FROZEN II
Directors: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
imdb
FROZEN II
Directors: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
imdb
I am seeing this tonight. I am hyped.
I'm also seeing this tonight. Not super hyped, cautiously optimistic, mostly wanting to get it out of the way, haha.Quoting TGM (view post)
last four:
black widow - 8
zero dark thirty - 9
the muse - 7
freaky - 7
now reading:
lonesome dove - larry mcmurtry
Letterboxd
The Harrison Marathon - A Podcast About Harrison Ford
God, I can’t remember the last time I went into a movie this stupidly excited for it, and it actually met my ridiculous expectations of it. Loved this. Loved. This.
Finally got my review written up, which I should be posting either later tonight or tomorrow. But for now, 2010s Walt Disney Animation Studios films ranked:
Frozen
Frozen II
Zootopia
Tangled
Moana
Big Hero 6
Wreck-It Ralph
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Winnie the Pooh
Thoughts on the movie?Quoting Lazlo (view post)
It was fine! Beautiful to look at, of course, but the story was a bit of a jumble. The run from Elsa crossing the ocean, singing "Show Yourself," through Anna singing "The Next Right Thing" (my favorite song of the bunch) is pretty spectacular and really the high point of the movie emotionally and musically. Olaf continues to be an annoyance and the when-will-Kristof-get-a-damn-moment-to-propose? plot is super tired. Mid-tier Disney animation (taking the whole 80 years into account). Also might have been negatively affected by the three 20-something bros sitting behind me, 2 of which showed up 10 minutes late and needed to talk to their friend about what they'd missed as well as needing a recap of the first movie. Lots of chit-chat. Ugh. Anyway, didn't love it, though it has some pretty high highs, didn't hate it.Quoting TGM (view post)
last four:
black widow - 8
zero dark thirty - 9
the muse - 7
freaky - 7
now reading:
lonesome dove - larry mcmurtry
Letterboxd
The Harrison Marathon - A Podcast About Harrison Ford
Your complaints ring consistent with others I’ve heard. I of course wasn’t bothered by those things, but I’m glad you still enjoyed the movie all the same.
The 2nd time I saw it I had to deal with a chatty audience as well. If that were my first viewing, I fear I would’ve had another La La Land scenario on my hand, where I wouldn’t even be able to enjoy the movie, cause they seriously talked through the entire last third of this things, songs and everything. Very obnoxious, but thankfully all my other viewings have been very well behaved.
You’re not kidding about that stretch of greatness you point out, though. The “Show Yourself” sequence is hands down the best scene I’ve seen in any movie this year, and is quite frankly a contender for scene of the decade at that, IMO. It’s seriously one of the most visually and emotionally beautiful moments I’ve ever seen captured in a movie.
And “The Next Right Thing” floored me with its stark groundedness and Kristen Bell’s emotionally packed performance. Seriously, she sold the hell out of that moment, and gives one of the best performances of the year there, and makes me wish voice work in animated films got taken more seriously for awards consideration.
Glad you liked it so much. It's such a great thing to connect with a movie on that level!Quoting TGM (view post)
last four:
black widow - 8
zero dark thirty - 9
the muse - 7
freaky - 7
now reading:
lonesome dove - larry mcmurtry
Letterboxd
The Harrison Marathon - A Podcast About Harrison Ford
I was thinking of this, and it made me recall Henry Gale’s reaction to Kubo and the Two Strings:Quoting Lazlo (view post)
http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showth...l=1#post559747
I feel like I definitely understand how that movie made him felt back then.
Also curious what he would think about this one, seeing how he was among the few here who was rather favorable towards the first movie. Whatever happened to him I wonder?
Haven't really thought too much about this since I saw it, but I enjoyed it for its runtime. The animation is breathtakingly gorgeous, I liked the character arcs for Anna and Elsa, and the songs are good, with "Into The Unknown" being the best of the bunch, although I also got a kick out of Kristoff's 80s love ballad (during which the 80s-style editing and visuals had me in stitches). Some recent trends in Disney's work make their presence here that end up being detrimental to its narrative like the way it plays its ending safe as well as the lack of a villain, but overall, I was entertained.
Also, when our heroes walked through the giant wall of mist leading into the enchanted forest, I got serious Annihilation vibes to the point where now I want an R-rated Annihilation remake with Disney princesses.
Last edited by Ivan Drago; 12-22-2019 at 10:46 PM.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
615 Film
Letterboxd
Watched this again today, and I can't help but feel like the poetic way in which the sisters' stories are told in the last third of this movie is seriously master class stuff, especially since it's all done without ever really drawing attention to itself and what it's doing. But the movie makes the claim that they're both two sides of the same bridge, and that's certainly shown in the ways in which their journeys play out and parallel one another, working in opposite manners towards the same endgoal:
[]
While not quite the same thing (or rather, not the same thing at all, in fact!), the current rumor is that Disney is looking to make a more book faithful adaptation of The Snow Queen into live action, which would of course be telling a much darker story than we've become accustomed to, so that could possibly be interesting.Quoting Ivan Drago (view post)
But yes, this too.
My kneejerk reaction is this is the saddest and laziest attempt for a cash grab in the history of Hollywood. One of the worst Disney movies I've ever seen.
... :\
I can’t even comprehend having that reaction to this movie. Explain, please.
Last edited by TGM; 02-19-2020 at 11:14 AM.
I’m convinced that given time, when people start revisiting the movies from this era of Disney animation in a decade or so, and they get around to Frozen II in those revisits, this movie will finally get the respect it deserves as people come to see it truly is one of the best things the studio has ever put out.
I am prepared to defend this statement.
Last edited by TGM; 02-19-2020 at 11:57 AM.
https://letterboxd.com/dukefrukem/film/frozen-ii/Quoting TGM (view post)
Preface: I didn't like Frozen, and since this film doesn't come close to matching the epic emotional and soul touching song as "Let it Go", it automatically denotes this as being an inferior sequel. That is all even before taking into account the script which doesn't really have a clear villain or threat. The journey is there, but to what purpose is a mystery until the finale, which makes everything up until then feel confusing.
The plot feels made up as we are strung along, with no rules or boundaries to be threatened or excited for. Sure there are large rock, fire and water spirits that all feel like they want to kill our characters in the most violent way possible... of course that is all before we are made to realize just how cute, innocent and misunderstood they are. The rock monsters stop trying to kill Anna when it's convenient for the script. If the spirits wanted the dam broken so bad, why didn't they just break the dam themselves?? Because symbolism!
Kristoff appears out of nowhere for the finale in a very deus ex machina like fashion, after he is forgotten about midway through the film. That's a common theme throughout the film- no characters want to stick together to figure things out. Everything needs to be done solo to manufacture drama when there clearly isn't any: e.g. the fire spirit setting it's own forest on fire.
Then Elsa randomly dies by.... frozen? Why? How? Because she learned the truth? What rule are we supposed to follow here? Elsa then sends a frozen telegram through the air to Anna who (somehow) concludes that the dam needs to be broken. Pretty big leap knowing your entire town will be destroyed....
The songs are all mostly terrible, depressing and unfun. Where is the lively pick me up song? And after everything Elsa has gone through from the first film, she has learned nothing... and still hopelessly trapped in our way when she (again) blames herself for her parents untimely death.
The worst Disney movie in the last 30 years.
I rather like Trans statement here that sums up the film even more briefly.
"The product of a studio looking to extend their brand, rather than a filmmaker with a story to tell."
Got it ranked 25th right now (just in front of Song of the South) with 30 more films to rank.Quoting TGM (view post)
...This is the kind of flashback-inducing I was recalling in the Joker thread.Quoting TGM (view post)
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5
I keep hearing people make the complaint about the lack of a villain, but I don't see why that's an issue? Just because most Disney animated films have clearly defined villains doesn't mean that they all have to have one. Hell, in the first movie, the villain was literally an emotion (Hans is not that film's main villain. Here's merely a player in the game, but the true villain of the film is Elsa's fear). And this movie plays right into that. In real life, we oftentimes don't have actual villains in the form of people how act as our sole obstacle to be tackled. Unexpected situations arise, life happens, our emotional response to these issues happen, nature happens, our history catches back up with us as something to overcome in order to better ourselves. And that's all fully reflective in this film.
And our characters are just as much in the dark. Elsa's being called out to, and as soon as she accepts the call, nature pushes them on their way. And as they go along the journey, they discover more and more why they were called out there. It's a mystery, just as much to the characters as it is to us, the viewer. Why do you need to know all the answers up front? Isn't a mystery more rewarding if the secrets are revealed gradually along the journey?
Besides which, the answers are all there, and they're there all along, just presented in vague manners which don't make them immediately obvious, but which becomes more apparent in subsequent viewings, and which in turn makes multiple viewings a more rewarding experience, seeing just how much of it was right in front of our faces the whole time without us even realizing it.
It was man who created the problem, so it needed to be man who fixed the problem. The spirits revolted in response to man's petty squabbles, so it was man who needed to come to this conclusion, see the error in their ways, and fix things. Otherwise, man learns no lesson, which is precisely the point of the issue at hand.
However, amongst the fighting between the Northuldra and the Arandelians, Ahtohallan saw Iduna, a Northuldran, aiding her enemy, Agnarr, then prince of Arandelle. Ahtohallan saw the potential there for man to be able to be peaceful with one another in this act, and rewarded them with Elsa, the one capable of ending the petty squabbles and bridging the gap between both people.
As to the spirits being "cute and misunderstood", again, that was the point of Elsa. Her powers grant her the ability to tame the spirits. They don't stop attacking the people just for the sake of it, they stop it because they acknowledge her, and come to recognize who she is as such, the fifth spirit being called upon by Ahtohallan.
Don't see how Kristoff appearing at the end is deus ex machina. Should he have just remained in that same spot with the reindeer the whole time? He mentions he knows the woods, knows where they started out for, something related to the dam, and was heading back to that general vicinity. Makes sense to me.
And when else does this happen in the movie, to where you refer to it as a common theme? It's not. Anna doesn't want to lose Elsa, but in her desperation to keep Elsa from putting herself in harms way, she in turn keeps putting herself (Anna) in danger. And unlike Elsa, Anna doesn't have powers to protect herself in these situations. So when Elsa pushes Anna away at the end, she's doing exactly as Anna has been. She's protecting Anna from herself. They did try talking it out. Anna's emotions got the better of her, and she wouldn't see where Elsa was coming from. So, Elsa takes matters into her own hands and makes it so Anna can't follow along and, as such, put herself in harm's way.
As to the fire spirit attacking them, they've been attacking them since they first appeared. They see someone's actually been able to break through the mist, and assume it's another threat against the Enchanted Forest. It's only after Elsa is able to prove herself and tame the spirits with her powers that they then calm down.
This is established from the very first scene in the movie, and throughout the rest of it. "Dive down deep into the sound, but not too far or you'll be drowned." They ponder upon this meaning when she speaks at the campfire with Honeymaren, and it's even ominously repeated to her as she gets closer and closer to the truth. She knew the risks, and has been told of the risks since she was a child. And yet she went after it anyways. This rule is firmly established by this point in the film.
As to how she's Frozen, it's because Ahtohallan is the source of her powers, and as is being proven here, also the one entity capable of turning those powers against Elsa.
She literally breaks it down in this very scene how she came to this conclusion. She's even torn up about it in the moment. The dam was a trick. The villagers were forced out of the village, because the dam, the symbol of man's hatred for one another, needs to be crumpled, and doing so would put the villagers in harm's way.
Lost in the Woods and The Next Right Thing you can make an argument for being depressing (but unfun for Lost in the Woods??). The same can't be said for Show Yourself or Into the Unknown. How? These are some of the most uplifting songs to come out of a Disney film. And while The Next Right Thing may be depressing, it's also empowering, and sends an incredible and motivating message. It's one of the most powerful songs lyrically, emotionally, and in terms of performance in Disney's whole lineup.
The songs in this movie are the furthest thing I can think of when I think of the word "terrible".
Not true at all. She's learned to love, to let others into her life. She's learned to embrace her powers, not fear them. But she still has anxieties. She still has lingering fears. That stuff doesn't just go away entirely, not after you've held onto them for most of your life like she has. A part of that will always remain a part of you to some extent. That's realistic character development, and this is as accurate a depiction of mental illness as I can imagine.
And she learns her parents left for the ship voyage that ultimately killed them in search of answers specifically about her. How would she not blame herself after such a revelation?
From a pure quality standpoint, it's the best Disney movie since the Disney Renaissance of the 90s.
If that were even mildly true, we would've seen this film closer to around 2016, not in 2019. You don't spend 6 years on a cash grab. If you wanna make that argument for the short films that released in the meantime, be my guest, but this was a film that has mountains of heart and passion behind it, and a true love and respect for story and character. And listening to the filmmakers talk, it was clear that they were urged to come up with a sequel, but it's also clear that they wanted to make sure that they didn't just blindly move forward with just anything, and waited until they had a story that was truly worth telling, and which did the characters justice. And this movie was precisely that.
Quoting Peng (view post)
Replace villain with antagonist. Every story needs one. Otherwise the audience is blind to ultimate goal.Quoting TGM (view post)
9 years between Toy Story 3 and 4.Quoting TGM (view post)
I know. She breaks it down just like how they broke down how to destroy Starkiller Base in the Force Awakens. Hot potato exposition out of thin air!Quoting TGM (view post)