Frozen 2

Frozen 2 was again directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck.  The plot centers around Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven leaving Arendelle to travel to an ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land. They set out to find the origin of Elsa’s powers in order to save their kingdom.

Kristen Bell returns as Anna and Idina Menzel returns as Elsa as well. Josh gad has a more prominent role as Olaf the snowman has a more prominent role in the film as it seems like executives know that kids love that character. Meanwhile, Kristoff and his pet Sven are completely ignored throughout most of the film apart from Kristoff getting the smallest role in the entire film with his entire plot point revolving around trying to find the correct time to propose to Anna.

What surprised me most about the sequel to a new Disney classic is the fact that not only does the film have a fairly weak villain, but it also covers territory involving race relations similar to the way Pocahontas did in 1998. This makes any revelation about Elsa and her powers pretty much pointless. It it becomes very hard to emotionally invest in the journey of both sisters throughout the film because they don’t really change in any way. Elsa’s focus is her history and how her powers came to be. As compelling an idea as that is the audience spends more time worried about how Anna will cope with the fact that Elsa is trying to do this new journey on her own without the help of the only family she knows. I think that story could have been so much stronger within the film itself.  The directors and writers of this film do take that a place that is unexpected however because Anna does develop depression when later on in the film, she does lose most of the people that she does care about. The song that is sung about how she feels and why she feels alone is the most striking powerful anthem for dealing with depression that I have heard of in recent years and I think it’s a brave choice by Disney to even include that in such a popular animated film.

My main problem with this film is the fact that out of the four to five characters that are supposed to be main characters in this film only two actually grow as people the rest are just there to be funny or worry and given the fact that all the characters should have some sort of arc and only two of them have any story of substance it makes for a weak story no matter how good the songs are. This burgeoning franchise is supposed to be a beacon of light for young girls to become strong women and I understand that but to sideline three characters and just make them jokes throughout the 97-minute runtime of this film seems disingenuous and a poor use of story structure.  Having said that all the characters get individual moments to shine and beyond that the two leads get mini key moments to express how they feel about their world and how it’s changing.

The most interesting and fundamental shift from the first film is that this particular film features an indigenous people who are part of the hidden world that Anna and Elsa discover. The indigenous people are rightly upset because they used to have a good relationship with the people of Arendelle and because of past conflict they forced themselves to remain hidden from outsiders. As much as I like the idea of other cultures and races of people being spotlighted in Disney films this has also been water, we have tread on before in the form of Pocahontas as I mentioned earlier. People from an assumed richer culture of European descent offering the hand of friendship to a culture they deem as inferior and then conflict erupting is nothing new and to me that’s part of the problem within this film is that the writers expect us not to notice that this is a story that’s been told before.  Therefore most of the story as a whole falls flat and the two points of character growth that occur between the sisters is the most paramount thing that happens throughout the films entire runtime.

The music of Frozen 2 is its strongest selling point. Yes the animation is nice and everything looks very polished so that when the story does maybe you do feel it but if it weren’t for the songs that exist within this film to guide moving the story forward then the statements that the film has to say about independence and depression and how to move on from those feelings and be a success none of that would resonate without the music within this film.  The songs in this film may not be as memorable as what came before them in the previous Frozen film, but they will strike an emotional cord with those who are seeking their own independence or fighting depression on a daily basis.

At the end of the day, Frozen 2 hits some of the right notes of the original film but doesn’t do enough to continually warm the hearts of generations of audiences like the first one. Disney just couldn’t fully capture the magic this time and that’s okay because the subjects the film tackled will still be important for future girls and women everywhere.