Frozen 2 Review!

Frozen (2013) was a phenomenon and now six years later the sequel expands into new territory with the same beloved characters and new, maybe less memorable songs!  It features the return of Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, who co-directed the original and also worked on the story.  Marc Smith also returns for the story as well as songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.  The story structure for the first Frozen was based on musicals, but Frozen 2 opens with a flashback.  Young Elsa (Mattea Conforti) and Anna (Hadley Gannaway) are playing Enchanted Forest with Elsa’s ice figures (wait for Frozen 2 playset).  King Agnarr (Alfred Molina) tells Elsa and Anna a bedtime story.  The voices are recast for the sequel with Molina bringing some cache also voicing Double Dan in Ralph Breas the Internet (2018).  Anna and Elsa are told the story of the Enchanted Forest to the north when elemental spirits (air, fire, water, and earth) were in that land (shades of Princess Mononoke).  Young Agnarr was there with his father, King Runeard (Jeremy Sisto).  

Agnarr explains that a dam was built and then the Northuldran people and Runeard and his Arendelle people met, but it broke into a battle between them.  The spirits left and set up a wall of mist to seal away the world.  Young Agnarr fell and was struck in the head.  Then, we get their mother, Queen Iduna (Evan Rachel Wood) sing her daughters a lullaby, “All is Found” about the river Ahtohallan which has all of the answers.  Of course, Wood is known for the Westworld series, but I remember her from the musical Across the Universe (2007).  It is autumn in Arendelle, we have the older Anna (Kristen Bell) and Queen Elsa (Idina Menzel) spend time with Olaf (Josh Gad), the animated snowman.  Anna, of course, supports her sister, but finds her own strength.  Elsa finds that a voice is calling her (Norwegian singer Aurora) and has to follow it to answer questions from the past.  Olaf is full of trivia facts, a funny nod to the adults in the audience.  We do have Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) struggling to propose to Anna speaking for his reindeer pal, Sven.  Goff also returns to voice Kristoff, has some character development, and a solo song.  The beginning here feels like a direct to home video title like Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (2017).

They all play charades, but the voice is too strong for Elsa to ignore.  She uses her powers to answer the voice, which is the setting for her ballad, “Into the Unknown”, and awakens the spirits!  The spirits include the fires that are all extinguished around Arendelle, a wind storm that pulls everyone out of the city, including the earth spirit that rolls through the pavement keeping all of the Arendelle citizens to the hills.  The trolls join them, Grand Pappie (Ciarán Hinds) explains that Elsa must learn the truth to save them.  He has reprised his role after appearing in such dramas as First Man (2018).  The friends head north with Sven pulling the sleigh and Olaf telling them all that he has learned.  They reach the wall of mist, but are repelled by it, then Elsa uses her powers and pierces the wall with the others.  They encounter survivors from King Runeard’s time led by Lieutenant Mattias (Sterling K. Brown).  He of course is known for This is Us, but has voiced Garry in The Angry Birds Movie 2 and was N’Jobu in the flashback scene of Black Panther (2018).  Anna recognizes him from his portrait.  Mattias is loyal to Arendelle and hopes to return.  

They are met by the rival Northuldrans, a tribe of the sun, led by Yelana (Martha Plimpton). She stars in the comedy Brockmire and of course recognized for her part in The Goonies (1985).  The wind spirit sweeps them up and Elsa again uses her power which forms into ice sculptures.  They name the playful wind spirit Gale.  Then, the forest ignites with the appearance of the fire spirit, Bruni.  The cute salamander is tamed by Elsa’s ice powers.  They settle in with the Northuldrans and Kristoff gets a solo, 80’s power ballad, “Lost in the Woods”, nice song about his relatiosnhip with Anna, very funny, but breaks the setting.  He does make friends with Northuldran Ryder (Jason Ritter) who also talks for his reindeers.  Ritter is currently in the Netflix superhero series Raising Dion, but I remember him as Kevin Finn in the brilliant and short lived Kevin (Probably) Saves the World.  Ryder’s sister is Honeymaren played by Rachel Matthews.  She reprised her role in Happy Death Day 2U this year.  They are all in fear of the towering, lumbering earth spirits.  Elsa gets closer to revealing the past and faces massive waves to reach her destiny to restore the balance.  She manages to ally with the water spirit, Nokk, in the form of a watery stallion.  There is a scene at the very end of the end credits!  Frozen 2 is a worthy sequel, taking characters to the next step, and bringing in new friends! 

Three Salamanders out of Five!   

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