Frozen II (2019)

There's a sequence in Frozen II where Elsa rides a water horse through crashing tidal waves, the ocean surging and frothing around her in breathtaking detail, light catching the spray just so, the animation so fluid and alive that you genuinely forget you're watching a cartoon. It's stunning. I sat up a little straighter. And then the moment passed, and the film went back to being exactly what it is: a gorgeous, hollow shell of a sequel that mistakes spectacle for storytelling.

I'll give it this much. On a purely technical level, Frozen II is remarkable. The leap forward from the original in terms of animation quality is undeniable. The enchanted forest is lush and eerie, the elemental spirits are beautifully conceived, and the colour work throughout is rich and intricate, effects that border on photorealistic in places. Disney's animators have done extraordinary work here. I just wish the writers had matched them.

Because beneath all that gloss, the film is empty. The story meanders through myth and half-formed memory without ever committing to a clear purpose. "Go north" (or east, or wherever the wind is pointing this week) is not a plot. It's a placeholder. For long stretches, the film is just characters walking, sometimes literally, from one vague revelation to the next, none of which land with any real weight. The mystery of Elsa's powers, where they come from and why she has them, is something fans have wondered about since the first film. The answers we get here are underwhelming. There's lore about enchanted forests and a colonial wrong that needs righting, but it's introduced, gestured at, and then tidied away without genuine depth or consequence. It feels like the outline of a more interesting film.

The songs were always going to be under pressure. "Let It Go" is one of those rare animated moments that transcended the film it came from, and I reviewed the original with a real appreciation for how well its music served the story. Frozen II's soundtrack is competently performed, but it's missing the spark. "Into the Unknown" has one good hook and coasts on it, and nothing else in the score comes close to matching even the second-tier songs from the first film. The humour, which was one of the original's genuine strengths, falls flat here almost every time it reaches for a laugh.

What stings most is what's happened to Anna and Elsa. In the first film, the tension between them, one shut out, one shutting herself away, gave the story its emotional engine. Here, they're reduced to archetypes. Elsa is the mystical loner following a siren call she can't explain. Anna is the loyal, fearless sister who believes in her. They react. They don't really grow. By the end, I wasn't sure what either of them had genuinely learned or changed, beyond having been to some woods and sorted out a dam.

And look, this isn't a film that offends. It's not badly made, not mean-spirited, not cynical in the way some cash-grab sequels are. It's just entirely, stubbornly forgettable. Scale is not the same thing as substance. A grander canvas doesn't automatically make for a richer story, and Frozen II seems to have confused the two at every turn. Wind, fire, water, earth, and very little else. The elements are all present, the soul is absent.

Two stars. Beautiful to look at. Frustrating to sit through. A step forward in animation and two steps back in everything that made the first film worth watching.

Rating: ★★  | Year: 2019  | Watched: 2025-07-31

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus · fuboTV
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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