'Frozen II' Pleases, but Fails to Improve Upon Its Predecessor

I’m sure a lot of people will love Frozen II.  I’m not one of them.  Now, I don’t hate it.  I enjoyed it overall.  It’s an entertaining animated film.  But I was honestly underwhelmed.  For me, it’s just not near as compelling as the first one.

When I saw Frozen years ago, I was honestly blown away.  It was my favorite movie that year; I watched it over and over again.  I thought it had an interesting, well-layered plot that effectively subverted familiar Disney tropes.  I thought it had the perfect mix and balance of humor, heart, insight, cuteness, and thrills.  I thought it was an instant Disney classic in the 21^st century.  Also, I was smitten with Elsa, and I’ve been gushing over her ever since.

Thus, I was kind of expecting Frozen II to be nothing short of epic.  At the very least, I was expecting it to be up there with Toy Story 4 and How to Train Your Dragon 3 as the best animated features of 2019.  But as it turns out, it’s barely more rewarding than a direct-to-video offering like Teen Titans Go!  vs. Teen Titans.

Frozen II is set three years after the events of the first film, and follows Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven as they embark on a quest toward the Enchanted Forest that’s apparently nearby Arandelle.  There, Elsa hopes to find the source of the mysterious voice that has been calling to her, and in the process, unlock there the secrets of the past as well as save the realm from an impending doom.

The trailers for this movie implied that its plot was going to have a darker tone this time around.  And that got me excited.  Unfortunately, though it does feel that way a few times, the movie still comes off like a safe, predictable standard-fare sequel in most parts.  The stakes are technically higher, but it doesn’t quite give off the adequate impression for it.

Moreover, the plot threads don’t tie as tightly as those in the first movie.  Pacing and narrative beats are a bit all over the place.  The character arcs are somewhat uneven, and there are some decisions made that don’t make sense to me.  And although it can be argued that the narrative does have depth and effective drama, they feel somewhat forced.  The emotional core that’s hinged on Elsa and Anna’s sisterly bond is still extremely potent, though.

Olaf is a mixed bag as comic relief.  Just like in Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, one of his best shticks in this movie is making comments that have gloomy implications but are delivered coming from a naïve place.  In addition, there are a couple of hilarious scenes that revolved around him.  In small amounts, he’s amusing.  But he significantly has more screen time here than before.  And as the film progresses, he gradually becomes annoying to watch and listen to (i.e. Josh Gad’s voice starts to sound obnoxious).  However, based on the audible reactions in the theater I watched this movie in, he’s still pretty much adored by kids.

Furthermore, Frozen II’s soundtrack is just not as strong as Frozen’s.  The songs are solid, yes, but they aren’t as catchy as the original song lineup.  There are two powerful Elsa solo numbers that allow the audience to be wowed once again by the great Idina Menzel.  Both of those scenes managed to give me goosebumps, but I think neither song will be an immortal anthem like “Let It Go.”  Meanwhile, Kristoff has a bizarre, gratuitous song number that channels cheesy music videos of sentimental, reverb-y 80’s rock ballads.  I’m actually not sure if the filmmakers were being ironic or earnest with it.  Either way, the result is gloriously hilarious.  Also, because of this, the track, “Lost in the Woods”, is my favorite of the lot.

In the end, Frozen II may have failed to improve upon the original, but it still delivers a pleasing product in general.  Still, I wish this follow up had been more epic, especially since the filmmakers had six years to make it.

Miscellaneous musings (w/ SPOILERS):

• Seriously, the more I let Kristoff’s “Lost in the Woods” scene marinate in my mind, the more I think it’s awesome.
• Kristoff’s arc was flat, but his pure love for Anna was quite heartwarming.
• The “Samantha” and “She’s a bit pitchy” scenes were arguably the funniest Olaf has ever been.
• The scene where Olaf  recapped Frozen was not as hilarious as those two, but it was still an extremely amusing bit.
• I heartily chuckled at Elsa cringing at the ice memory of her “Let It Go” moment in the first movie.
• I really like the “water having memories” concept being a new facet of Elsa’s tremendous power.
• However, in the scene where Elsa was trying to cross the stormy waters to get to Ahtohallan, I was baffled why Elsa couldn’t freeze the entire sea a la Admiral Aokiji’s “Ice Age” (One Piece).  I thought she was powerful enough to do such a thing.
• I didn’t mention anything about the dazzling animation in the review because a detail like that is pretty much a given with Walt Disney and Pixar animated films.  But that scene where Elsa is trying to cross the stormy sea took my breath away when I first saw it as a teaser.
• Better make this into a trilogy, Disney