"You feel what you feel, and your feelings are real." - Sven (well, it’s actually Kristoff who says this quote while pretending to be Sven, and it is definitely something to try and live by)
Initial thoughts before viewing: I saw Frozen II in theaters and was immediately a fan. I connected deeply with several of the songs/messages of the movie and feel strongly that this sequel is superior to its predecessor (which, to be fair, is also very good!).
If you'd like to read a recap of Frozen II, here is a link to the movie's Disney Wiki page where you can read the entire plot summary.
Highlights:
-Elsa's song "Show Yourself" is the best Disney song of the decade. Frozen II has an amazing soundtrack thanks in large part to the return of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez as songwriters. While Elsa's powerhouse "Into the Unknown" gets most of the attention thanks to its impressive vocal acrobatics (check out my favorite version here by Panic! At the Disco), the real star and heart of this movie is Elsa's second song, the emotional "Show Yourself."
"Show Yourself" portrays Elsa's plea to find answers to who has been calling out to her. She wants to find the truth behind both the past and her magic. This is a huge moment for her character because she isn't showing any fear. While Frozen was about Elsa overcoming her fears about her powers, Frozen 2 is about her owning them and using them for good.
It's a song that really digs into Elsa's character development and even features a cameo from her mother Iduna. And while Elsa and Anna's mom doesn't seem to get a lot of attention in the first movie, I absolutely love that the voice who has been calling out to Elsa in the sequel turns out to be her mother.
Plus, the animation throughout the whole sequence adds to its goose-bump-inducing vibe. The song is fueled by heartfelt emotions that resonate with many of us. It's a perfect song that encapsulates the feeling of trying to find who you are in the world only to know who you are has been inside you hiding all along. "Show Yourself" is empowering, heartfelt, and pure magic.
-Anna's song "The Next Right Thing" offers Frozen II's most valuable lesson on persevering through the darkness. As a person who has struggled with depression most of her adult life, I cannot tell you what watching a Disney princess sing about grappling with dark, serious emotions meant to me. Here we have a mold-breaking representation of how exhausting and debilitating grief can be as our normally optimistic Anna sinks down into her physical and emotional darkness. And yet, she looks even deeper into herself and hears a voice reminding her that she cannot stay here. She cannot be overcome. She can feel this pain. She can endure this agony and loneliness, but she must also push forward. “Take a step. Step again. It is all that I can.” Just one step. And then another. She goes on to tell us how she’s going to continue taking each step: “I won’t look too far ahead. It’s too much for me to take.”
I can’t get past how powerful this song is and how hard it hits my soul. I haven’t watched Frozen II yet without crying pretty steadily throughout this scene (+ "Show Yourself" if we're being honest). As I watch Anna suffer through her grief and find strength to move on, it gets me every time. And I think back to my childhood, and wish that I had had a character like Anna to show me the way through the stress of sadness and depression.
-Frozen II is more mature and goes deeper. In an overall sense, Frozen 2 has a better storyline than its predecessor. It deals with some heavier themes and has different consequences. Frozen II goes deeper, and digs into Elsa and Anna's background in some new ways. It also explores the lore of Arendelle, Anna and Elsa's parent's past, and the source of Elsa's powers. We get a better understanding of the world that our protagonists live in, which is something that the first movie lacked. We also get a deep dive into Elsa's powers, how and why they exist, and why they exist within her. Getting to understand why it is that Elsa has her powers was something that a sequel needed to do, and it was handled very well.
-Olaf is more mature too (but still hilarious). Of course, Olaf is still killing it left and right in the second film. Olaf is now a little older, a little wiser, but worried about change as the leaves turn orange and float down from tree branches. He is confident, though, that as soon as he gets older he will understand everything (newsflash: not true). Olaf's best moment is when he does a brief but hilarious recap of the first movie for a group of new characters. Olaf may be a little more mature, but he's still funny, heartwarming, and his song "When I Am Older" is great.
-Elsa wears pants! What might seem like an insignificant quick change actually marks a major shift in the Disney princess canon, which almost never lets its heroines swap skirts for pants — with the exceptions of Jasmine’s puffy turquoise pants and Mulan’s army uniform.
-Kristoff was always pretty great, but in Frozen II he's even better by showing how to be sensitive and supportive of the women around him. Kristoff is a perfect example of non-toxic masculinity. His entire plotline in the film is about working up the courage to propose to Anna and about finding ways to express himself. This is fabulous! So much of toxic masculinity is based on the idea that men feeling anything—let alone expressing those feelings in a healthy way—is a no-no.
But Kristoff knows (or at least Sven, aka Kristoff, knows) that’s it’s okay to feel your feelings. Kristoff’s song “Lost in the Woods,” is the film’s only love song, and while it’s a tender power ballad that’s very comical, it’s also a sincere expression of doubt about a relationship and feeling forgotten.
But he moves past it. At the climax of the movie when Anna returns, Kristoff asks the most important and incredible question of her: not “where were you?” or even “are you okay?”—he trusts her to tell him those things when the time is right. He just asks, “What do you need?”
By the end of the film, Anna has learned that she’s her own person. This is the growth she needed to be ready to move to the next step with Kristoff. In the height of the finale, she even tries to apologize to Kristoff for abandoning him, and he tells her “My love is not fragile.” That’s his growth, but it’s also huge so significant for audiences to see. What a beautiful illustration of what a supportive relationship is! 💖
-Who knew fire could be so cute?! Meet Bruni, the elemental spirit of fire! Adorbs.
Disliked:
-Anna doesn't seem to understand that as much as she wants to "do things together" with Elsa, Elsa's powers make her simply out of her league. It's frustrating to see Anna not being able to accept the fact that due to Elsa's crazy powerful ice magic, she's simply in a different league than Anna when it comes to tackling the different problems that arise. Anna spends a lot of time arguing with Elsa about what she's doing: there's a lot of "Elsa, get out of there!" and "No, no, no , no!" whenever Elsa's doing her magical thing and saving, well, the world. Anna wants to help and keep her sister safe, sure, but it's still frustrating to see Anna attempt to hold Elsa back out of fear of losing her. As a viewer, I lost my patience with Anna pretty early on. The bottom line is that Elsa's a badass ice queen, LET HER BE, and stop trying to hold her back. Sigh.
Closing Thoughts:
The beauty of this sequel is that it is more intricate than the first, namely in plot. It ditches the simplicity of what boiled down to repairing a sister-sister relationship and opts instead for lofty, complicated concepts in an animated movie.
The bottom line: With meaningful songs, beautiful visual effects, and a thoughtful story packed with character development, Frozen II soars and feels like a more mature, developed version of its predecessor.
My Rating: 9/10
