“Frozen 2” Movie Review

“Frozen 2” is a recently released film from Disney, following the story of Elsa (Idina Menzel), Anna (Kristen Bell), and Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) as they explore the past of Arendelle and its history with the Northaldren people and the four elements: air, fire, water, and earth. Premiering on Nov. 22, the film offers an expansion on the lovable characters of the “Frozen”,while introducing an elegantly composed soundtrack and animation design. While the plot was not necessarily better than the prior movie, “Frozen 2” delves into the backgrounds of the protagonists more so than its predecessor, while keeping the characters’ original personalities.The movie starts in the kingdom of Arendelle, a beautiful place that has recently become accepting of their new queen, Elsa. Elsa has accepted her new powers, but finds them growing stronger by every passing moment. That is until she hears a voice calling to her from the unknown. Urged by the call to explore the origins of her powers, she travels to the magical woods with her sister Anna, Kristoff, Sven the reindeer, and the lovable Olaf, along with some beautifully orchestrated Disney songs for good measure.Plot is where the movie suffers most. The story of “Frozen 2” is typical of Disney with predictable “surprises” and an overall theme similar to that of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”Subplots are rarely focused on, and all characters besides Anna or Elsa may as well disappear given the screen time they have. During the entire film, Kristoff is struggling to tell Anna how he feels, and wants to propose to her, only to be interrupted by some event or another; after a while, this charade grows tiresome. Humor in the movie feels poorly done, and is often looked over by the audience. Though the movie is labelled as a children’s film, comedy almost entirely comes from Olaf. Since the prior movie, Olaf has had a huge increase in screen time and dialogue, but acts as only comedic fodder and nothing else. A new update from “Frozen 2,” is that his behavior now ranges from being philosophical, questioning the meaning of life, to amusing, laughing while having sticks stuffed into his head. The movie itself feels more serious than the first Frozen movie, and while that is definitely appreciated – it won’t be a six year old’s dream movie, but more of an experience – it is taken to an extreme, which is not expected of Disney.All that being said though, the music in the film is absolutely show-stoppingly incredible.Though some are a hit or miss such as Kristoff’s “Lost in the Woods” that feels more like a 70’s boy band love song than Disney, it is a welcome change and certainly got a few giggles out of me. “Into the Unknown” by Elsa was phenomenal in vocals, music, and animation that goes with the song. Overall, music alone is a reason to watch this movie.“Frozen 2” is another Disney movie with the stereotypical overabundance of songs, starting off with “All is Found,” by Queen Iduna (Evan Rachel Wood). “All is Found” is a lullaby sung by Queen Iduna to foreshadow what happens later in the movie. Her song serves asa map to the location of Ahtohallan, a river with memory, and a comfort for Anna and Elsa.