Frozen II - a review

Anna and Elsa are on an adventure again. Elsa hears the voice of a secret siren calling her to the frozen north. What she and her sister find there will shake the foundations of their kingdom.

Frozen (2013) was an accident! Originally the plan was to go all out on Hans Christian Anderson’s original story and have Elsa be the villain of the piece (a snow queen with a loveless frozen heart). But then, of course, the songwriters came up with the most miraculous power ballad since Bonnie Tyler.

It is a very good/well crafted song. No matter whether you like it or not.

This brought the whole original story of Frozen tumbling down. How can a woman who sings such a wonderful song be all bad? So, things were changed around. Elsa became a ‘goodie’ and the story became about love between sisters.

As a result this meant that the movie had to put strong independent women on the forefront.

Suddenly Frozen had the potential to become more than just a fairytale. All the chess pieces were in place to make this a movie that heralded women. Even though I doubt even Disney foresaw the impact this movie would have on little girls.

The success of Frozen proved this ‘gamble’. There’s a market for female-lead movies that don’t involve courtship or a male dominance. Soon other moviestudios followed (Wonder Woman (2017)  for example).

I said ‘gamble’ because, as always in movies, trends come and go. In the blaxploitation-era there were numerous examples of strong independent women carrying a movie. The same goes for The long kiss goodnight (1996), Salt (2010), I would even argue How to marry a millionaire (1953). Every once in a while a movie comes out that treats the female leads as normal human beings instead of ‘hysterical-'panties-in-a-bunch'-“men-please-protect-me!”-breeding-machines’. What changed, however, is that nowadays with the internet people ‘take’ these movies and highlight the female themes within them. The hope being, of course, that THIS will be the movie that will change the world! What I’m trying to say here is that movies like Frozen -throughout movie history- came out all the time. However, we now have the platform to use this cultural object as an example to (maybe) change the world.

So, basically, due to the fact that the song ‘Let it go’ was so great Frozen became a movie about gender equality.

Frozen II: bound to happen

Disney is a lot of things but it isn’t stupid. So of course they were going to follow up on the massive success of Frozen with Frozen II. And, of course, this time around the message of gender equality and strong role-models is hammered home.

Plus some extra power ballads. A bit too many for my taste.

It’s this ‘sticking to the formula’ that makes Frozen II a bit lesser than the first outing. Everything is done absolutely right. But, because of that there is no surprise. There are the power ballads (plus a fun 80s parody song), the love between sisters, Elsa being awesome, Olaf being cute. We’ve seen it all before in the first movie; there’s no shocking new addition to the tale of two sisters.

In all seriousness I doubt the online petition of ‘Get Elsa a girlfriend’ would’ve changed my mind
because even a lesbian queen would fit perfectly in the formula Disney is using here.

Also, why should a strong, independent woman automatically be a lesbian?

It is because of this that the movie falls down flat in the second act. Once we’ve had the happy reintroductions and the adventure has begun the movie focuses on relationships.

True, there’s a nice action scene of Elsa ‘playing with fire’. But overall the whole second act is rather boring. Because each and every interaction confirms what the audience already knows. Yes, Anna loves Christoph and vice versa. Yes, Elsa loves Anna, and vice versa. Yes, Olaf loves everybody, and vice versa.

Combine this with the fact that the ‘two feuding fronts’ that are introduced in the second act don’t actually fight, or even hate, each other and the ‘problem’, to me, is evident. Frozen II is relying too much on rehashing that which the audience already knows. But is, at the same time, to afraid to really put in something new.

Unless, of course, it involves (the original thematic of) making Elsa and Anna even more amazing.

This, to me, feels like a miss. I would’ve wanted more ambiguity. In Star Wars II (or V) (1980) the good guys got their *sses handed to them. In any horror-sequel the action is upped, the character-stories lessened. In The Godfather Part: II (1974) extensive flashbacks were introduced and Michael kills his own (bleeding) brother. In a sequel it is hardly ever wise to do the same thing over again. If you want your movie to be remembered you need to shake things up. Frozen II doesn’t do that. It plays it safe.

Frozen II: still endearing

But still Frozen II manages to melt even this cold old heart of mine. Why? Because the movie is so darn endearing.

After Frozen I fell in love with the characters (except for those trolls, I don’t trust trolls). So I would watch anything with them in it. The songs are very good (the new power ballad has been stuck in my head for over a week now). And this movie has even more Olaf – which is always a good thing.

If I had to pinpoint a highlight it is Anna’s song near the end. Anna never really got to get to the forefront of Frozen and for this little moment she does. In fact I want the next Frozen-movie to be all about her.

Still, Frozen II is, in basis, a rehash of the first movie. The people behind it were to afraid to change things around. I can’t blame Disney. I understand. And yet, even as a lesser movie, Frozen II is still a wonderful movie to watch time and again.

Fun fact to end with: Uptil, now I haven't found a single cover of ‘Into the unknown’ that is better than the one in the movie or the credits. Shame on you internet. I know you can do better! The Jacob Sutherland version is almost perfect. If not for that (overtaking) distracting piano. And why (oh why) has nobody used the current voice technology to have Freddie Mercury sing the song?