Frozen II Review (Film, 2019)

When Frozen was released in 2013, it quickly became one of my favorite Disney films. The musical adventure of two sisters facing crisis after living in isolation most of their lives had incredible animation, great performances, and a beautiful score. Frozen was such a success that Disney chose to keep the film separate from the popular Disney Princess line of merchandise and marketing.

Last year, Frozen II was released to great box office success. The toys flew off the shelves and Disney had another cash cow on their hands. Taking the time to make a film they were confident in clearly paid off for the target market of young fans.

I will say that I enjoyed Frozen II in spite of myself. The quality of the animation is great. The music is so much more adventurous and tuned into the strengths of the returning voice cast. The expanded mythology has some fascinating elements that can surely pay off when the inevitable Frozen III is released.

It just doesn’t fit as neatly together as the first film. Writer/director Jennifer Lee’s screenplay has wonderful moments. The different arcs for the returning characters are quite rewarding and logically build off of what happened in the first film. Better still, the film acknowledges that the citizens of Arendelle are familiar with magical forces in the world; they just didn’t know that their new Queen had powers.

I’ll go so far as to say the first act is actually better than Frozen. It starts before the flashback events of the first film. Anna and Elsa play happily together with Elsa’s ice powers. They’re creating a story about a magical forest. Their father overhears them and explains how there is an actual magical forest with voices that call out to you. Their mother even sings a lullaby about it. The music and storytelling is wonderful in this sequence.

The film jumps to present Arendelle, after the events of Frozen. Elsa is haunted by the memories of her parents’ disappearance in the North Sea. She starts to hear a strange voice calling out to her. Anna, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf go with her to discover where the voice is coming from. They know Elsa will not rest until she knows the truth about her family and her powers. This is a great set up for an adventure.

Frozen II falls victim to too many ideas. The magical forest removed from the rest of the world is a wonderful setting for a story. I just don’t see why it had to be a Frozen story. There’s this fascinating mythology about five spirits that control the magic of the world—Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, and the fifth spirit that connects the elements to humanity. The new characters in the story who live in the magical forest containing the spirits are left significantly underdeveloped to keep the focus on Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven. By the end of Frozen II, we know more about characters from the first film like Oaken and the Duke of Wesselton than we do about characters who play a pivotal role in the new story.

The four spirits are unbalanced as well. The most dynamic character is the salamander, who for some reason represents fire. It has an expressive face and reacts to characters in the story. Wind, called Gale, is an invisible breeze represented by spiraling fall leaves. It’s a great storytelling device but one with no personality. The rock giants of the earth are more reminiscent of the old Maelstrom ride at Epcot—they look like the troll that tried to send you over a waterfall in the ride replaced by the current Frozen ride. The water horse is beautifully animated but, again, does not have an expressive face. Three of the four elements have a less engaging presence in the film than Marshmallow, the snow giant guarding Elsa’s castle in the original film.

There is enough plot in Frozen II to fill numerous films. It feels more like a Disney spin-off series from an animated film than a standalone film. A season of 30 minute adventures (like Tangled or Aladdin) feels like a better match for throwing the same characters in a world barely connected to the events of the first film. I have to imagine that a TV series or more animated shorts will come out of Frozen II that start to fill in the gaps.

It’s also a much more mature story. Frozen II isn’t afraid to discuss dark content. Death, destruction, fear, and uncertainty drive the story. Every major character has a song about what they are willing to do in the face of incredibly grim circumstances. It’s actually one of the more successful narrative choices in the film. These characters were honed by catastrophic circumstances in the last film and try their best to pretend like nothing is wrong. Elsa is the first to want to know the why of their circumstances. Kristoff, Anna, and Olaf follow soon enough. The film does not linger on the darkness only because the core group of characters are willing to sacrifice everything to lift each other up.

The quality of animation is among the most impressive in the modern digital age of animation. Every song has a moment as awe-inspiring as Elsa building the ice castle in “Let It Go.” Shoot, her second ballad of the film “Show Yourself” is even more beautiful and impressive than “Let It Go,” both in storytelling and quality of animation. The effects, style, and storytelling motifs would not be out of place in a Laika film (the studio behind Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link), perhaps the greatest compliment I can give in modern animation.

Frozen II is not a bad film. It’s just an unfocused one. The scenes that connect to the original plot of finding what happened to Anna and Elsa’s parents are wonderful. The b-plots are justified by the characters, but totally superfluous to the story. These little side moments work on their own but feel like a stall tactic to make the film longer than it needs to be. The film can be a lot of fun if you just go along with the ride.

Frozen II is currently streaming on Disney Plus.