Frozen 2 Review

The Mouse House is at it again, this time with what is sure to be one of the most talked about films of the year. I need not remind anyone of the cultural phenomenon that was "Frozen" in 2013 or how it's been solidly ingrained into pop culture ever since. Making a "Frozen 2" seemed like a no-brainer. It's kinda perplexing that it took them six year to get it out. Although what's more perplexing to me is the idea that "Frozen" was released six years ago. Time goes by too fast. And now all the little girls who drove their parents crazy with "Frozen" are either teenagers or close to becoming teenagers. And the teenage girls who all loved the movie are now off in college. Let that sink in for a bit. And now, not only are they all going to rush out to see "Frozen 2," but we also have a new generation of young girls that are excited to go see this sequel. So are y'all ready for the Frozen Fever to start all over again? I certainly am! I saw "Frozen" five times in theaters and absolutely fell in love with it. I most certainly contributed it to it going super viral, causing a wave of hatred to take over the internet several months later that's continued for six years. And even though it's been cool and hip to hate "Frozen" while claiming "Tangled" is so much better, I've stubbornly stood my ground.

This whole phenomenon is what I've called the Frozen Effect. A movie becomes so well-beloved by the initial wave of people who went to see it that word of mouth spreads like wildfire and the movie explodes. The movie becomes so huge that a second wave of people who normally don't rush out to see movies gives in and sees the movie, expecting it to be the best thing ever created. Because it doesn't live up to those massive expectations that they went in with, they go polar opposite with their opinion, claiming it was the worst thing ever created, because, you know, there's never any middle ground when it comes to opinions on movies. You can't just think it's OK. This same phenomenon also happened to "La La Land" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." All three of these movies have a loud group of haters who claim it's the worst movie ever because it didn't live up to the lofty expectations left by those who initially saw it. In the case of "Frozen," said haters started clinging onto "Tangled" as the much better Disney movie. Yes, I enjoy "Tangled," but it's by far the more inferior film. It just has the advantage of having not exploded on the scene, so there's not that bitter taste in people's mouths that comes when something is overplayed and overwatched.

I know I'm here to review "Frozen 2," so I'll make my thoughts on "Frozen" quick, but "Frozen 2" can't be reviewed without going over "Frozen" first. The core reason why I love "Frozen" is that it turned the typical, cliche Disney princess story arc on its head, becoming a movie about the love that two very different sisters have for each other. It's not a movie about a Disney princess (or heroine) who is a damsel in distress that needs to be rescued by a mighty prince (or a likable male). In fact, it looks that formula directly in the eyes with both Hans and Kristoff and purposely turns away from it. Hans didn't save the day because he turned out to be evil. Kristoff didn't save the day because he was too slow. He thought he needed to be the one to rescue Anna with true love when her heart was pierced with the ice. But it wasn't the true love from a man that saved Anna, it was the true love from a sister, which is very different than usual and very beautiful. Addressing "Tangled" real quick, yes the characters are fun and there's a lot of humorous moments, but ultimately it's a story about a man and a woman who fall in love. The woman needs saving from the evil power and it's the man who saves the day and the two of them live happily ever after. There's nothing unique and different there.

Diving deeper into Anna and Elsa, I really loved how deep and relevant both of their arcs were to our day. There's a lot to learn there. Starting off with Elsa, she's the one who's different than the others in the kingdom. She wants to be normal, but she's simply not, yet she's told by her parents to hide who she is and try to fit in because that's the safest way to go about things. When it's discovered against her will of who she actually is, she becomes scared and nervous as the people reject her, so she runs away. In running away, she decides to "Let It Go" and accept who she is. But that's only the middle of her arc. She eventually learns to not just accept who she is, but she learns to be the best version of herself, using what's different about herself to make the world a better place. I'm not going to single out a minority group here, but any minority group who has been oppressed and rejected can relate with Elsa's arc, thus making this an important and relevant story that Disney decided to tell. In contrast, Anna represents the ignorance and naivity of the world. Everything is perfect and nothing should change. Yet she learned the hard way that the world is a nasty place that you need to be careful in, something that Elsa knew from day one due to how different she was.

The two sisters eventually came together to help each other out. I loved that. It's genuinely one of the most beautiful stories that Disney has told and made it in at No. 12 in when I did my massive ranking of all of the movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios. The icing on the cake for all of this is that it also included a large handful of lovable side characters, including the hilarious Olaf, who I think is one of the best Disney sidekicks. And of course all of the music is fantastic. When we specifically pick out all of the Disney musicals and judge them by the music alone, "Frozen" is one of the best. It has that one song in "Let It Go" that is absolutely a grand slam as well as a whole collection of fun songs to support it, making if a perfect, grand adventure. When it comes to Disney movies, it's the full package. In the last six years, I've heard many arguments as to why "Frozen" is a bad movie and I simply don't understand. There must be an alternate version of this movie out there somewhere that all the haters saw. That's the only viable explanation that I can come up with. Plus, 99 percent of people who hate "Frozen" are among the second wave of people who saw it later. There's only one person I know who saw it opening weekend and hated it. She knows who she is.

But, OK. "Frozen 2." And yes, I'm using "Frozen 2" instead of "Frozen II." Bite me. Disney themselves have used both in advertising this movie, so I get to chose and I chose "Frozen 2." I was excited for this because Disney's main branch of animation actually has a great track record when it comes to sequels. Granted, they've only done two of them, unless you count the 2011 "Winnie the Pooh" or "Fantasia 2000," which I don't. Putting those two aside, both "Rescuers Down Under" and "Ralph Breaks the Internet" were great compliments to their predecessors. So it seems like when Disney wants to do a sequel and takes their time with it, they do a good job. All those other crappy Disney sequels? Well, if they're not the ones I mentioned, they're from DisneyToon, which is a completely ball game. And if you bring up "Cars 2" or "Cars 3" as examples, then I'm just going to slap you because I'm done trying to explain the different between Disney and Pixar. It seemed like the creators of "Frozen" wanted to make sure they do a proper sequel to their most lucrative film, so they took their time to do it right instead of rushing it to the theaters, which I respected. And that's why I was not one bit surprised when the "Frozen 2" trailers looked excellent. Of course that was case.

Right off the bat, I really like how "Frozen 2" didn't try to recreate "Frozen." It took this franchise in a completely new direction and thus expanded the lore. I find it impressive when a sequel can manage to do that because then it justifies its existence rather than seeming like a cash grab. Perhaps this wasn't a sequel that was planned from day one, but Disney did an excellent job of making a proper sequel. As such, there's a lot of surprises that movie brings that I don't want to spoil, so I'm going to tread lightly in discussing plot points, but nevertheless, the movie centers around a voice that Elsa keeps hearing that seems to be calling out to her. So she feels the need to venture out to discover what's out there. And of course Anna, Kristoff and Olaf demand to be a part of this journey. The result is a grand adventure with several different phases to it that connects to Anna and Elsa's past, giving more explanation and clarity to their future. If you're one who thought the story line in "Frozen" was boring, which I obviously would strongly disagree with, you might be rather impressed because story and adventure is central to "Frozen 2." Without saying too much, "Avatar" is a solid comparison. As in "The Last Airbender," not the blue people movie.

As I've illustrated here with my thoughts on "Frozen," the story of the two sister is what I really love the most and I respect "Frozen 2" for sticking to that central idea. The movie and the plot is very different than the original movie, which I think is good for a sequel, but it still centers around these two sisters. They've grown very close due to everything they've been through, but they're still very different from each other and there's a lot for both of them to learn in this. It's actually a movie that's very mature in its themes. Disney seems to be very self aware of the fact that the audience from six years ago is grown up and can handle some things about life that cut deep. It's not a movie that panders to a young audience. In fact, I predict that the youngest of audiences might not gravitate to this in the same way they did "Frozen" because there's some things in here that they're just not going to connect with. Instead, "Frozen 2" has grown up with its initial audience, much in the same way that the "Toy Story" sequels did. I don't think young kids were able to understand "Toy Story 3" and "Toy Story 4" in the same way that I was able to as one who watched "Toy Story" as a young kid. And I think this gives "Frozen 2" an opportunity to stand on its own moving forward.

Yet at the same time, "Frozen 2" still manages to keep its same magical flare that the first movie did. Kristoff and Sven get more to do in this movie, which partially connects to a side arc where Kristoff is trying to figure out how to best propose to Anna. There's a lot of hilarious and charming moments in that regard as well as a brand new song featuring Kristoff's woes that had me busting up in laughter. And of course Olaf is there. They didn't overuse him like some animated sequels do when they come upon a side character that everyone loved (I'm looking at you, "Cars 2"). But he still was able to add a lot of levity as the film went on in the right moments and with the right doses. An Olaf joke doesn't ruin the moment when the movie gets super dramatic, but he always manages to be a welcome presence in the film. If you're one who found Olaf annoying in the first movie, I don't know what to tell you here. He still exists and you'll probably hate him here, too. But I highly doubt he'll be the dealbreaker in this movie for anyone. In addition to these returning side characters, there's a lot of new added side characters that I won't mention in any sort of detail, but all of them also added to the expanded lore of this "Frozen" universe.

The other thing that I really want to mention is the details in the animation. I think this is something that we take for granted these days because animated movies are simply expected to be animated to a top standard, but I really loved how there was so much attention to detail here. And of course a lot of this has to do with the natural environment, like with the water, snow, wind and earth. Without all of that being done to perfection, this movie is not the same, especially considering certain details in this movie's plot. The environment is a key role in this movie. Because it is done perfectly, the movie is enhanced and gorgeous. But the other thing in regards to the animation is the attention to detail specifically when it comes to Elsa. I don't know if it's weird or not to have an animated crush, but I love Elsa. And they did a lot with her outfits and her hair in this movie. Oftentimes characters in an animated movie will be animated only one single way in regards to their appearance, but that's not the case here. Sometimes Elsa will have her hair done up. Sometimes it'll be braided. Then sometimes it will be long and straight. And that latter hairstyle was gorgeous, especially in connection with her many different dresses, which constantly change to due her magical powers.

Now that I've covered just about everything that I want to cover without diving into spoilers, there's one major aspect of this movie that I have yet to talk about that you're probably wondering why I haven't even touched it yet given how central it is to the movie. To be honest, that's because it takes time for me to soak in new music from a musical. It took me at least three watches to really appreciate the music in "Frozen." As I've only seen "Frozen 2" once and there were a lot of new songs thrown at me, I'm not ready to give a final determination on what I thought. But my initial thoughts lean quite positive. I don't think there's a "Let It Go" in this movie's soundtrack, which for some of you might be a positive thing, but the advantage that this movie's music does have is that it's more consistently deep and emotional. There's a higher level of quality across the board. "Frozen" was very reliant on fun, catchy songs, a lot of which were more cotton candy level of songs. The music in "Frozen 2" isn't as catchy, with a few major exceptions, but there's a lot more emotion in the songs, with the two best examples being "Into the Unknown" and "The Next Right Thing," two emotionally powerful songs with a lot of meaning and excellent vocal prowess from all involved.

In wrapping this all up, there's such a wide range of opinions of "Frozen" that I really don't know how to recommend "Frozen 2." I'm more curious than anything to know what all of my friends think. If you hated "Frozen," did "Frozen 2" win you over? Or is it just as annoying and insufferable as the first? If you loved "Frozen," was "Frozen 2" just as good? Is there anyone who loved "Frozen" that thought "Frozen 2" was even better? I want to know these things. Just know that I might get a bit a feisty if you start to get too critical of either film since I get quite defensive and protective over my "Frozen" films. Which one do I like better? Eh. Probably "Frozen." But the two movies are so different that it's really hard to judge. And sure, "Toy Story 4" is still the best animated movie of the year. Despite how much I loved "Frozen," it narrowly missed out on my top 10 list of 2013. I think I had it at No. 11. And it wasn't in the top 10 when I did my big Disney list. Just top 15. So it's not like I'm calling it the best thing in existence. But I still really loved it and I was very satisfied that "Frozen 2" managed to live up to the legacy of the first film. This is a fascinating universe with two films that are excellent companion pieces to each other. Because of this, I'm giving "Frozen 2" a 9/10.