its cleverness as hers alone. It is a funny, thoughtful police comedy, with a reservation about asking predators and prey to explain human prejudice. She co-wrote Frozen 2 (2019) and co-directed it with Buck, before sharing the screenplay credit on Wish (2023) with Allison Moore.
Wish has much less to offer than the earlier films. Asha's hope of becoming King Magnifico's apprentice, partly to help her grandfather get his wish granted, gives Lee and Moore a workable starting point. We were bored by the repeated nods to older Disney pictures, because the film kept reminding us of characters more interesting than its own. It is handsome, and Chris Pine enjoys being wicked as Magnifico, but the question of keeping wishes in jars cannot sustain the script. Start with Frozen, allowing for a middle stretch that keeps its sisters apart for far too long.
Biography
Jennifer Lee is an American screenwriter, director and playwright. She joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2011 and co-wrote the screenplay for Wreck-It Ralph (2012). She contributed to the story of Zootopia (2016) and the screenplay for Wish (2023).
Lee wrote the screenplay and co-directed Frozen (2013) with Chris Buck; the film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. She later co-directed and co-wrote Frozen 2 (2019). From 2018 to 2024 she served as chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, after which she returned to full-time filmmaking, including work on further Frozen projects.
Lee holds a BA from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts.
