Frozen 2 takes place three years after the first film and follows Queen Elsa, once again voiced by Idina Menzel, who one day follows a mysterious voice that’s been repeatedly calling out to her. She awakens a force known as the Elemental Spirits, which causes all of Arrendelle to evacuate. Now in order to save Arrendelle, Elsa must go to the Enchanted Forest, where she’s accompanied by her sister Anna, the snowman Olaf, and Anna’s boyfriend Kristoff - voiced by the returning Kristen Bell, Josh Gadf, and Jonathan Groff, respectively - and they all must find out the secret behind the spirits to complete their goal.
The first Frozen was a surprise cultural phenomenon back in 2013, so a sequel was inevitable. And this is one of Disney’s rare animated sequels to be created by their primary division Walt Disney Animation Studios, with many of their sequels being created by secondary divisions and going direct to home video. So what’s nice to see here is that, unlike other sequels, this brings back a lot of the same crew, primarily, co-directors of the original film Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, the latter whom wrote the screenplay again, just like she did in the first film.
Unfortunately, however, lightning doesn’t strike twice for Disney. Despite bringing just about all the original cast and crew of the first film, this fails to really capture any of the magic that made the first film so enjoyable. The one area where it does succeed is the animation, which is absolutely beautiful. The settings are absolutely gorgeous and the landscapes are breathtaking, and it’s nice to see some new areas beyond Arrendelle explored and brought to life as these characters go through the Enchanted Forest. In some ways, this is actually the one big improvement over the original.
Beyond that though, there isn’t much about this film that’s captivating. While it’s nice to see the main voice cast return, and they’re all clearly giving it their all, the film doesn’t really do a whole lot with these characters. Their arcs simply aren’t as intriguing this time around. And that’s because the story doesn’t feel as personal this time around as the first did. Sequels are supposed to go bigger and increase the stakes, and in this case, the story revolves around a plot that could have massive repercussions on Arrendelle, which is an interesting concept.
And the film starts off well enough, revisiting everyone, and getting the audience acquainted with the new group dynamic now that Elsa’s been Queen for three years, and Anna and Kristoff have been dating for so long. However, the film makes the fatal mistake of splitting this group up in the middle of the film, and keeping it that way towards the end, and that’s where it takes a nosedive in quality. Part of what made audiences care about these characters so much is their relationships to one another, particularly the relationship between Elsa and Anna.
And while the first film did see them apart for some time, it was only a small part of the movie. This sees everyone on their own journeys, and when they don’t have other characters to play off of, they’re kind of boring, mainly because the movie relies on the schticks they did in the first movie and draws them out for way too long. Elsa was moody and kept herself isolated in the first movie, so she repeatedly does whatever she can in this movie to stay away from everyone. Anna and Olaf were both cheery and full of positive energy, and have mostly just each other to play off, spewing constant positive vibes that never really have anything intriguing to say.
The one character who really gets the short end of the stick is Kristoff, who gets separated from the group early on, and is mostly not seen again for the rest of the movie until the end, making his story by far the weakest arc of the film. And when he is seen, he’s given mostly the same thing to do over and over again. His main arc is that he’s trying to propose to Anna, but she’s never listening when he trie to do so and can’t form the words, so there’s a running gag where he endures several painfully awkward proposal attempts that never are never really funny.
Kristoff’s one other big moment is a somewhat funny, though kind of weak, song towards the middle, which leads into another problem this film has, being that the songs are nowhere near as catchy as they were in the first. They’re by no means bad, and compared to everything else in the movie, the songs are one of the stronger elements. They’re just not show-stopping, Broadway-style, larger than life show tunes like they were in the original. Most of the songs feel very somber and not having a particularly big hook that lures the audiences in. And unlike the first film where the songs instantly stuck, it’s difficult to even recall the name of one here.
There are a few new faces this time around, most notably Sterling K. Brown as the leader of a group of soldiers protecting Arrendelle from the Enchanted Forest, and Martha Plimpton as the leader of a tribe who’s been at war with these soldiers. And they all suffer from the same problems the original characters face. The voice actors do a great job, but their arcs are just not memorable at all. They’re quickly introduced into the movie and then only sporadically seen, but each time they are seen, they’re giving a speech that’s meant to be motivational or eye-opening, but it’s difficult to really care about what they have to say because there really wasn’t enough time spent with any of them.
There’s really not a message to this movie, the way the first film had a great message of both not shutting people out, as well as not blindly placing your trust in people you just meet. And this kind of plays into the whole issue of the story just not feeling so personal this time around. This is mainly a movie centered around having an epic adventure, and because of that, the strong characterization and intriguing storylines that made the first film so wonderful, suffer here. There are plot points that seem predictable - particularly Elsa’s - and the film tries to cover so much ground by splitting the characters up that it sacrifices giving them truly memorable arcs to go with them, making them feel very one-note by keeping them constantly isolated.
Frozen 2 was never really going to live up to the original, but unfortunately, it’s not even all that great on its own. Its animation is stunning, it’s funny at times, and the voice cast are all welcome returns as they give it their all. But this is a movie that doesn’t really seem to be justified enough to exist, outside of just capitalizing on the first film’s success. This film really had nothing interesting to say in terms of a message, and it widens its scope way too much, losing the character-driven drama that made the first film so great. It’s honestly not a bad movie, and kids will certainly enjoy it. But while there’s enough to get audiences to the end of the movie with no problem, it’s certainly not a film that all audiences will greatly enjoy beyond watching once.
Recommendation: Proceed With Caution
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