Re-Frozen

I missed the chance to see Frozen II when it was in theaters a few months ago. Now, of course, nothing is in theaters. But it can be streamed, and enjoying the original Frozen as much as I did, I certainly wanted to check it out.

Frozen II picks up the story of Anna and Elsa a few years later, with the kingdom of Arendelle threatened by elemental spirits from beyond a mysterious fog. The whole gang from the first film heads out on a quest to save the day, pursuing a mysterious voice only Elsa can hear.

This is a fine movie, though it does suffer a bit in comparison: Frozen is a tough act to follow. The sequel is much better than a pure cash grab (though to a studio executive, that's surely all it is), but it's missing the extra spark that made the first movie so special.

For the first half, in fact, it feels to be rather explicitly walking the original Frozen's path. The plot being set up is new and interesting, but the songs all seem to map one-to-one to the beloved music from the original. We're talking more than just adherence to the "Disney formula" of opening with a group number, leading into the heroine's "I want" number, and so forth. That group number feels like it's chasing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"; Olaf's new song is cast from the same mold that forged "In Summer"; and despite a change to 12/8 time from 4/4, Elsa's "Into the Unknown" is definitely a redux of "Let It Go" (though, admittedly, one that'll set up residence in your brain almost as effectively).

Fortunately, as the film rounds the corner into the second half, song writers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are able to explore more truly new material. The character of Kristoff gets a full, real song that gives actor Jonathan Groff more to do than sing 50 seconds of fluff to a reindeer. Elsa has a second song, "Show Yourself," that feels quite different from anything else in either film. Anna gets a rousing solo number -- and while we all knew from the first movie that Kristen Bell can sing, this finally gives her the stage all to herself.

The visuals get more bold and artistic in the second half of the movie, too. In the first Frozen, "Let It Go" was the moment that really pulled out all the stops, with wild imagery accompanying the empowerment anthem. Every song in the back half of Frozen II feels similarly inspired visually, really using the advantage of animation: if you can imagine it, you can depict it.

Though as the storytelling technique improves as the movie unfolds, the story itself grows rather rote and predictable. After dutifully walking the audience through a gallery of Chekhov's Guns and pointing them all out, the back half of the movie is a second trip through that gallery to fire them all. It's nice, I suppose, that everything pays off -- though it's rather rigid in how it does so.

Still, it's a fun movie overall... and very much with the right focus: again on the sisters Anna and Elsa and their relationship. It's still a quite enjoyable B, even if it can't step out of the shadow of its predecessor.