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Frozen II
It's a feast for the eyes and ears, but 2019's Frozen II is another victim of "Sequel-itis"...trying so hard to be bigger and better than the first film, that it bears little or no resemblance to the first film.
In this sequel to the 2013 film, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel), Anna (voiced Kristen Bell), Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff), Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad), and Kristoff's faithful reindeer steed Sven travel to an enchanted forest in order to save it but also encounter the origin of Elsa's powers in the process.
It's troubling when a sequel has to spend time rehashing the first film, but what's more troubling in a sequel is when it doesn't recall the first film in any way. Usually when watching a sequel, images from the first film will flash through my head, but nothing about the first film is recalled here. I would go as far to say that entertainment can be found in this film even if you never saw the first one and I'm not so sure whether or not that's a good thing.
Don't get it twisted though...there's a whole lot to enjoy here. The film is visually breathtaking, offering countless stunning cinematic photographs that rivet the viewer to the screen. The visually arresting look of this film is hard to resist; unfortunately, the story that accompanies the visuals is, as usual with contemporary Disney fare, overly complex and makes keeping up with what's going on a little taxing on the brain.
The film eventually becomes an overlong commercial for female empowerment, appropriate during "Me too" I suppose, but a primary theme of the first film was the love between these sisters, despite the fact that Elsa is initially introduced as almost the villain of the piece. The idea of the first film seemed to be that Elsa and Anna could accomplish anything as long as they work together. Sadly, in this film, Elsa strikes out her own and she and the other principals are separated for the majority of the running time, not to mention some hard to swallow obstacles to safety and freedom, including a large mass of rocks that come to life and start acting like transformers. The film remains a lot more entertaining when it remains simple. I loved the opening scenes of the sisters, Kristoff, and Olaf playing charades, something I had never seen animated characters do before.
I did love the Robert Lopez/Kristen Anderson-Lopez score, who also scored the first film, as well as CoCo. The highlights for me were "Some Things Never Change", "Show Yourself", "When I am Older" and the Oscar nominated "Into the Unknown", but if the truth be told, the musical highlight for me was a duet between Kristoff and Sven called "Lost in the Woods", mounted in the style of an old fashioned MTV music video, that stopped the show for me. As far as sequels go, there have been a lot worse, but there's enough going on here in terms of visuals and music to hold interest, but its lack of connection to the first film dilutes its power.
It's a feast for the eyes and ears, but 2019's Frozen II is another victim of "Sequel-itis"...trying so hard to be bigger and better than the first film, that it bears little or no resemblance to the first film.
In this sequel to the 2013 film, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel), Anna (voiced Kristen Bell), Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff), Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad), and Kristoff's faithful reindeer steed Sven travel to an enchanted forest in order to save it but also encounter the origin of Elsa's powers in the process.
It's troubling when a sequel has to spend time rehashing the first film, but what's more troubling in a sequel is when it doesn't recall the first film in any way. Usually when watching a sequel, images from the first film will flash through my head, but nothing about the first film is recalled here. I would go as far to say that entertainment can be found in this film even if you never saw the first one and I'm not so sure whether or not that's a good thing.
Don't get it twisted though...there's a whole lot to enjoy here. The film is visually breathtaking, offering countless stunning cinematic photographs that rivet the viewer to the screen. The visually arresting look of this film is hard to resist; unfortunately, the story that accompanies the visuals is, as usual with contemporary Disney fare, overly complex and makes keeping up with what's going on a little taxing on the brain.
The film eventually becomes an overlong commercial for female empowerment, appropriate during "Me too" I suppose, but a primary theme of the first film was the love between these sisters, despite the fact that Elsa is initially introduced as almost the villain of the piece. The idea of the first film seemed to be that Elsa and Anna could accomplish anything as long as they work together. Sadly, in this film, Elsa strikes out her own and she and the other principals are separated for the majority of the running time, not to mention some hard to swallow obstacles to safety and freedom, including a large mass of rocks that come to life and start acting like transformers. The film remains a lot more entertaining when it remains simple. I loved the opening scenes of the sisters, Kristoff, and Olaf playing charades, something I had never seen animated characters do before.
I did love the Robert Lopez/Kristen Anderson-Lopez score, who also scored the first film, as well as CoCo. The highlights for me were "Some Things Never Change", "Show Yourself", "When I am Older" and the Oscar nominated "Into the Unknown", but if the truth be told, the musical highlight for me was a duet between Kristoff and Sven called "Lost in the Woods", mounted in the style of an old fashioned MTV music video, that stopped the show for me. As far as sequels go, there have been a lot worse, but there's enough going on here in terms of visuals and music to hold interest, but its lack of connection to the first film dilutes its power.