Frozen 2 Movie Review

Released in 2013, Frozen became wildly successful with its unique and interesting premise. For the first time, Disney left one of its queens without a love interest, focusing on sisterly love and making the movie an instant hit. With the release of Frozen 2 six years later, we continue Elsa and Anna’s magical story.

Frozen 2 is a PG rated movie, open to all young children and children at heart to watch. With such high standards in place for the sequel, it was unknown what Disney would come up with to follow in the footsteps of the previous movie. 

In the sequel, the movie returns to the girls and how their lives have been faring after their happily ever after. Beginning the movie, the audience is presented with a heartwarming flashback of Anna and Elsa with their parents, who had a short stay in Frozen before disappearing into the ocean. Within the flashback, King Agnarr tells a story about an enchanted forest and the conflict that ensues between Arendelle and the Northuldra tribe. Queen Iduna then sings the girls to sleep with a lullaby of a magic river. 

At first the story feels mundane, shying away from the magic and instead following the normal routines of the main characters. However, when Elsa follows a mysterious call she hears in the distance, she ends up awakening elemental spirits and causing havoc around her kingdom. With advice from the rock trolls, the beloved characters journey through the magic of the enchanted forest and the Northuldra people, introducing a flurry of new and adorable characters. In the forest, Elsa and Anna separate and learn lessons about themselves, encapsulating the concept of “let it go”. 

There are 11 total songs in the movie: seven original, three end credit, and a continuation of “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People.” Your viewing experience may be affected depending on your enjoyment (or tolerance) of them.

While most of the songs were amazing, Princess Anna’s heartbreaking ballad, “The Next Right Thing” about pulling yourself out of grief and depression was outstanding. It is a brief but tear-jerking song about mental health in disguise, and because of its real-world applications it feels like the most down to earth song in the movie. 

Another beautiful song comes from Queen Iduna’s lullaby in the beginning of the movie. The ethereal song not only serves as a roadmap for the film, but it is also full of secret messages, warnings, and metaphors. 

Some songs are definitely taken less seriously, such as Kristoff and his song “Lost in the Woods”. Even though it had meaningful lyrics, the song didn’t come off as powerful, but that might be because the chorus was sung by Sven and a dozen other reindeer.

 Additionally, the character development the girls go through was captivating. One nice surprise was learning more about the origin of Elsa’s powers, which greatly helped to drive the movie forward. We finally get to see what happened to their parents as well as the story of the fateful night of their disappearance.

However, the movie seemed to disregard Kristoff throughout the movie, even going as far as to leave him behind and reinclude him only when needed for the plot. With Kristoff’s absence comes Olaf. A few years older, Olaf suddenly becomes a deep character who continuously drops random mad science trivia; turtles being able to breath through their butts (wrong), men being more likely to be struck by lightning 6 times more than women (5 actually but close enough), or that people breath 4 million times a day (not even close but a nice try anyways).

The true magic of Frozen 2 comes from its spirituality. Unfortunately, the movie did not focus on how amazing the elemental spirits really were, describing how powerful and how much damage they could cause, yet they only had a brief appearance.There was no elaborate display of their powers other than the spirits of fire and water, of which Elsa quickly thwarted.
Overall, the movie has a love it or hate it premise. If you are looking for a movie with several songs (both joyful and sorrowful), a captivating lore, and emotional scenes, this movie is definitely for you. If you’re a fan of Kristoff and Sven, I would recommend rewatching the original Frozen instead. No matter who you are, there is something in the movie for everybody to enjoy.