Review of Frozen II (2019) by Donanja — 22 Sep 2022

It was a bold move from Disney to create a sequel to a classic like Frozen, but I think they did a good job with it. A cynical critic might call this a blatant cash-grab, or a vain attempt to recapture lightning in a bottle by capitalizing on the success of the first movie, but anyone who’s paid even a little bit of attention should know that that’s already been done. Elsa and Anna have been absolutely everywhere between 2013 and 2019, so that success has already been capitalized on plenty. If the only incentive was money, this movie would not have been necessary – there was clearly a story left to tell and they wanted to tell it.

Sequels rarely ever come close to the level of the original, and Frozen II is no exception, but it delivers an enjoyable experience nonetheless. I’ve always been a geek for the world-building aspects of Arendelle and this movie expanded on it greatly by showing us a bit more of the land’s history and what lies beyond the castle. I loved this. The movie also gave all of our favorite characters plenty of time to shine and everyone had their own comedic and heartfelt moments.

My only critique would be the ending and the lead-up to it, which I felt was a bit rushed and… nonsensical. It happens all the time with movies like this; they get a riveting story going on, but when the time comes to wrap things up, they struggle to come up with a satisfying ending. The first movie was so well-paced and the quality stayed consistent from start to finish, so it was a bit disappointing to see them not quite hit it out of the park this time.

I hope that, despite the impending sea of cynics, they make another movie someday to bring this series to a close as a satisfying trilogy of movies. I think revisiting the conflict with Hans in The Southern Isles (and by doing so giving the characters as well as the viewers closure on his fate) could serve as a great stage for the finale, but we’ll have to see what they cook up.