"Frozen 2" Review - Walking on Thin Ice

When the first Frozen came out, it became a massive storm that gave the world a unique kind of fever, no matter what you individually thought of it. I personally liked it. Sure, it got so overplayed and over-serialized that it lost a lot of its charm over time; but it’s still by itself a solid film. Over many rewatches, many of us realized some faults about the first installment that we can’t get out of our heads. Sure, it’s not a perfect Disney film, but maybe the sequel that they make will finally be more mature, correct some of those errors, and put Frozen in a position where it was meant to be.

To put it bluntly, they failed. And I’m honestly disappointed.

The trailers made it seem like Frozen 2 would be different. Sadly, with regards to the errors you might have not liked about the first Frozen, they triple downed on those errors and somehow made it not as good as the first. The charm and silliness of the characters are still there, but as I watched this, I almost felt like higher ups at Disney put more restraints on what the directors and songwriters could do.

There are many more pointless songs for instance that could’ve been tossed without question. Almost every song in this one is unmemorable, but even worse is that some of them served not a single purpose. Howard Ashman, the genius lyricist behind Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, said that songs are best when they turn a page in a book; or when a character has a breakthrough or explanation of what they want. We have Olaf singing a song about how he’s not scared of anything, and a Kristoff song that’s produced like a 90s boy band music video. The songs that may serve more of a purpose are just not as good. The main lullaby of the movie is Kristen and Robert Lopez trying to be as good as Alan Menken’s healing song from Tangled. This to me is a sign they need to step away from Frozen. They are such terrific songwriters. Anytime they do something original like Avenue Q*, Book of Mormon*, Coco, or even the first Frozen (*yes, those 2 are just Bobby), they write so beautifully. Everything they’ve done related to more Frozen has been lackluster, and I think those two truly shine when they write something for new pieces of entertainment.

The number of and quality of songs are one big issue. Another is the story, which is my main gripe about the entire film. It contributes nothing to the universe. It’s simply an extension of a world that we already know, and it feels like I’m watching a water-downed version of the first one. I don’t know if it’s a China thing, but I wish the screenwriters and the entire Frozen team were able to push the boundaries of what Elsa and Anna could be made into. Instead, we get no clear villain, very minimal character development, and many more questions than answers about the time and settings explored. Let’s put it this way. There’s a scene in the film where you think there’s something truly exciting that’s about to happen. In the end, it’s all just a lead in to a pointless fiery lizard that serves no purpose but to sell merchandise.

I don’t want to say the Frozen creatives didn’t try hard enough. After all, the animation is flat out spectacular and shows once again Disney knows no bounds when it comes to crafting cartoons. But I am sad that Disney played it safe with this one and didn’t do anything to expand the characters or develop on what it already had. That literally is the point of sequels and you don’t even need to make Elsa gay to do it. Toy Story 4 did a better job, and that is the 4th installment! You might be saying, “Well it’s meant for little kids, not for someone of your age!” True, kids will love it. It will make a lot of money. But you know what? How To Train Your Dragon, Tangled, Moana, Inside Out, all entertain kids. None of these movies have to be masterpieces, but they are. Disney can make masterpieces and they have done so before. All it takes is a little bravery to defy censors and traditional tropes and be able to go into the unknown. Unfortunately, all they have to show for this sequel is that catchy tile song.

Yes, this will entertain your kids if that’s what you really want to know. I just was hoping to go more into the unknown than Frozen 2 was leading me to believe.

Neutral Nebs