‘Frozen 2’ Disney’s Misguided Yet Ambitious and Talented Sequel

     If any property from the Disney company that has made such a huge splash within the past decade, it is without a doubt Frozen. As far as modern day animated films go, Frozen has done wonders for Disney by making millions and that success is actually warranted. The first Frozen was great update to the Disney animated fairy tale musical with some clever changes to the formula, beautiful animation, a memorable soundtrack and some very lovable characters. Now with the sequel here, there’s potential to expand on Frozen as a franchise and go further with its characters and maybe even improve on the faults of the first. Unfortunately Frozen 2 does fall short in a lot of aspects with a story that needed some more fleshing out from script perspective. Despite this however, Frozen 2 gets a ton of credit for not only making an effort to make a more mature film but also actually succeeding with some truly incredible moments that is every little bit what someone would want in terms of continuing Elsa’s story.

Mature Themes Undercut by a Rushed Story

     Taking place a few years after the first, Elsa and Anna discover this mysterious enchanted forest that they were told about through their parents when they were children. With strange magical occurrences popping up in their kingdom, it’s up to Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf to venture into the unknown forest, where they find out more about the past including their own past. The set up for the story is incredibly promising as having these characters discover more about their own selves through this journey is something that most sequels should do. This film takes characters like Anna and Elsa to darker places and attempts to expand the fantastical world of Frozen in very original ways. It seems like all the makings of one of the best sequels from Disney; however the journey there has some major missteps that make the film feel rather rushed when looking at it from a story perspective. Characters make decisions that feel a bit last minute and while some ideas and story elements are great, it feels like the story doesn’t focus on them as much as they should. Instead it has many moments of filler while cute and enjoyable kids, they feel a bit disconnected to the more mature themes the film is gravitating towards. The film still has breath taking moments that make this sequel feel more adventurous and epic than the first, but it makes you wish that the film would be more consistent in keeping up with its more serious tone. The film wants to have grand moments and it does, but the script needed a good rewrite to flesh out these moments making the audience truly feel the impact. Despite this though, it still holds on its own as an ambitious sequel and gets some respect for actually attempting to further its characters in a respectful way. It does have its shortcoming big time from a story perspective but its stories ideas still are fantastic and makes for a commendable film for not being typical cash grab sequel.

A Better Character Piece Than Anything Else

     Frozen worked because it introduce the world to a bunch of fantastic new Disney characters that have a ton of personality to them. One of the reasons why Frozen 2 works as mentioned earlier, is that it furthers its characters though some do work better than other. The film introduces a few new characters to the story however, none of them have too much development towards them and they’re mostly there to help establish the world of this story. Though fortunately, the film does take more time to focus on the first film’s main characters so the new characters not having as much to them doesn’t feel as bad. Yet this does lead to a downside with the characters of Kristoff and Olaf’s characters in this film. Their contributions to the story either feel cliché and nothing too special or obvious filler to pad out time. Kristoff’s whole story deals with the cliché trying to purpose to Anna and him struggling to find the right time and Olaf just tends to crack jokes about his existence. Even though it does feel a bit superfluous, there are some decent character moments with both Kristoff and Olaf as they do have some fun moments in the film with Olaf’s jokes landing fairly decently at certain points. Yet, the real stars of the Frozen 2 are most definitely the main two characters of the first film. Anna and Elsa are easily the most well defined and best written characters of the cast here, as in this film we get to see them learn more about themselves with both their past and learning to cope with change and their individuality. This is especially apparent with Elsa as she receives some of the film’s most powerful and breathtaking moments from a character point of view. If anything else, Frozen 2 does succeed as a character piece by expanding on a few of its already great character in very clever and unique ways.

A Film Elevated by Great Animation and Music

     Being an animated film from the most iconic animation studio of all time, Frozen 2 delivers on an aesthetically beautiful film. Coming out a couple of years after the first movie as technology progresses, it is expected that Frozen 2 looks more impressive and there are plenty of moments that are visually stunning. Everything from the characters, backgrounds and particle effects are stunning to look at and helps enhances the expansive world Frozen has to offer. This film is also of course a musical and most would hope that the soundtrack is on par with the first film in terms of memorability and well written songs. Fortunately the consistent talent from Robert and Kristen-Anderson Lopez still shines through as the music is just as powerful as the first at points. Some songs like Somethings Never Change and When I Am Older are decent o their own but are some of the weaker songs on the soundtrack as they feel very typical for the Frozen series. Then you have a song like All is Found, which helps sets up the mystical nature of what this sequel has to offer. Another highlight being Lost in the Woods which serves as Kristoff’s solo song and it is admittedly a bit jarring in terms of its inclusion into the series. It is more of parody of 80s rock ballads which seems unfitting at first but the song is so out there and different it kind of works in that regards, plus it does a decent job making fun of the type of 80s songs its parodying. Anna also gets a great solo number with The Next Right Thing serving as one of the song’s most emotional moments that also are elevated by some good character animation that’s very expressive and Kristen Bell giving it her all in her vocal performance. However, the real powerful performance and sequence in this film comes from none other than Idina Menzel as Elsa in regards to music. Elsa gets not one but two solo numbers and both do justice for her character very well. Into the Unknown is a great song being very catchy and a perfect set up to the adventure these characters go into. It does however fall short of being the next Let It Go as just as the song truly builds up to something great, it ends rather abruptly and felt it could have gone on longer. Fortunately, Elsa’s second song Show Yourself is by far the most jaw dropping incredible sequence in the film. It serves as an important song and true successor to Let It Go because of the raw emotion that goes into this song both in Menzel’s singing voice and Elsa’s learning of accepting herself that adds so much value to this film. Add the fact that visually this sequence is breath taking from an animation standpoint; Show Yourself is hands down one of the best moments in any animated film from this entire decade. As a whole, the entire soundtrack and visuals make this sequel immensely better than what any shortcomings the script had to offer and makes the film worth seeing on that level alone.

A Good Sequel That Is Almost A Great One

For all of the faults it has with its story being rushed, Frozen 2 still stands a fairly good sequel. The moments that have a ton of effort and care put into them show that this film has some passion and heart put into it. The character depth, visuals and soundtrack are excellent and help make this film a worthwhile sequel. The downside is when the film has the huge missteps in the writing department; it makes you feel that the film could have been easily one of Disney’s greatest films. With so much effort at points, it still stands on its own as a good Disney animated film, a good sequel and a good film in general, however it just falls a bit short from being a truly amazing one.