Frozen: A Pop-Up Adventure by Matthew Reinhart

Matthew Reinhart is a New York Times best-selling author, artist, and pop-up master, best known for his amazing and intricate children’s pop-up books. His latest project is Frozen: A Pop-Up Adventure which is a retelling of the Frozen story where he recreates scenes in pop-up art from the movie.

This book is made for a collector of Disney’s Frozen. There are a total of six pages, where each page consists of one big pop-up artwork that sets up the mood for the page. On the left and right corners, there are extra moving parts with text that tells the story of that block of artwork. The book may be only 6 pages, but there is quite a lot of text to read in each section.

As you flip through the pages, the characters and story come to life right before your eyes. Moving parts have the ‘pull’ tabs that change scenes.At the center of each page is a large scene that just jumps right at you. The six pages of the book include:

• Page 1 – Young Arendelle Princesses
  This page has a scene with the young sisters playing in the ball room with snow everywhere. If you pull on the two tabs, it changes to scene to Elsa accidentally hitting her sister with her icy magic and young Anna falling to the ground. On the bottom left is a flap that folds outward showing the beautiful castle in Arendelle. To the right is a book that opens up to show Grand Pabbie helping young Anna.
• Page 2 – Princess Anna and Hans dance at Elsa’s Coronation
  I love this scene of Hans and Anna in her beautiful coronation dress. The pop-up of Hans and Anna take up the entire height of the page and everyone looks so happy. To the left is a pull-out tab of the sisters sitting against Elsa’s door in sadness. On the right side of the page is a scene of Elsa scared and heading up the North Mountain. These three scenes are a rollercoaster of emotions.
• Page 3 – Elsa’s Ice Palace
  This is my daughter’s favorite page (and probably every Frozen fan’s favorite too) because of the beautiful ice palace that pops up. It is the tallest page in the book. I always get “oous and ahhs” when I open this page for all the kids to see. It is quite impressive to see all the layers come together and you can see Queen Elsa in the center of it all. This page also include a ‘pull’ tab scene of Kristoff at Oaken’s Trading Post.
• Page 4 – Anna and Kristoff heading to the North Mountain
  This page reminds me of a shiny holiday ornament because of its bell shape. The pop-up art includes a scene of Anna, Kristoff, and Sven lost in the North Mountain while Olaf is in the far background. The icicles on the trees are shiny and beautiful, and definitely caught my daughter’s eye. On the lower left is a flap that when you open it, Olaf pops up. On the top right is another flap of Olaf sitting at the beach as he dreams about summer.
• Page 5 – Chaos on the North Mountain
  The main pop-up scene of this page is of Elsa accidentally striking Anna with her icy magic in the palace. Pull on the tab and you get another pop-up scene with Kristoff and Anna running away from Marshmallow. There are also three smaller pull-tabs on the page — Kristoff in Troll Valley, Marshmallow fighting the palace guards, and Hans refusing to kiss Anna.
• Page 6 – Anna’s Act of True Love and Sisters United
  This page just amazes me because of how Matthew constructed it. When you first open it up, the scene of Anna saving Elsa at the end of the story takes up the entire page. The tallest point is the frozen ship in the background. All of the main characters are on this page — Kristoff, Sven, Olaf, Anna, and Elsa. At the bottom of the page is a huge “pull” tab. Once you pull it, another scene takes up the entire span of the book of that shows how happy everyone is. The way he engineered this page to flip into two gigantic scenes is incredible.

Daughter’s Reaction

My almost 5-year-old daughter really enjoyed every page of this book. Her favorite page is the pop-up of Elsa’s ice palace, which is the tallest page in the book. She loved the height of the page and of course, how it brought back memories of her favorite song, “Let It Go.” Her eyes just dazzled the first time I opened that page up. She also enjoyed exploring each page, opening up tabs and pulling on various moving parts.

Overview

When I first opened this book I was just in awe. I adore the story of Disney’s Frozen and seeing it come to life in this way just makes me feel so happy. The artwork is simply amazing and the construction of the paper pop-up pages is incredible. I dabble in paper arts too, so I found myself flipping the book around to see how Matthew constructed the pages to move and pop-up the way they do. I may be able to duplicate some of his techniques like the v-fold and layers for popup cards!

Although is it only six pages, the pages are quite thick, making the book very tall and wide. The pages are made of thick paper so it is not as fragile as it seems, but do be careful when pulling out the tabs, so you are not pulling them too hard as they could tear. Also, after pulling out tabs, be sure to push them back so you can close the book properly. It is best to supervise a child when they are reading this book. The pop-up book is suitable for children ages 2 to 100. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any Disney Frozen fan.

If you like Matthew’s Frozen: A Pop-Up Adventure, you may also enjoy some of his other books by like “Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy” and “Star Wars: A Galactic Pop-up Adventure.” To learn more about Matthew Reinhart and his work, his website: MatthewReinhart.com

Related Videos

The artwork of pop-up engineering is quite fascinating. If you want to create your own pop-up character, here’s a video where Matthew Reinhart guides you through creating the beloved Olaf as a pop-up ornament.

Published on Oct 4, 2016
Create a magical Frozen-inspired ornament featuring everyone’s favorite summer-loving snowman, Olaf. Author and pop-up designer, Matthew Reinhart shows us how! See more.

I find Matthew’s work simply incredible. Here is an interview he did about his process of making a pop-up book.

Published on Oct 6, 2016
Using scissors, tape, and reams of creativity, Matthew Reinhart engineers paper to bend, fold, and transform into fantastic creatures, structures and locales. By adjusting the angles of folds and the depth of layers, Reinhart animates his subjects to tell dramatic stories that literally pop off the page.
Produced by Luke Groskin
Music by Audio Network