After selling toys and winning hearts of every child on the face of the planet, you knew Frozen was going to come back. It’s like Disney couldn’t Let It Go (I’m sorry, last time). The money I mean. Though Frozen II is better than a cynical cash grab, the movie was never going to live up to the hype and magic delivered by the original.
Times are good in Arendelle right now. Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) are ruling their kingdom prosperously and happily. Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) is comfortable in his relationship with Anna to nervously try to propose to her. And sweet snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) is entering his inquisitive phase, asking questions about how the world works around him. However, Elsa starts hearing these elemental forces call to her from a hidden forest that’s part of Arendelle’s past; the voices grow so loud that Elsa needs to seek them out for answers, with Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven in tow.
I counted 3 spectacular songs in the first Frozen, with Let It Go now existing among the legendary Disney songs in movie history. This movie’s song list doesn’t quite match up. Instead, Frozen II takes the songs in a different direction, giving each of the 4 principal characters a big singing showcase (Sven doesn’t talk, so there’s no reindeer solo). Only Idina Menzel’s Elsa gets a song that’s close to the awesomeness of the original movie, “Into the Unknown”. However, that’s because Menzel’s got the chops to pull off the vocal range for the song to work. What worked so magically about the original Frozen was the charming simplicity of character interplay in the songs like “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” which sets up the characters and story in a sweet adorable way. Those songs don’t really exist in Frozen II, more focusing on each individual character’s journey over their interactions with one another.
The plot of Frozen II is also the same way, individualizing each character’s journey. However, Frozen II forgets that the interactions between the characters are what helped make Frozen special. As such, the relationships between the characters are mostly the same as in the first movie. Only Olaf’s story gets interesting, as his adorable optimism is now accompanied by questions about how things work, leading to amusing and evolving relationships with the other leads. So that means the joys of Frozen II involve the introduction of new characters, or recontextualizing moments in the first movie. Sterling K. Brown’s Lieutenant and Evan Rachel Wood’s Queen Iduna give us some new interesting characters to play with when they’re onscreen. They help give answers to Anna and Elsa as the pair learn about their past in the world they’ve grown up in. As such, Frozen II can be fun at times, but it’s not quite as emotionally moving as its predecessor because it gets sidetracked with worldbuilding exercises.
Fret not parents of the world. Anna and Elsa are still really awesome. Olaf is totally fun and amusing, and Kristoff is still a great sidekick. Your kids will have new songs to sing for a while, and will probably be begging you to go into the unknown, whatever that means for them. And for all the worries about presents, there’s an adorable frog that the kids will be wanting at the end of the movie too. Disney’s got all your commercial needs covered!