Frozen 2: Original? Yes. Better? Well…

After the massively popular first film back in 2013, Frozen 2 was pretty much an inevitability at this point. Although it wasn’t really necessary, the world of Frozen could still offer another story and expand on the mythology of Elsa’s powers, which they did.

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The Good

Let’s start with the positives. The relationship between Anna and Elsa is truly endearing. At one point you might get a little frustrated that the emotionally unavailable Elsa continuously shuts off the overtly emotional Anna; however, both sisters really connect throughout the story and balance each other well. Every time they show emotion, the animators did a superb job of showing the sisters crying and gasping for breath in a way I’ve never seen in animation. Some scenes worked wonders because of how the characters displayed feeling without a single line of dialogue (take note Lion King remake).

Speaking of animation, the visuals in Frozen 2 are stunning. The “Winter meets autumn” color palette is gorgeous, as well as the scenery and character designs. The way the ice forms this cristal shapes in the air and the way it dissolves in the ocean when Elsa is trying to cross looks just mesmerizing.

The underlying theme is in a way more empowering or relatable than the previous movie. While the first film was about accepting who you are, Frozen 2 goes beyond and puts our main characters in dire straits in which they must endure hardships and keep moving forward.

There is a pretty somber scene where Anna feels she has lost everything she really cared for:

“The life I knew is over
The lights are out
Hello, darkness
I’m ready to succumb”

But as the song progresses, she resorts to her newfound strength and continues:

“Just do the next right thing
Take a step, step again
It is all that I can to do
The next right thing”

Pretty solid message if you ask me.

Now the music. Maybe its because the movie just came out, but I don’t think they will be as popular as the overly played “Let it go” was. This isn’t a bad thing, however, the songs were pretty enjoyable, nicely written, and although Kristoff’s song was particularly unnecessary (as it didn’t move either the story or the character arc forward), it was one hell of a power ballad. Hilarious takes with the deers, and some very emotional verses that felt like a tribute to the older Disney songs by Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Phil Collins and the rest of the renaissance singers.

The movie is also a nice expansion of the “Frozen lore” so to speak. It explores the origins of Elsa’s powers, as well as the fate of the former King and Queen of Arendelle. However, this is where problems start to arise.

The Bad

Frozen 2 tried to answer questions nobody really had an issue with, like the origin of Elsa’s powers. In doing so, many more questions start to arise. Why was Elsa the fifth element if ice is basically water? If the spirits gave her that power, can Elsa also give powers to someone else as she is “the fifth spirit”? Why would they give her such power? Just because her mother saved her father? How did Elsa “wake” the spirits? (we’ll answer that in a moment.) Why did Elsa froze when she learned the truth of her grandfather?

I know I know, the movie is for kids and we shouldn’t overthink it to much. But its the writer’s fault to set up so many mysteries without any sort of explanation whatsoever.

Although, we are going to try and overthink just one of these questions; the one that lingered the most in many people’s heads. And this is “how did Elsa wake the spirits?”.

Well, there’s no clear answer to the question, at least from within the story’s context. To have a sense as to why this could have happened, we need to dig a little into Nordic mythology, where it was believed that the reckless use of the runes, without proper training, would spark the Gods’ anger. Elsa awoke the spirits after she created hundreds of ice runes all over Arendale at the finale of her ‘Into the Unknown’ performance. She did this unwillingly and obviously without previous training, invoking the Spirits and triggering their anger.

Now back to the bad…

The character arcs were pretty flat, we don’t really see any sort of growth or change in our protagonists. Yeah, they face some challenges but they don’t come at the other end as better or more experienced. That combined with the fact that there is no actual villain makes the movie a little slow from time to time.

Characters like Elsa’s parents or the rock creatures are just pure exposition dumpsters. They exist solely to give out information relevant to the plot. Also, the “twist” about the dam being the source of conflict was pretty obvious from the get-go.

Kristoff’s arc is just trying to propose to Anna, failing miserably, disappearing for half the movie and reappearing to save her and now purpose like a pro-Don Jon. It really amounts to nothing.

Another huge problem is that Disney seems to be done with its twist villains and is now going for a “separating your inseparable main characters in the end” trend, we saw it in Toy Story 4, Wreck-it Ralph 2, and now here. A choice that in none of the cases resonates as strongly as the writers think so in my estimation. The decision for Elsa to stay and live in the forest does not have any set-up, foreshadow, or payoff whatsoever. Anna suddenly becoming queen has no bearing consequences in anyone, things remain exactly as they left them.

The Ugly

Now the crux of the film. The cherry on top. The thing that really ruined it for me: preachy, nihilistic, dumb Olaf.

To me, this seems like another case of the minions. A side character was way more popular than planned, sold tons of merchandise, was loved by kids, so the logical conclusion is to overhype the character for the next film.

Olaf is overly preachy, simplistic, one-dimensional, and pretty dumb. He is one continuous joke who unfortunately rarely lands on his feet. I remember I laughed just once, and this was thanks to other characters having a reaction to what he was saying.

The scene where he is supposedly going to die, come on. I’m sure not even kids bought into that. The character has been just one continuous goofball. Him laying in the ground dead serious giving a speech about the passage of time and the infinite just doesn’t work.

Score: 6/10

All and all, Frozen 2 is quite enjoyable. I mean in less than two years it will be forgotten along with most recent Disney movies. If you want to enjoy yourself for a while go watch it, however, I would much rather rewatch one of the classics on my couch at home.