Frozen II - Il segreto di Arendelle

Not a patch on the first one, no memorable songs, weak and forced storyline. Clearly the writers took what was best from the first and amped it up to the max but forgot that a good film is based on a good story not on a good message.

The animation in Frozen II is stunning. The level of detail and flow is a triumph. The story, however, is preachy and forced. Anna is annoyingly controlling and overprotective. All of the songs are overwrought and not really memorable, and the characters sing a lot. No need to buy this one, one viewing is enough.

Frozen II felt unsatisfying. There was lots of build up to a very short climax that felt way too easy and simple. I kept expecting another adventure which never came. The film feels short and unfinished. That said, the animation is absolutely gorgeous and I did find the film quite funny. If you go into this with low expectations I think you'll enjoy yourself.

(This has a post-credit scene in case you're wondering)

The songs are great. Especially Kristoff's song, an 80's jam as Jonathan Groff would say it. Even the animation looks like an 80's music video which I find funny. Olaf's comedic skits are even funnier. For Into the Unknown, not as catchy as Let it Go but time will tell. The animation, the best. Elsa got even beautifuller. If you saw the water animation you would see *much* more of that. The story is bigger, questions are answered, but there are some points that look silly. The plot is predictable but personally I enjoyed it.

The only thing I'm having a hard time agreeing with is the ending.

Six years is not a particularly long time to wait for a sequel, but in the case of Frozen it is hard not to feel that the decision to return was totally motivated by money-making potential and not much else. Of course it is naïve to think that any sequel is made out of love for the audience etc and without money in mind, but usually it doesn't feel so brazen as this; and that impression is not helped by Disney digging up its own back catalogue to remake and resell them. In the meantime Frozen made over a billion dollars, with hit records, merchandise, stage shows etc, so the sequel was not a great surprise - but it is a bit of a disappointment.

The plot is the aspect that hurts it. It feels like it was written by a committee, and puts too much effort into keeping all the characters busy by giving them something to do. As a result the plot feels convoluted due to the number of threads that don't have direct relationship to one another. In addition, the threads themselves have a lot going on that is hard to translate for children - the link to past generations, the origin of powers; all sorts of things like this rob it of impact because it feels less smooth - you can hear the gears grinding as it moves along. There are several strong songs, not quite the strength of the first film but that was a high bar to clear. There are funny moments, but the whole thing does feel less 'fun'.

At the same time my reduced investment in the film meant it had less emotional impact; it doesn't take much for me to get choked up but nothing did anything for me in this one. It wasn't awful of course, just disappointing. It still offers the songs, the laughs, the spectacle but it does it in such a heavy-set way that it doesn't spark or feel organic as it does it - and as a result the feeling gets stronger that this is only really about squeezing more money from the audience.