Frozen II (2019): Written by
Jennifer Lee, directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. Starring:
Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, and Jonathon Groff.
Running Time: 103 minutes.
Rating: 3.5/4
Bit by bit, the new wave are Animated
Disney Princess Musicals are improving. Moana remains my
personal favorite, but Frozen II is able to stick to its guns
in a way the first movie wasn't able to pull off; I still consider
the first half of Frozen to be very near perfect, but the
drop-off following the dynamite "Let It Go" sequence is
pretty steep. That, plus the long-running, legendary shitiness of
nearly everything in the Disney sequel canon, made me very cautious
entering Frozen II, even though the trailers certainly did
make it look like the studio was putting real muscle into it this
time.
Thankfully, they did, and the result
is a solid improvement over the first movie in every measurable way.
It's been a few years since the last story ended, and the kingdom
enjoys peace. Elsa, however, is growing restless, as a strange,
ethereal voice coming from the North comes to her with increasing
frequency. Her agitation and worry grows until, in a stunning
flight-of-fancy sequence, she accidentally unleashes four
long-dormant, elemental spirits, that begin to plague Arendelle to
thoroughly that the entire place soon flees to the hills.
Elsa knows that, whatever she did, her
power is what is needed to set it right, sets off to the North with
Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf. Their goal is the legendary Enchanted
Forest, where, according to their father, a conflict between
Arendelle and an indiginous tribe called the Northuldra so incensed
the spirits that the forest was sealed away behind a magical fog.
The journey that results is, as Olaf
immediately points out, destined to change them all. Answers
regarding Elsa's powers and purpose, the identities of the spirits,
and the reasons why Arendelle and the Northuldra went to war await,
as does a series of jarring reveals about Elsa's and Anna's parents
and their lineage. In the side story, Kristoff has been planning to
propose to Anna for some time, but can't seem to stop tripping over
himself whenever he tries, and he struggles to reconcile his feelings
of love with the rocky paths life keeps throwing in their way.
As with the first movie, Elsa's ice
powers provide a lot of ways to get creative with the animation, and
the results are staggering. While the first film has now aged a bit,
this one is filled with one stunning visual image after another.
This is the sort of film that still shows off the power of seeing
things on big screens, since the sheer grandeur of some of the films
best moments will never be fully captured by a television screen.
The songs, written once again by the
Lopez duo, do not include another show-stopping "Let It Go,"
but in leui of one, mind-bending monster hit, the soundtrack has a
much more complete and thorough feel to it. One of my criticisms of
the first Frozen was that, while the first half was
appreciatively filled with songs, a few of them felt distinctly
different from the score, and by the film's end the songs were
abandoned almost entirely (except for that damn troll song, which I
still refuse to re-listen to). There is one notable example here,
Kristoff's primary number "Lost in the Woods," but it's
such a clear parody song and works so much better as "the comedy
song" than anything in the first, that I can't hold that against
it.
The rest of the tracks have a much
more fluid feel to them, constantly incorporated both the melody of
the disembodied voice haunting Elsa and the refrain of a lullaby the
two sisters recall from their childhood, a chilling melody that holds
an important clue as to where the story is going. Idina Menzel gets
two belty tunes ("Into The Unknown" and "Show
Yourself"), but after reflecting on it, I think my favorite
might be Anna's key number, "The Next Right Thing." It's a
solid song that also serves as a huge character moment at the darkest
part of the film, where she has every reason to believe that she's
lost everything.
Here, too, the recurring focus on two
sisters, struggling to understand and grasp their histories while
still adjusting and adapting their adult relationship to each other
contains levels of maturity and wisdom that not too many Disney films
manage to achieve. It's so rare to say something like this about a
Disney film, especially since we are right in the middle of the
Desolation of Disney Live Action Remakes, but it's pleasantly
refreshing.
Kristoff and Olaf are both relegated
to comedy relief, as to be expected, but here too Kristoff gets some
really profound scenes: he's not an egotist, and not plagued by toxic
masculinity or easily hurt by Anna always being distracted with
worries about her sister. He gets two particular lines that offer a
really quiet, powerful example for any boys in the audience wondering
how to become decent men in the 21st-century.
This is a fun, enjoyable film with a
lot of good, important things to say. It doesn't take any major
chances, but it is beautiful to look at and pleasant to the ears.
For God's sake, watch this film and not the live-action remakes.
Disney's animation department still has it, and they deserve our
support way more.
-Noah Franc
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