BEFORE: That's four films crossed off my Netflix list this week, now I've got to shift over to Disney Plus for a few films. Yesterday's film and today's film share so many stars with the films from my romance chain that I'm very glad I schedule those films mostly in February, so I'm not tempted to jump between live-action romance and animation intended for kids, I'd risk thematic whiplash. When I separate out the animation films and watch them in little chains of their own, it just feels like I'm more on point, and the linking usually works out between them. And when I finish this chain of 6 or 7 cartoons, there won't be many animated films left on my list, just a few obscure ones like "The Red Turtle" and "I Lost My Body" that present difficult linking challenges. So I'm not sure when I can get to those.
But let's stick with the easy linking, while it holds. Josh Gad carries over from "The Angry Birds Movie 2", and so does one other actor.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Frozen" (Movie #1,853)
THE PLOT: Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven leave Arendelle to travel to an ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land. They set out to find the origin of Elsa's powers in order to save their kingdom.
AFTER: I think I liked this sequel a little more than the original "Frozen" film, even though I may end up giving it the same score in the end. They didn't have to waste time introducing all the characters, so there was more space to really get into the backstory of their parents, and figure out where Elsa's powers might come from. Do we really even know for sure that their parents are dead? The rule of thumb for comic books and soap operas is that if you don't see a body, the characters aren't dead, they're just gone for dramatic effect. And even then, if there's a body to be buried, in comic books that's just a stumbling block, the next writer can just say that was a clone that died, or use a magic wishing stone to bring them back, or say the hero was just in hibernation while some alien implant healed them. Since we haven't seen Agnarr and Iduna (they get names in this film, which could be important later) except in flashback, there's a good chance they could come back in "Frozen III".
Who Queen Iduna is and where she came from is important here, and I figured it out well before "Frozen II" started asking the questions. But it's a nice twist, involving the people of Northuldra, who live in the land up North, and believe in a magical island called Ahtohallan which is even further north. But though everyone knows where it is, nobody ever goes there - so when Elsa hears a voice calling her from up north, all the main characters pack up for a long wagon-ride. And the two sisters swear they're going to get to the bottom of this mystery together, no matter what, except that's not the way it goes down. Elsa pulls the same "diva" move that she did in the first film and pushes everyone away from her so she can follow the voice herself. Anna, the more sensible, grounded one, pretty much does the same thing with Kristoff, her boyfriend, by leaving with Elsa and not telling him. So nobody really learns from their past mistakes, and ends up in trouble again.
What they find in Northuldra is a section of forest that the spirits have surrounded in a mist, and a group of warriors from both peoples has been stuck in there, fighting the same fight for the last 34 years. Elsa's new power, based on the suggestion from Olaf that "water has memory" involves making ice sculptures that allow her to see past events, which is awfully convenient if she's trying to learn about the mistakes that her grandfather made. It seems he gave the other tribe a gift that turned out to be harmful to their lands, even though it appeared helpful, and the four elemental spirits were not happy that people on earth were fighting and not living in harmony. Why the spirits waited 34 years for the right opportunity to threaten the city of Arendelle is still something of a mystery, though.
Somebody clearly wanted "Into the Unknown" to be another big hit like "Let It Go" was, and even though in some ways it feels like the same song with different lyrics, for some reason I don't think it managed to connect with the audience in the same way. Personally I think "Lost in the Woods" was a better song, it sounded a bit like a ballad that Chicago or REO Speedwagon forgot to release. Still, it was better than "The Next Right Thing", which felt like a real time-killer when Anna didn't know what to do next, so she sang a song about not knowing what to do, which itself prevented her from doing that next thing, ironically. Just do it, you don't have to sing a song about every little thing you're about to do!
But overall, DisneyCo. succeeded in producing a sequel that moves the franchise's storyline ahead in a logical but still unforeseen way, transforming most of the characters again in a positive direction, while fostering a suggestion to kids that it might be a good idea to live in a way that's more harmonious with the planet. While not specifically addressing climate change (that might have been a little too preachy and on-point), there's the promotion of the old outdoor ways over the urban method of civilization, and I think that's ultimately a good thing. Get outside, kids, and get some fresh air, umm, just as soon as the pandemic is over.
Also starring the voices of Kristen Bell (last seen in "How to Be a Latin Lover"), Idina Menzel (last seen in "Uncut Gems"), Jonathan Groff (last seen in "American Sniper"), Sterling K. Brown (also last heard in "The Angry Birds Movie 2"), Evan Rachel Wood (last heard in "Strange Magic"), Alfred Molina (last heard in "Ralph Breaks the Internet"), Martha Plimpton (last seen in "I Shot Andy Warhol"), Jason Ritter (last seen in "Happy Endings"), Rachel Matthews, Jeremy Sisto (last heard in "Ferdinand"), Ciaran Hinds (last seen in "The Debt"), Alan Tudyk (also last heard in "Ralph Breaks the Internet"), Paul Briggs (last heard in "Big Hero 6"), Santino Fontana (last seen in "Sisters"), Hadley Gannaway, Livvy Stubenrauch (last heard in "Frozen"), Mattea Conforti, Eva Bella, Delaney Rose Stein, Jackson Stein (last heard in "Zootopia"), Aurora
RATING: 6 out of 10 rounds of charades
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