Theatrical Review: Frozen 2

Date: Saturday November 23 2019
Time: 11:50am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Writers/Directors: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
Songwriters: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

Cast:
Returning
Anna- Kristen Bell
Elsa- Idina Menzel
Olaf- Josh Gad
Kristoff- Jonathan Groff
Pabbie- Ciaran Hinds
King Angnarr- Alfred Molina
Queen Iduna- Evan Rachel Wood
Newcomers
Mattis- Sterling K. Brown (Randall from "This is Us")
Ryder- Jason Ritter
Yelena- Martha Plimpton

Duration: 103 minutes (+8 trailers)

Write-up:

Some Mild Spoilers Going Forward on both movies...

Opening Comments

I really haven't been that excited for many movies this year. This was one of the few that I had to see and was very glad to the weekend it came out. My dad actually suggested us getting our tickets on Fandango and it worked out really well. The theater wasn't completely full, but full enough where it might have been difficult to get a reasonable seat (reasonable meaning not in the front section with your neck craned backward).

The three of us saw the previous movie together so it was only fitting that we continue that tradition.I didn't fully go into my thoughts on the original Frozen just because I didn't want to give anything away. But like so many people, I got swept up in the magic of it. 
Consequentially, I was maybe one of the few that were thrilled when "Once Upon a Time" announced in a season finale that that was their next direction. I loved the actors they had for the characters. Especially the actress who played Elsa. It annoys me that whenever they have the Disney park characters, Elsa is always wearing this huge white wig with the braid. It just doesn't look natural. "Once" definitely got it right. 
I also liked that they added to the mythology of the story, explaining how they found the gloves that limited Elsa'a powers and how she had an aunt who had the same powers as her that was estranged from the family. Plus they factored in Emma Swan's magic and how she was nervous about not being able to control it. Great for character growth, but it only lasted until the next season began. 
There was a critcism about this movie about Elsa losing the confidence she gained in the previous movie... Emma Swan has probably had more regressions in confidence than anyone I know. She has it one second and then something new comes up and she's immediately back to square one. Honestly. I'm the same way myself because nothing ever stays permanent. I wish I could just "let it go" and never have any doubt in my head again. 

Ok, moving on... trailers...

Coming Attractions 

...real quick... the movie time was 11:50... the trailers didn't start until 11:58 and the trailers went on until 12:18... OMG... I'll say it again, if I wanted to see commericals, I'd just stay home. Theaters are so annoying with all delay before the actual movie starts.

There weren't many trailers that got my interest, honestly.

Call Of The Wild
I saw an ad on the right side of a YouTube video I was watching. I just saw that Harrison Ford was in it. Then this trailer started... right away... can we address the fact that the dog is fake? Completely animated! I looked up the trivia of the movie and they didn't explain why they did that. I mean, is PETA cracking down so you can't have live animals in movies anymore? It's just not normal, especially this dog's expressions. Too human. Plus, the model is based on an actual dog who is the same mix of breeds as Buck is in the book. That part is true to form, but still... somehow I get the feeling this movie is gonna bomb. 

Little Women
This actually looks real good. I mean, this has Saorise Ronan and Emma Watson. What's not to like? (Except maybe Meryl Streep playing their wet blanket of an aunt). I'd never read the book, but we have it in the house, so I really should get around to reading it... for whenever this movie comes out on HBO. But I really hope it's a good movie because I like the look of it. 

Trolls World Tour
I already wrote about this in another post...

Cats
Along with Star Wars, we're probably going to be see this one as well. I have an aversion about the original Broadway production after seeing (and being kept up at night by) it on PBS's Great Performances. The animation looks kinda weird, but I'm all for a fresh look aesthetically and also a reworking on the original Andrew Lloyd Webber score. 

Scoob!
Other than some bits and pieces of the characterizations being too modernized for my liking, this looks like it'll be a fun watch. It's so crazy to think that Scooby-Doo has been around for 50 years. But I guess they can't do any worse than the previous live action versions where there was an overemphasis on gross-out humor. I guess they couldn't have called it "When Shaggy Met Scooby" cuz it's also about the Mystery Gang getting together :P 

Soul
Another interesting looking movie... not sure if the execution is going to fall in line with the intention behind it... it's getting a lot of hype because it's the first Pixar movie with a black lead. Can't we just celebrate diversity without being so on the nose about it? It feels like fulfilling a campaign more than feeling natural. 
Anyway, Jamie Foxx is a jazz musician about to get his first break, but then he falls down a manhole and he turns into a soul... hence the name... and souls are the embodiment of what each person is deep down. Cool concept for sure. It's too bad he probably won't spend that much time human in this movie. 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Not much to add with this... just gotta wait for the movie to come out...

Onward
They had to squeeze in another Pixar trailer apparently... two brothers get 24 hours with their father, but when they bring him back via magic, they only manage to bring him back from the waist down. Also, the characters are all elves and monsters. I can't get over the "from the waist down" thing... to me, this screams "they've run out of ideas"... yes, even more than doing a Frozen sequel... 

Haha, nice seque... I didn't even plan that. It just happened. 

The Main Event

First off... this was a great audience. The kids were quiet except laughing at the right times and clapping at the end. Mostly they just laughed at Olaf, but that's totally fine.

Now I'm not sure how to proceed.
For starters, I guess I can say that the first movie is still better in a lot of respects. But this movie had a lot of merit too. One review that was in the paper complained that this got a theatrical release and other people have said that this movie proves that Disney is very close to running out of ideas.

The only negative I can vouch for is the songs... 
Even the first time I heard "Into the Unknown" on Dancing With the Stars, I was underwhelmed by it. In the movie, it makes a little more sense because we have context. And Elsa gets two diva moments. I liked "Show Yourself" a little bit more, but neither is "Let It Go." I still remember when they occasionally played that on the radio and it was such a treat :P Unlike most of the general public, I never got sick of that song. I just wish I could sing it without some emotion taking me over... I'm very strange with certain songs. My tear ducts just activate for no good reason. 

I'll give them this: the credits version of "Into the Unknown" was actually really good. I griped so much about Demi Levato doing "Let It Go"... honestly, nobody can do that song, but Idina Menzel... but this credits version was by Panic at the Disco! I knew that voice sounded kinda familiar and I thought at the time it was Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy. Maybe I'm a bit more familiar cuz he guest starred on a Taylor Swift song.
They also encored "All is Found"... that's one of the highlights of the movie, this song. It's a lullaby by their mom in a flashback. Kinda reminds me of something from Lord of the Rings, but more indictative of the setting of this movie. 

My favorite song was by Kristoff- "Lost in the Woods." If I didn't know any better, I'd think either Peter Cetera or Richard Marx wrote it. It just screams 80's pop power ballad :P I'm a sucker for this sort of thing, but I also really liked the lyrics and how they flowed. 

The lowlight for songs... it's kind of a sad part in the movie and Anna sings about how she needs to do "The Next Right Thing." Why did this need to be a song? Couldn't she have just had a monologue or something? As if things weren't low enough at that point, it was kinda painful to get through because the lyric writing is just so weak. Almost like they gave up trying.

Ok, all the negatives are done... 

Story time...
The gates of Arendelle are still open and Elsa is free to use her powers whenever she chooses. Kristoff is thinking of proposing to Anna-- you can kinda guess where this is going... I knew I did. Olaf has matured a little bit, which is an interesting concept. The idea of a snowman aging and learning and such. 
Then there's this mysterious voice only Elsa is hearing and she has to follow it. This quest leads the sisters to the Enchanted Forest from their own bedtime stories. Their grandfather wanted to broker a treaty with its locals, the Northuldran, a native tribe who lives with magic, but a fight breaks out without warning and their father was able to escape with help.

When the characters get into the forest (after some interesting commentary from Olaf as they trek there in Kristoff's new sled... some of it is relevant so pay attention), they find that the Northuldran and some of their comrades from Arendelle had been trapped there for 30+ years. One of them was Mattias, their father's guard.
In an attempt to catch them up on the last several years, Olaf kinda gives them a one-man show summarizing the events of the first movie. (This was maybe the best part of the movie :P especially his comment about Hans "surprise, I'm the bad guy!"... seriously, I'm still annoyed how that came out of nowhere. Any normal Disney movie drops subtle hints, if it isn't already inherently obvious. All Hans ever said was that he was 11th in line for the throne of his kingdom...)

But it's almost like an abridged version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are 4 elements that need to be tamed or quelled. One of them takes the form of a cute little lizard. He looks like he could be a distant cousin of Pascal, Rapunzel's chameleon from "Tangled." But they never name him in the movie... Olaf calls a gust of wind "Gale," but they never mention that the lizard's name is Bruni (according to IMDb). 
Despite various objections from Anna, Elsa has to make the rest of their journey alone. The two of them find out where her powers came from and also some things about their parents. 

I guess you could say they were creative in deciding who the bad guy was... but at the same time, I'm still annoyed that Elsa makes this huge journey and finds out the truth via flashbacks and visions. You expect to meet someone after going through all this trouble... granted, the great reveal is compelling and shocking (unless you're really on top of things). But maybe the way it was conveyed could have been done better. 

One thing I will say for the movie overall... I was invested from the first second up until the end. Heck, there was a point where the final conflict was just put to rest and everything was resolved... I just went "crap, that means the movie's almost over."
Sometimes I wish that movies lasted 10 minutes longer so we can revel in the happy ending instead of just getting it and it's "Later, by!" 
Especially movies like this where I just get caught up in the world and I love the characters. Elsa is totally my spirit animal. Makes me wish I could dye my hair that shade of platinum blonde. I just need snow powers and a better singing voice. I'm decent, but I don't have that good of a range. 

What'd I give the previous movie... I gave the original movie an A+
It was pretty near perfection, even with the whole Hans thing.

This movie... not so much... but I still enjoyed it a lot. 

Grade: A-

It was definitely worth waiting all this time for it, but they still could have done some things a lot better.