Review of Frozen II (2019) by Ajzeg01 — 31 Mar 2020

Before I get to my thoughts on this sequel, let me briefly go over my thoughts on the first movie. My journey with Frozen is similar to many others. I saw it and enjoyed it in the theatre, I then hated it after all the hype and overexposure but I eventually came around to it again when I rewatched it last year.

Do I think it has issues? For sure! Do I think it’s overrated? Yeah, kinda! Do I not like it? Of course not! It has good songs, great animation, great characters, some good comedy and a nice story with a good message.

It feels like a classic Disney movie from the 90s, I can see why it’s so popular! As for my thoughts on the sequel, while I didn’t have a terrible time watching it, it was not as good as the first movie when it had the potential to be so much better.

I was hyped when I saw the trailers, it looked really epic, but unfortunately I don’t think it really came together in the end. For starters, the story is WAY too complicated! It’s super exposition-heavy and I actually had a hard time following it at times! I have no idea how kids are supposed to follow it! It throws a lot of lore and history and mystery and conspiracy at you and it was just too much.

It’s a fairy tale, not Avatar: The Last Airbender! It doesn’t need to be this complicated! The story is also WAY too fast-paced! It reminded me of The Rise of Skywalker. Yes. It’s that bad. It barely gives you any time to breathe and doesn’t give the characters a lot of time to interact.

Most of the time, the main characters from the last movie are separated on their own little adventures. The only two characters that actually stay together through the whole movie are Anna and Olaf! This movie also introduces some new characters that are barely in it, but they’re set up like they’re supposed to be major characters! I don’t know why they would do that, it feels like a waste of time.

Oh yeah, the movie’s, like, 100 minutes long! I feel like some of it could’ve been cut down. Like Olaf. He’s really annoying in this. I do have one more major issue with this movie and that’s the ending.

Without giving anything away, I thought it was awful. It makes little sense, it feels rushed, it kinda makes the whole movie pointless and it turns the movie into a borderline white saviour story. Wasn’t a fan.

You’ll see what I mean if you see the movie. I also predicted the plot twist pertaining to the closest thing this movie has to a villain, but it is a kids movie so I think I can forgive that. It just seems a little odd that that was one of the only predictable parts while everything else was so convoluted.

Overall, while there were a lot of things that I did enjoy, like the songs, the voice acting, some of the comedy and the breathtakingly gorgeous animation, the story is just such a mess that I really can’t say this is a good movie.

It’s not a terrible movie by any means, despite how I make it sound, but it’s certainly not very good. It’s okay. The story of the first movie was so simple, with an overarching theme and message of familial love.

This movie is too overly complicated and I couldn’t tell you what the message or the theme even is. Is it about colonialism? Chosen Ones? Man vs. Nature? Familial love again? It has a lot of ideas but none of them are really fleshed out very well.

I don’t know what we as an audience are supposed to learn or what the characters learned. Like I said, the whole movie feels kinda pointless. I feel like this could’ve been an hour-long Disney+ special or something, not the sequel to the former highest-grossing animated film of all-time! Overall, if you’re a die-hard Disney fan or your kids REALLY want to see it, give it a watch.

It’s on Disney+. Otherwise, just rewatch the first movie. Very disappointing.