[Review] Frozen II (8/10)

Title - Frozen II
Studio - Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Starring - Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Sterling K. Brown, Evan Rachel Wood, Alfred Molina, Ciaran Hinds
Writer - Allison Schroeder
Director - Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck
Release - 22 November 2019

When I was watching the trailers, they always feels like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - the darker movie from the original trilogy. I believe I wasn't the only one too.

After having watched it, that has become apparent, and more. There was even a song about darkness and depression, clearly we were no longer in G-rating territory.

I do appreciate the new plot of the story, and the core of it was still the love of two sisters; which in movie-making Hollywood history is very rare. Even rarer to have been done so well both in the first and this movie.

Bell and Gad sounded great once again. I don't know how Menzel's Elsa was sounding younger than the first movie.

The songs unfortunately were not as catchy as the first movie's, and only "Into The Unknown" will stay in your heads and hearts. Nothing could hold a candle to "Let It Go" though.

Also, I have been playing over and over the Panic! At The Disco version of "Into The Unknown" and somehow Menzel's version within the context in the movie fell short as Brendon Urie's vocals seems to hit higher in the chorus.

Jonathan Groff also gets his own solo song this time around, but it was the worst one because of the way it didn't fit into the movie. The way Lee and Buck directed the song was funny in the first minute but then became very tedious and unnecessary.

And I'm glad there was barely any focus on the romance between Anna and Kristoff because that subplot was the least interesting.

Olaf saved the day when it comes to solo numbers. Again, singing about / with irony but so easy to relate because we know everything is not true.

But I really love how Olaf was presented. Every dread that he spoke of, he spoke with humour and light-heartedness; and if only that was how we handled our every day issues.

This was a very good follow-up to the original which came out six long years ago. The writing by Schroeder still managed to keep in the same vein and tone of the original, but adding more lore into the world which was fantastic. The way the elements manifested in the movie was pure fantasy at its best.

But just like The Empire Strikes Back, I still preferred the original.