What the critics are saying about ‘Frozen 2’

In the interim between Disney’s final traditionally animated princess flick, The Princess and the Frog (2009), and the overwhelming, current era of Disney+, mystical, CGI-animated female empowerment got the spotlight in both Brave (2012) and Frozen (2013). However, only one of those films got a highly anticipated sequel six years after its release: one starring Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel as duo-female leads, backed by the goofy Josh Gad and Jonathan Groff.

Frozen 2 follows the original’s protagonists, Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and Kristoff, as they journey through an enchanted forest to uncover the truth about Anna and Elsa’s lineage. Frozen‘s directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, song-writing duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and writers Lee and Allison Schroeder reunited to create the sequel, which premieres in theaters on November 22, 2020.

In her review, Mashable’s Angie Han reassures audiences that Frozen 2 “retains so many of the likable elements that made the first Frozen into a smash hit.” But, combined with the film’s new storyline, characters, and original soundtrack, “Frozen 2 seems like it’s doing too much.” 

Read on to see what critics thought of the ambitious sequel to Frozen, the highest grossing animated film of all time for five years after its release.

Frozen 2 has a decidedly different tone than the original film

Christian Holub, Entertainment Weekly

Interestingly, Frozen 2 doubles down on some of the darker elements of the original. After spending Frozen yearning for his own death-by-sunshine, Olaf now openly wonders if anything in the world is permanent. The horrible off-screen death of Anna and Elsa’s parents, already difficult enough to explain to an inquiring child, now becomes a central focus of the plot… Frozen 2 stops just short of letting old things die, but earns kudos for acknowledging that royal families don’t exactly gain their power because of how kind and generous they are.

Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Still, fans of the Disney feature have long clamored for a sequel to the musical charmer, if only to spend more time with a cadre of cute characters (including, of all things, a hammy reindeer and Josh Gad as a sentient snowman who has zero right to be as cute as he is) inside an inventive new world…. Perhaps they should have been careful what they wished for, if only because it’s about to be upended by a fresh new story.

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

The directors—Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck—and writers—Lee and Allison Schroeder—grasp for a new mythos to match the original’s, but come up woefully short. In that striving to justify a sequel, the Frozen team is forced to go bigger, grander, more existential, while still keeping things accessible to children. 

Justin Chang, L.A. Times

Their latest adventure feels darker yet less consequential than the last one; the mythology is somehow both overly complicated and oddly perfunctory.

Peter Debruge, Variety

“Frozen II” is anything but a mindless remake… this gorgeous, glittering reunion of siblings Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) proudly flaunts its own identity, even while taking care to incorporate so much of what worked about the original — like a steady stream of wisecracks from wonderstruck snowperson Olaf (Josh Gad)…

The film’s original soundtrack is fine

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian 

Part of the strangeness of watching Frozen II is wondering if there will be a specific “sequel” to Let It Go, a new number that takes its sentiments forward in some way, and it is simultaneously a mild disappointment and a vague relief that there isn’t, or not exactly, although there are some hummable, catchy tunes.

Matt Goldberg, Collider

Even the songs don’t have that same punch this time around. Songs like “Into the Unknown” and “Lost in the Woods” are certainly catchy, but there’s nothing in here that I think will take the world by storm like “Let It Go”. If anything, songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez kind of play into their weakest aspects with a song from Anna that veers into Randy-Newman-sing-about-what-you’re-doing territory.

Brian Truitt, USA Today

The soundtrack lacks a knockout anthem a la “Let It Go” – another aspect that proves the first movie really was lightning in a bottle…. That said, each character gets a cool signature song. 

Peter Debruge, Variety

In a way, songwriting couple Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez set this challenge for themselves by creating such a memorable Broadway-style soundtrack for the first movie, and here, the first couple songs (including the forgettable “All Is Found”) feel second best… 

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

One might assume… that at least one of these sweaty songs is bound to recapture the old magic. They all sound fine, and are sung with the usual bombast by Idina Menzel (as Elsa) and, finally getting a belter, Kristen Bell (as Anna). And yet… not a half-hour after seeing the movie, I couldn’t call up a single melody.

Parts of the sequel’s plot verge on overtly political

Brian Truitt, USA Today

This “Frozen” doubles down on its own history, as Anna and Elsa find out about hostilities between their royal grandfather and an indigenous clan of people called the Northuldra (cue lots of Native American symbolism and colonialist themes). Also factoring in the fairy tale is a legendary river the sister’s mom (Evan Rachel Wood) sang about when they were kids…. Things were so much simpler when a couple little girls just wanted to build a snowman.

Justin Chang, L.A. Times

There are also the usual unsubtle yet hard-to-dispute messages about the inherent treachery of humankind, with its contempt for the environment and its paralyzing fear of what it does not understand.

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Frozen 2 issues vague, if important, messages about conservation and environmentalism; about respecting indigenous peoples and cultures; and about how growing up is both scary and exciting, urging that realizing nothing is permanent in this or any world should be an encouragement to embrace the more intangibly lasting things, like love.

Matt Goldberg, Collider

The best thing about Frozen II also leads to its worst moment. The film seems concerned about the sins of the past on a societal level, and so the narrative conflict between Northuldra and Arendelle contains a revelation (which I won’t spoil here) that leads to some really interesting questions about what we owe each other for the wrongs of previous generations.

Peter Debruge, Variety

“Frozen II” isn’t obnoxious about its revisionist point of view… though it’s hardly subtle about its millennial-minded politics either… Such themes surely resonate with today’s younger audiences, who, when confronted with issues such as racial inequity and climate change, are being forced to reckon with the sins and shortcomings of previous generations… escapism stops being fun because the adults responsible have started overthinking the politics of it all.

Frozen 2 debuts in theaters on November 22, 2019.