Frozen was a really good movie, great characters, great song, a plot that played with your expectations without ever being too clever or confusing.
I heard mixed reviews of Frozen 2 and went to see it with the Family over the weekend. On the plus side it was nice to spend time with the characters from the first one and it was beautifully animated.
In the minus side the plot never made sense, never approached making sense, never was on the same continent as making sense. I have no idea who the voice was, how a dam can undermine a whole people’s land, which of the mythical creatures are good or bad, how the soldiers stayed alive after the battle that long, what was going on on the island, what the mystical forces knew or what their motivations were, etc.
I think the movie implied heavily, if not outright stated, that the voice was the girls’ mother’s spirit.
Explaining how the magic works isn’t something that is ever going to be fulfilling, because the point of magic is that it doesn’t need an explanation, but I presumed that the slowing of the flow of water somehow damaged the delicate balance of the enchanted forest. Why the mystical forest people didn’t understand that (but Elsa’s grandfather did) this would be the case is definitely a point of contention, but Disney likes leaving some holes for people to fill in plots on their own.
The mythical creatures were all just wild creatures. Sure, the little salamander guy and “Gale” were friendly at first, while the kelpie was aggressive, but that’s the case with any wild animals: part of being wild is that their reactions to humans are not going to be predictable. I don’t think there’s a “good” or “bad” there.
As far as the soldiers go: well, old Mean King Grandpa took his entire army out there, and there were only five of them left by the time the girls found them. While it’s pretty unlikely that anyone would be able to keep their uniforms looking as good as they did for the 40-odd year time gap between Dad being a 12 year old and the girls going out there, it’s not like it’s been an impossibly long period of time.
I don’t think it was as straightforward a plot as, say, Snow White, I don’t think it’s any more weird than most modern Disney/Pixar films. They do seem to put a bunch of air in their plots that’s patched over by magic, but that seems to just make the movie more fun for some adults forced to watch these things a dozen times to speculate on (you should hear my wife go on about how the little trolls are evil.)
Nitpick: All of the elemental creatures were aggressive at first. Gale had picked up the whole party at one point and wouldn’t let Elsa down until she got very aggressive with her powers. The salamander and Elsa had a pretty good battle too before the salamander realized that it liked cooling down on Elsa’s ice and snow.
Yeah, it’s an objectively bad movie from a plotting standpoint. I’m not even sure I get what the overall theme is, except maybe the dominant hegemony owes it to first peoples to risk its own destruction in the attempt to make reparations? Which is maybe a bit much for a kids movie.
I liked lots of the individual pieces but the movie as a whole really doesn’t gel. It’s obvious to me that they had no idea where to go for a sequel. I’m really confused why the mother was so baffled by Elsa’s magic in Frozen. Seems like she should have recognized it immediately.
Points for possibly the darkest song lyric in a disney movie: “Hello darkness, I’m ready to succumb”
That part made sense, I think. All her life magic was something that the forest had and that people could take advantage of and use. Magic wasn’t something that people had.
I thought they were saying that there are 4 magic spirits, land, water, wind, and fire. Then it felt like water, wind, and fire were just wild creatures who needed to be fought and tamed and had no real power or intent. Then they said there was a fifth element which was Elsa and maybe she was calling herself. All the spirits went from trying to kill her to being Elsa’s pets in about 2 minutes of combat. I never understood why they were trying to kill her in the first place. Especially if they were calling her.
The dam was bizarre, how can Arendell build a dam that size with a population of a couple thousand people and how was it hurting the forest people? Why did the rock people become friendly as soon as the dam was gone, they were trying to kill Anna moments before.
The Grandfather and most of the forest people died in the battle and then the survivors live next to each other for forty years? That must have been awkward for the first couple years.
I thought it made a decent amount of sense, with some plot holes/oversights…but you’ll find that in any movie.
Anna and Elsa’s Grandfather was the king and made friends with the forest people who had magic. He was skeptical of them (and magic) from the beginning, so he concocted a plan to get them before they could get him. It started with the building of a dam to bridge the gap and make them friends. The forest people realized that this angered the forest spirits (who they weren’t a part of, but knew of/respected) because damming the water meant killing the forest.
The forest people tried to talk about this with the Arendelle king, but he saw that as the perfect time to get the forest people’s elder alone and ambush him. He did and that led to all of them fighting, killing most everyone on either side. The forest then said “fuck all these people” and walled up, keeping the survivors inside except for A&E’s mom who used her magic to save their dad and (presumably) they escaped to the city.
Fast Forward a bunch of years and A&E are born and since Elsa has powers (like her mom…unbeknownst to anyone) her parents go on a goodwill mission to appease the elemental spirits for some reason. Instead of reaching their destination, the water horsey upends them, kills them and moves their ship for other reasons.
(Now I’m definitely guessing)
I think once Elsa’s powers became known/matured (she is like 20 something after all) her mom’s spirit begins to call out to her because mommy knows that Elsa has the power to make everything right. But it’s Anna who does because of plot reasons.
The one thing this movie really does is lessen the trolls’ point in the first movie, but I also admit it’s been a while since I’ve seen the first movie and might not remember enough details.