Josh Gad on his roles in 'Olaf's Frozen Adventure' and 'Marshall'

— -- Moviegoers taking in Disney/Pixar’s newest animated feature “Coco” are getting an extra bonus with the added release of “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” also a Disney film. The 21-minute short is playing in theaters just before the full feature film, with Josh Gad reprising his role as the voice of the loveable snowman. He told ABC News the film was originally planned as a TV special but instead found its way to theaters.

“I remember John Lasseter [chief creative officer of Pixar] saying originally it was supposed to be for television. And he said, 'We’re so blown away by it, we think we want to attach it to “Coco,”'" Gad said in an appearance on “Popcorn With Peter Travers.” “And I was like, ‘But isn’t it 22 minutes’? And he’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s unprecedented, but we feel like it thematically connects with that movie so they’re making that play.' And I couldn’t be prouder,” Gad said.

The short is a sequel to Disney’s 2013 animated hit “Frozen.” This time Olaf sets out on a mission to save Christmas after his royal buddies Anna and Elsa realize they have no holiday traditions of their own. Gad says he’s found his happy place with the character.

“As long as my voice doesn’t change too much, I guess I can play him like Don Rickles played Mr. Potato Head, until my 90s,” he joked. “As long as I get to do wonderful projects like 'Marshall' in the interim I would be very happy with that.”

In the film “Marshall,” Gad stars opposite Chadwick Boseman as a young Jewish attorney.

“I got the script and halfway through I called my team and I said I must do this film. It’s so important. It’s so timely. It’s so essential. And this was a year-plus ago,” Gad, 36, told Peter Travers. “At its very core, it’s a movie about alliances. The alliance between an African-American man who would go on to become one of the great Supreme Court justices of all time in Thurgood Marshall and a young Jewish attorney, who at that time is practicing small claims court law, and is thrust into the public spotlight very much with the risk, the threat, of hatred and bigotry hanging over his head as it does for Marshall. And these two men defy all of this adversity to help another man in need because the alternative is he’s going to face the death penalty. And that to me was very timely, very important, very essential.”

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He added, “What I find so fascinating about the movie, this is a superhero origin story in many ways, meaning instead of wearing a cape he (Marshall) wears a suit and tie. Instead of knocking somebody out with a single punch, he knocks them out one at a time with a single brief. That, to me, is so important right now because we need those people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and fight those causes, as hard as it is. The element of surprise is, hopefully, that the audience is always on the edge of their seat. To me understanding how this man becomes great is as important as understanding the great man himself.”

"Marshall" and "Olaf’s Frozen Adventure" are in theaters everywhere.

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