Film Review: Frozen II

This afternoon, my husband I were fortunate enough to have a Double-Feature Date Afternoon. We saw Knives Out first -- which was a fantastic WhoDunIt and just an overall delightful romp -- and then saw Frozen 2.

Disclaimer: I haven't read any reviews and managed to stay largely spoiler-free. I had read some "first reactions" -- those Twitter responses about people's early responses to the film which are largely vague and non-specific and which don't give away any specific details -- and that was all I knew. Most of them were positive -- I feel like there was one lukewarm response which basically said it "was good, but not as good as the first," (important to note that it was written by a man) -- which reassured me. Disney sequels are, after all, usually things that go straight-to-video and aren't very good. (The only sequels I can think of are The Rescuers Down Under -- because The Rescuers were. my. jam. -- and Ralph Breaks the Internet...somebody correct me if I'm wrong.) I knew that the film was darker, had supposedly matured with its audience, and that a good deal of people believed it was unnecessary.

I have thoughts. Lots of thoughts.

But here's the gist of them: Frozen II is not the movie I thought it was going to be, and that's okay, because it turned out to be the Disney Princess Movie I needed. And, more importantly, I think it's the Disney Princess Movie that I needed to see as a young girl, that the brand needs, and that little girls (and boys) need.
Spoilery thoughts below.

Let me start with an anecdote, from a time that's been on my mind a lot lately: Late 2011 to late 2012:
I had met my-now-husband in June of 2011, and after a very random and un-me trip to the Philippines for his best friend's wedding, I was pretty sure he was The One. I spent the early part of 2011 with a broken heart and grieving the loss of something that I thought was It For Me (clearly, it wasn't). When I had to start a PhD program in Columbia SC, I was fraught with anxiety because (1) I had just learned the hard way that Long Distance Relationships end badly more often than not (there were other reasons, of course, but still) and (2) I didn't want to jeopardize the future I was beginning to see as a very real possibility. Long story short -- I left the program and moved back to Cary and in with him.

For the record, I have never once regretted that decision. I knew it was the right move, and everything has worked out fine. That was, however, less clear to me, especially over the summer and into the Fall. I had had an adjunct position at Duke, which came with no certainty, so in the summer of 2012, I had no job, no prospects, and I was unsure of what would come next. There was a moment, when I was outside cleaning up dog poop, when I just broke down in tears and started sobbing. After all, this was not the Happily Ever After I had envisaged for myself -- this was not how things were supposed to be. This -- and this is the important bit -- was not what happened to a Disney Princess.

One of the universal "truths" that has come out of teaching my Disney class, is that everyone is affected, in some way, by the Disney movies they watch as kids. The Disney critics and I agree on that. What we don't agree on is what exactly those kids take away from the movies. The critics believe it's all the harmful messages about passive women and ugly villains. And that may be true. But it's not universal. What I took away from The Little Mermaid for instance is (1) that Eric is A Very Good Guy because he has a dog, and is willing to risk his life for that dog; and (2) that a daughter who has a tempestuous relationship with her over-protective, narrow-minded and arguably prejudiced father can still work things out and end in a happy place.

So, yes. I watched a lot of Disney movies as a kid -- and I watched a large amount of those "dangerous" Disney Princess movies with fake-feminist heroines and dashing heroes who vanquish the evil and save the day while the princess does little-to-nothing. And even though I turned out fine -- I'd like to think I'm an independent woman and not a passive damsel-in-distress, some of the more insidious messages still sunk in -- particularly the ones about Happily Ever Afters.

Which brings me back to Frozen II. Because much like Ralph Breaks the Internet, Frozen II is a movie about what happens after the supposed Happily Ever After. The former explores the evolving nature of friendships -- how people, and thus relationships, change, and how that's okay. The latter takes a more introspective look, but given that Frozen is, for all intents and purposes, a part of the Disney princess franchise, I think that that's all the more important.

Yes, it's true that Frozen II is darker, both in tone and content. There are fewer jokes, fewer light-hearted moments, fewer silly interactions. Part of that is a benefit of the film being a sequel: we already know Kristoff is goofy in his voicing Sven; we already know Anna is adorkable and relatable and clumsy. But it's also a result of the characters growing -- and, as the few Tweets I did read pointed out -- the audience is growing too. Kristoff is preoccupied with proposing (more on that in a minute) and Anna is less clumsy, more mature -- but still relatable. The reasoning is that the same little kids who saw Frozen the first time and endlessly belted out "Let It Go" are older now, but the thing about Disney movies is that they're cyclical: there will always be new little kids watching Frozen and then moving on to Frozen II. And they may watch them back to back or in the span of a few days -- they may not wait years in between. But the messages will still be there.

As we were leaving, my husband asked me what I thought, asked if it was everything I thought it would be. I replied that, no, it wasn't at all what I thought it would be, but it was better: it was the Disney Princess movie I needed to see as a little girl.

The moment that resonated with me the most was, interestingly, an Anna moment. (If you know me at all, you know my love for Elsa, based largely on her character development in the first film when she makes a deeply personal decision that flies in the face of what's expected of her; see the anecdote above for why.) But there's the moment for Anna, when everything seems lost -- Olaf is fading, which has is particularly gut-wrenching for Anna, because if Olaf is fading, it's because Elsa's magic is fading too -- and she has hit -- literally -- rock bottom. She's curled up on the floor, grief-stricken in a way that's much more poignant and mature than the end of "Do You Want To Build A Snowman." Her song -- and Kristen Bell, whom I already adored, emotes this song so. damn. well -- captures a very relatable feeling in much the same way that "Let It Go" did:

I've seen dark before / But not like this  This is cold / this is empty / this is numb 

The life I knew is over / the lights are out   Hello darkness / I'm ready to succumb 

As someone who's struggled with anxiety and some moments of depression, I cannot tell you just how important this moment was: here is a young woman -- a DISNEY PRINCESS -- struggling with something real. Not a fairy-tale obstacle, or a Disney villain, but real loss, real grief, real confusion, real despair.
[*Edit: I know full well that fairy tales often deal with very dark and very real emotions/themes. But they're often short, and often abstract -- the power of the visual medium combined with a concrete depiction is what I'm going for here.]

I'm not saying that past Disney princesses don't feel, don't suffer -- of course they do. But (1) they're usually presented as the melodramatic, histrionic emotions of a teenage girl -- how many of the Disney princess run away sobbing and then fling themselves down to cry? I can think of at least 6 off the top of my head -- and (2) the short span of a children's film doesn't allow for complex character development. My first thought was Rapunzel: here is a girl who suffers 17 years of emotional abuse from her kidnapper-posing-as-her-mother and, with the exception of her freak-out when she leaves the tower for the first time, seems largely okay. Now, I love Tangled, and I think it's actually a pretty progressive Disney Princess film that does a lot of things well, but you can't spend time accurately reflecting Rapunzel's emotional journey because pacing, because target audience, because because because.

But in a sequel? When we already know Anna? We can absolutely give those emotions their due. We can show a Disney princess struggling, grieving, despairing, feeling. And, yes, it's still a Disney movie, so things are going to resolve rather quickly: it's still a fairy tale with a happy ending. But what does Anna do next?

I can't find my direction / I'm all alone  

The only star that guided me was you  

How to rise from the floor  

When it's not you I'm rising for? 

Just do the next right thing / Take a step, step again 

It is all that I can do / The next right thing 

She gets up,  puts one foot in front of the other, and focuses on the "next right thing." The power of that message...of that visual...? I can't know for sure how Little Me would have reacted in the summer of 2012 if she'd had that message repeated for her over and over again in her formative years, but I truly believe that it would have been a powerful touchstone for her to draw on in that moment. Hell, it's a powerful touchstone for me to draw on now.

Another thought, a little less coherent than my ones on Anna. One of the other comments I had heard floated around was that the music wasn't as good, wasn't as catchy and was basically musical exposition. Which, for the record, I emphatically disagree with. My concern, after listening to "Into the Unknown" the first few times was that it wouldn't be as "universal" as "Let It Go." That is, "Let It Go" became the phenomenon it did because of the universality of the message: the concept of breaking free of the expectations placed on you by others to be true to yourself was taken up by so many as an anthem of personal empowerment -- rightfully so. And I wasn't sure if "Into The Unknown" would have the same universality... BUT. As I was watching the song within the context of the film, I began to rethink that position. After all, what happens after that moment of freeing empowerment? What if, after you've changed, your situation, your place needs to change? And what if after such a big upheaval or transformation you stay out of comfort, out of complacency, out of fear?

I'm sorry, secret siren / but I'm blocking out your calls I've had my adventure / I don't need something new I'm afraid of what I'm risking if I follow you...

Paired with "Show Yourself" -- and I think together the two songs are the new "Let It Go" if you can even have another "Let It Go" -- I think the two songs tap into something just as deep and universal. I don't think the songs are "exposition" -- I think they're the logical sequel to "Let It Go."

I also think that this story -- and the music -- works because of the presence of women. I think Jennifer Lee and Kristen Anderson-Lopez helped this story succeed by ensuring that it was, at the heart of it, a female story. This is a story, to me, that speaks deeply to what it means to find yourself as a young woman and the pressures you face*, both external and internal. And that's a nuanced story that the brand hasn't yet had a chance to tell.** (Logically, I feel that Moana comes closest -- which makes sense, since it's the newest.)

*That's (part of) the reason, I think, why Kristoff is so wonderful. I've seen headlines with his lines about asking Anna what she needs (instead of assuming) and his declaration that "his love is not fragile." It's important for boy viewers as well, but works "better" for me than, say, Flynn's saving Rapunzel at the end of Tangled (largely because he did An Important Thing With Important Consequences without getting her consent).
**Again, I think Tangled comes pretty close to this -- and definitely tells an equally important story in the TV show about how "happily ever after" doesn't mean perfect. But the feature-films will always have more power imbued in them, and their messages will be, I think, more far-reaching and have the potential for greater impact.

All of this to say: Frozen II  is a movie I will happily show my son and daughter many times, because I think it's one they need to see. So thank you, Disney. Thank you for telling this story.

PS: I have thoughts on a much less significant, but equally important, aspect of this movie that I want to circle back to.