BACKGROUND
Frozen II was released six years after the original film. This gave Disney plenty of time to establish that love of the Frozen franchise, with their merchandising, their visual media, their written media, and, of course, their theme parks.
The people were ready. They were hyped up and ready to go, waiting to be the first people to see Frozen II. And what was that reaction? Amazement, awe, pure joy?
Well, actually, that reaction was mixed.
Some critics did enjoy the film, saying it was a gorgeous film to watch and was technically amazing, with praise also going to the music and the development of the main characters. But alongside this, unlike the original Frozen, there was quite a lot of negativity, mostly around the complicated plot and whether there was a “need” for this story at all.
I remember watching Frozen II at the cinema in 2019, and I really liked it. I was going through a bit of a difficult time around then, so there were moments in the movie that spoke to me, such as the song “Some Things Never Change”, and Anna having to push forward when she feels really down and unable to carry on. It was good to have a Disney film look at more complex and emotional themes, though I am not a child, and I am also not a parent, so I can understand why this “target audience” may not have felt as connected to Frozen II, with the film feeling quite dark at times, and the music being less cheerful and more affecting.
But that’s not to say I think Frozen II is perfect, because I will happily admit that the plot is confusing, especially if you think about it too much; not ideal for any movie! I’ll do my best to explain it, or at least explain how I interpreted it, because there are different explanations to some of the events of Frozen II, depending on who you ask.
PLOT
Frozen II begins with a riff on the opening song from Frozen, “Vuelie”, during its opening titles. But this time, there’s no song about harvesting ice because we go straight into the action, seeing young Anna and Elsa playing “Enchanted Forest” in the castle’s hall. It is some sort of playset Elsa has made out of snow, with lots of snow figures – including Dumbo and Baymax, if you look closely. Their parents, King Agnarr and Queen Iduna – yes, this time they get actual names; how lucky are they! – come into the room to talk about a real enchanted forest, telling them about the one Agnarr saw years ago, very far north of Arendelle. This forest was home to the Northuldra people, non-magical people who live in harmony with nature and the spirits of air, fire, water and earth. King Agnarr visited this land as a child, since his father, King Runeard, had made a treaty with the Northuldra to build a dam in their area. Somehow, a fight broke out between the two groups, with Agnarr being saved and brought back home by an unknown girl. Everyone else either died or was trapped in the forest forever, which became surrounded by a thick mist. King Agnarr tells his daughters that the forest could wake again and bring danger. Queen Iduna tells the girls that Ahtohallan has all the answers of the past, at least that’s what she was told as a child, and sings them a lullaby all about Ahtohallan and its mysterious powers.
We then skip ahead to three years after Elsa’s coronation and the events of Frozen. Elsa is trying to get on with her duties as queen, but keeps hearing a strange voice that seems to be calling her. Anna and a newly permafrost Olaf discuss how things always seem to be changing, yet Anna tells him that some things are forever like their family, friendship, and Arendelle, whilst Kristoff and Sven talk about Kristoff’s plan to propose to Anna. That evening in the castle, it is Family Game Night with the five playing charades. Olaf and Kristoff win, as Elsa becomes disturbed by The Voice again and is unable to keep playing. She goes to her room, leaving Anna and Kristoff alone. Kristoff tries to propose but Anna is too concerned about Elsa and follows her to her bedroom. Anna tries to talk to Elsa about what’s bothering her, but Elsa evades her questions. They sing their mother’s lullaby about Ahtohallan together, before falling asleep.
Suddenly, Elsa is awoken by The Voice again. She thinks it means trouble and tries to ignore it, before deciding to follow it, thinking that it might be able to help her figure out where she belongs. Elsa’s magic begins to show her visions of a forest and spirit elements, like horses and rock giants, showing Elsa where she needs to go first to get answers. Elsa follows The Voice and magic outside. The sky is then filled with diamond-shaped ice shards, symbolising the four natural spirits or elements; Elsa has awoken the spirits who then force all of the people out of Arendelle. Elsa and Anna lead the evacuation to the cliffs. The trolls come to them, with the Troll King, Grand Pabbie, telling them that the spirits are angry, and that a wrong needs to be righted, with the truth needing to be found or there is no future for Arendelle. The five decide to go to the Enchanted Forest to figure out what needs to be done. It’s a long journey there, with Kristoff trying another proposal which goes very wrong.
They arrive at the misted edge of the Enchanted Forest, but the mist pushes them away. Elsa uses her magic to push it back, revealing four stones, one symbolising each spirit. Elsa’s magic then gets them inside, where they are pushed deep into the forest. They see the dam that their grandfather built, with Kristoff telling Anna that if it broke, the water would destroy Arendelle and the fjord it sits on. Olaf is separated from the group and is spooked by the spirits, asking if they are “Samantha” – whoever that is. It is clear the spirits are angry as a huge tornado traps the group. Eventually, only Elsa remains trapped inside. She uses her magic to free herself, but when she does, visions of the past, captured as ice statues, appear in the forest. They see one of their father being saved by a girl of Northuldra.
Then, they find themselves surrounded by the Northuldra tribe and Arendelle soldiers. The two sides are about to fight again but Elsa stops them by making the ground icy. This confuses everyone else, leading Olaf to give them a quick rundown of the events of Frozen and how they got to this point, in his own theatrical way! This doesn’t explain to the Northuldra why someone of Arendelle would be blessed with magic. Unfortunately, Elsa cannot answer that question either. Anna recognises one of the soldiers to be Lieutenant Mattias, from a portrait in the castle; he protected their father when he was a young prince. This little introduction is soon interrupted by the fire spirit, who sets all the forest around them on fire. Anna is told by Elsa to get to safety as everyone else flees – except her, who uses her ice powers to track the spirit down. It turns out the fire spirit is just a little salamander, called Bruni. Bruni likes Elsa’s ice powers and soon calms down, along with the wind spirit, who Olaf nicknames “Gale”. Anna is happy to see Elsa safe, but annoyed that she wasn’t allowed to help. Anna passes Elsa’s mother’s scarf to her, which confuses the Northuldra as that scarf is one of theirs. They see that the ice statue of the girl saving their father wears this same scarf, confirming that their mother was Northuldra and she was the one who saved their father that day.
Anna and Elsa plan to free the forest and the people who have remained trapped there since that fateful day. They are told to rest up for the night before continuing their travels north in the morning, since Earth Giants roam the forest at night. Elsa learns from a young Northuldra woman, Honeymaren, that there is meant to be a fifth spirit to unite the people with the magic of nature. Anna speaks to Lieutenant Mattias more about their father, and Kristoff talks to a young Northuldra man, Ryder, about a great proposal idea, which involves lots and lots of reindeer! They prepare this all through the night, so at sunrise, when they hear someone approaching, Kristoff declares his love to her and proposes marriage – only to find it wasn’t Anna approaching, but the Northuldra chief, Yelena. Yelena tells Kristoff that Anna, Elsa and Olaf have left, and that the tribe is moving on – he may join them. Kristoff is devastated that Anna would leave him, and sticks with the Northuldra tribe.
Away from the forest and travelling north, after some time, Anna, Elsa and Olaf come across a shipwreck. This ship was actually the ship their parents went away on all those years ago when they drowned. It’s not in the Southern Sea as they expected, but seems to have washed in from the Dark Sea, nowhere near where they said they were going. The trio step aboard to figure out what they were doing. They find a map and some notes in the waterproof compartment of the ship. It turns out their parents were trying to get to Ahtohallan, to figure out what Elsa’s powers meant, but that their ship capsized on the way from the stormy, difficult waters. Elsa feels guilty for her parents’ death and decides she must go to Ahtohallan to get the answers. But she wants to go alone. She tricks Anna into hugging her, before conjuring up an ice boat, sending Anna and Olaf backwards, away from her. Anna, and even Olaf, are furious that Elsa would do this to them and put herself in danger. They traverse a rough lake, avoiding the Earth Giants they pass, and end up going down a huge waterfall inside a cave. They get out off the boat and try to find a way out of the cave.
Meanwhile, Elsa is at the Dark Sea. She uses her ice powers to try and navigate the harsh ocean, but is almost drowned by a wave in the process. Under the water, she sees the Nøkk, the water spirit, shaped as a horse, who guards the sea. Eventually, Elsa manages to tame the horse and it allows her to ride across the Dark Sea to Ahtohallan. At Ahtohallan, Elsa is led through the huge glacier by The Voice, as she tries to figure out who she is and what needs to be done to save the forest and Arendelle. Elsa learns that The Voice calling her is actually her mother’s voice and that Elsa was granted powers as a gift from nature because her mother saved her father, the enemy, all those years ago. She also discovers she is the fifth spirit, the one to unite people with the magic of nature. From here, Elsa sees memories from the past appear in front of her: some from her life, some from before she was born. She notices King Runeard and one of his soldiers walking away from the room, and she follows. At this point, the actions of that fateful day play out in front of her: Runeard insists that all soldiers go with him to meet the Northuldra as he is suspicious of them and their connection to the magic of nature. The King is told that the dam is weakening the Northuldra people by the Chief, but he ignores their worries, as that’s exactly what he intended to do, saying that he will meet later to discuss it. The King actually murders the Northuldra Chief when his back is turn, which sparks the conflict between the two sides. At this point, Elsa freezes, sacrificing herself to the depths of Ahtohallan to know the truth. She just manages to send this information to Anna before she appears to freeze to death.
Anna and Olaf see a frozen memory appear to them in the cave: it is of King Runeard attacking the Northuldra Chief. They realise that the dam must’ve been a trick and that to make things right again, the dam must be destroyed – even if that leads to the destruction of the kingdom of Arendelle. That was the reason why the people were forced out the night Elsa awoke the spirits. At this point, Olaf spots an exit from the cave, however, he begins to “flurry away”, because Elsa’s magic cannot be sustained after her death. Anna holds Olaf tight through the night, not wanting him to disappear as well.
The next morning, Anna awakes to find Olaf gone. Now he has gone, Elsa is dead, and she is separated from Kristoff, Anna has nothing left in the world – except knowing that she has to set things right. Pulling herself up out of the cave, and the threat of deep depression, Anna heads towards the Earth Giants and convinces them to follow her to the dam. On the way, she meets up with Kristoff and Sven, who help her get to the dam quickly. When she arrives there, the Arendelle soldiers stand in protection of the dam, saying that this was their order from King Runeard. Anna convinces them that to free them from the forest, the dam must be broken. After some consideration, the guards, starting with Lieutenant Mattias, bang against their shields to encourage the Earth Giants towards the dam. Anna gets them to throw their boulders at the dam; Anna is saved by Mattias as the dam breaks under her. Once the dam breaks, a symbol of the fifth spirit appears in the sky, and Elsa unfreezes. Using the Nøkk, she rides over to Arendelle on the flood waters. She reaches Arendelle in time to block the tidal wave of water with her ice, and pushes it back. The people rejoice from the cliffs as they see their home saved. Elsa then rides back towards the forest. At the forest, the mist has finally cleared after 34 years, the world is in harmony, and Kristoff and Anna are reunited again. Suddenly, they see something coming towards them from the sea: it’s Elsa; she’s alive. Anna is relieved, and to top it off, Elsa tells her that Arendelle was not destroyed by the flood. Elsa then revives Olaf, and Kristoff finally proposes to Anna, who accepts gladly. Elsa tells the others that she is the fifth spirit. The Northuldra tribe tell Elsa she belongs with them. Elsa becomes the protector of the forest and Anna is made Queen of Arendelle.
Back in Arendelle, Anna is formally announced as Queen of Arendelle to the people, with Olaf, Kristoff and Sven dressing up for her big day – not that that lasts long; snowmen and mountain men aren’t made for suits! She unveils a statue of her father and mother when they were children, signifying the truce between the two sides. Anna sends a message over to Elsa using the wind spirit, Gale, inviting her to charades on Friday night and telling her Arendelle is fine. Elsa then heads off for a ride, with Gale and the Nøkk. The ride takes her through the forest, across the Dark Sea, and back to Ahtohallan, where she feels at home.
In a funny End Credits scene, Olaf reenacts the end of Frozen II to Marshmallow, from Frozen, and the snowgies, from Frozen Fever, in a similar scene to his reenactment of Frozen to the Northuldra tribe and the Arendelle soldiers.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Frozen II continues to follow the characters of the original film, namely Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven, though the last two don’t actually feature all that much in the movie. Starting with Elsa, in Frozen, she was incredibly scared of her powers and very unsure of herself. She wanted to be alone, free to use her powers how she wanted, without fear of judgement from others. But in Frozen II, her and Anna, along with Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven, are very much a family unit, even having Friday Family Game Nights! Though Elsa is adjusting to her role as Queen of Arendelle, she still feels like something is missing, and when The Voice calls out to her, she is initially wary of it, not wanting anything to change, before realising that it might be the key to her figuring out where she belongs and why she has powers unlike everyone else. This begins a chain of events where Elsa finds out she is the fifth spirit, and was granted her powers as a reward for her mother saving her father, despite the young prince being part of the Arendelle dynasty, the enemy to Northuldra. Elsa also sacrifices herself in Ahtohallan to find the truth about her grandfather and his betrayal of the Northuldra tribe’s trust. She does all this, alone, much to Anna and Olaf’s annoyance, who want her to be safe and trust them to help her more. Her final act of bravery is when Elsa unfreezes and protects Arendelle from being destroyed by the flood waters after the dam is broken. After all of this, Elsa then realises that she should never have been queen, a role that Anna is much more suited to, and that she actually belongs in the forest, either alone or with the Northuldra tribe – which is exactly what she does. In her final scene, Elsa is riding the Nøkk over to Ahtohallan, a place that feels very much like home to her. She finally seems content and happy with herself, and has found exactly where she belongs.
To fully show that Elsa has found out the reason behind her powers and that she has found some sense of belonging in the forest and in Ahtohallan, Elsa gets another transformation scene, similar to her one during “Let It Go”. The team knew that this had to be a big moment, as Elsa becomes the person she was meant to be all along: the fifth spirit, the connection between people and magic. Her blue dress is transformed into a white gown, that has the diamond shapes of the four elements infused onto it, showing her transformation to the fifth spirit. She was also given an ethereal cape, and she lets her hair down[1].
For Anna’s emotional journey, she is happy at the start of Frozen II: she has a close relationship with her sister again, she’s going strong with her boyfriend, Kristoff, and of course, Olaf is still with them. She loves being in Arendelle and isn’t looking for anything to change. Because of this, she is overly protective of Elsa in Frozen II, not wanting her to do anything on her own, in case something bad happens to her. Anna is concerned about Elsa when Elsa first hears The Voice, and is upset that Elsa wouldn’t tell her about it initially. In the Enchanted Forest, Anna is reluctant to leave Elsa when the fire spirit hits the area, and has to be taken away by Kristoff at Elsa’s orders. Things get progressively worse when Anna is tricked into being led away from Elsa at the Dark Sea, and is angry with her for not wanting Anna’s help and for, literally, pushing her away. At this point in the movie, Anna is also separated from Kristoff, unable to find him before they departed North because she didn’t want Elsa to have a reason to leave without her. When Elsa appears to be dead, leaving her magic to disintegrate, which includes Olaf, Anna is left completely alone. She has to pull herself out of her grief and to carry on and complete their quest, to free the forest and the people trapped within it. Despite the difficulties, Anna succeeds and is relieved to find Elsa is not dead. She realises that she cannot guard Elsa for the rest of her life, and has to let her go. Anna goes back to Arendelle to become queen, and Elsa remains in the forest, though they continue to visit each other when they can. Oh, and Anna gets engaged to Kristoff at the end of the film! Much like Elsa, Anna has a change of appearance in Frozen II. Like Elsa, Anna goes through a transformation, but to become Queen of Arendelle. She is given the same hairstyle as Elsa has during her Coronation – basically a fancy bun with a plait – and is wearing a regal green dress, purple cape, and a tiara.
Kristoff and Sven don’t feature too much in Frozen II really. The main part of Kristoff’s “journey” during Frozen II is his attempts at proposing to Anna which keep going wrong, sometimes very badly wrong. First, Anna is too preoccupied with Elsa to notice Kristoff even talking to her, then Kristoff accidentally says that Anna was “crazy” when they first met, because of her engagement to Hans, and then Kristoff misspeaks again and makes it seem like he isn’t happy with Anna. Just when he thinks he’s sorted out the best proposal ever, which involves reindeer making him doubly sure of himself, he finds that Anna has left with Elsa and Olaf! From that point, Kristoff doesn’t feature again until Anna needs help outrunning the Earth Giants, to get to the dam before them. After all that’s done, and Anna is reunited with Elsa, and Olaf is revived, he finally gets to propose – and luckily, Anna says “yes”, or that would’ve super awkward… I said that I didn’t like Kristoff in the first film, but I like him much more in Frozen II; I feel sorry for him with all these disastrous proposal attempts and can’t help but root for him to finally succeed, mostly because it’s so embarrassing to watch!
Olaf is quite different in Frozen II. Olaf is still funny and curious, but during this time, we find that actually Olaf is quite scared of the future, and is worried about things changing. He’s had some sort of emotional growth and is more aware of the world and his feelings. At the start of the film, Olaf talks to Anna about how to cope with constant change, and she tells him to look at things that are permanent, like their family. In the Enchanted Forest, when Olaf encounters all the spirits, he feels that things are wrong and dangerous, but tries to remain optimistic. When Elsa pushes Anna and Olaf away from her so she can go through the Dark Sea alone, Olaf realises that he is angry with Elsa for doing that, but also angry at Anna, because she told him that their family wouldn’t change and actually it has. Olaf later disappears, but then reappears as the lovable Olaf once again. This just shows that Olaf is not just the “comic relief” figure in the film, but is realising things about life as he’s gotten older[2]. There is a point in the film where Olaf tries to help the children of Arendelle cope with the change of being thrown out of their homes. He calls it “controlling what you can when things feel out of control”. This would’ve been an incredibly poignant message had Frozen II been released just a few months later, as the COVID-19 pandemic was the ultimate uncontrollable aspect of many people’s lives. I’m sure Olaf’s character and behaviour through Frozen II would’ve been very comforting to children at that time.
Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad were very happy to return to the Disney Studios to reprise their roles as Elsa, Anna, Kristoff (and Sven) and Olaf respectively. Another actor who reprised his role from Frozen is Ciarán Hinds, who voices the part of Grand Pabbie, the wise Troll King, who tells the girls in Frozen II that they must go to the forest to right the wrongs of the past. Hinds has performed in numerous films including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), as Aberforth Dumbledore, as “Soldier”, or Roy Bland, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and as “Pop”, Buddy’s grandfather, in Belfast (2021), alongside Dame Judi Dench, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
But there are new characters in Frozen II as well. It turns out King Agnarr and Queen Iduna have a backstory: the two met as children, when Agnarr was a young prince at the time that Arendelle visited Northuldra, and Iduna was a young member of Northuldra. The two even talked and played together, with one memory from Ahtohallan showing Iduna asking what Agnarr is reading – it turns out it is actually The Little Mermaid, written by Hans Christian Andersen, author of The Snow Queen, the basis for the first Frozen film. Iduna saves Agnarr during the conflict in the forest and returns to Arendelle with him, to escape the mist that trapped everyone else. The two obviously eventually married, but it took a while for Iduna to tell Agnarr of her past life, and they seemingly never told their children. During the bedtime story about the Enchanted Forest at the start of Frozen II, Agnarr does not reference Iduna at all and she doesn’t mention it either. Iduna does sing the girls the lullaby about Ahtohallan, something she was taught as a young child, but the girls don’t find this strange at all. The parents are made to be much more likable in this film, at least, in my opinion, because I felt that, in Frozen, the King in particular seemed to be quite cold and distant, especially to Elsa, and the Queen says very little during the film.
Evan Rachel Wood voices Queen Iduna, and provides her singing voice too. She is perhaps most known for her main role as Dolores Abernathy in Westworld (2016-22). She also recently appeared as Madonna in the 2022 film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Alfred Molina voices King Agnarr. Molina has starred in numerous stage and screen productions. Some of these include performing as: Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway from 2004 to 2005; Comte de Reynaud in the Academy Award-nominated film Chocolat (2000); Jack Mellor in another Academy Award-nominated film An Education (2009); and as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Also, for Disney, Molina voiced the roles of Double Dan and Professor Derek Knight in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Monsters University (2013) respectively, and played the role of Maxim Horvath in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010).
Lieutenant Mattias is the extremely loyal and protective Arendelle soldier that Anna and Elsa first met in the Enchanted Forest. He was their father’s official guard, but has been trapped in the forest for 34 years. He is still suspicious of Northuldra, as King Runeard instructed them to be, and is initially suspicious of Anna and Elsa, however, warms to them quite quickly when he finds they are Agnarr’s children and Arendelle royalty. Mattias speaks to Anna about her father at points during the film. Mattias is voiced by Sterling K. Brown, who portrayed Christopher Darden, co-prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson case, in the series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) and starred as Randall Pearson in the series This Is Us (2016-22). He won Primetime Emmys for both performances.
On the other side of this conflict are the Northuldra tribe. They are led by their stoic chief Yelena. She is not overly friendly to the group at their first introductions, very suspicious of anyone from Arendelle claiming to want to help them, as well as confused about why the Queen of Arendelle would have been blessed with magic. She just wants to protect her people though, and avoid the risk of being betrayed again. There is also Honeymaren, the kind sister of Ryder, both members of the Northuldra tribe. Honeymaren seems quite sweet, and speaks to Elsa of the rumoured fifth spirit, whereas Ryder bonds with Kristoff over their love of reindeer and how they both talk for them. The character of Ryder was named after Chris Buck, the director’s, son Ryder who was killed in a car accident just as Frozen wrapped production in 2013[3]. The three characters are voiced by: Martha Plimpton (Yelena), who has performed on stage productions such as Pal Joey from 2008 to 2009 as Gladys Bumps, and on screen as Virginia Chance in Raising Hope (2010-14); Rachel Matthews (Honeymaren), who played the part of Danielle Bouseman in Happy Death Day (2017) and its 2019 sequel; and Jason Ritter (Ryder), who voiced Dipper Pines in animated series Gravity Falls (2012-16), and performed as Pat Rollins in the series Raising Dion (2019-22).
Finally, if you’re wondering where Alan Tudyk is in Frozen II, since his character of the Duke of Weselton was not going to return for this film, he voices a guard, a Northuldra leader, and an Arendelle soldier – so don’t worry; he’s there!
Those are the main human characters, but we can’t forget the characters of the four spirits. Though the Effects Team had a major role in bringing these four to life, there was also a large amount of character animation involved. Starting with the best, we have the fire spirit, Bruni the salamander, who was originally going to be called Sally, apparently! The size of Bruni’s fire is affected by his emotions, which explains why he goes a bit crazy in the forest when the group first arrive, because he’s scared[4]. We soon see that this little fireball is just a really cute fiery salamander, who loves to be cool, eat snowflakes and roll around in snow – or on Elsa’s cold palms! He’s the best new character in Frozen II for me; I think he’s so adorable. The inspiration from Bruni came from mythology, which said that salamanders would run out from fires when new logs were thrown on to them.
For the Nøkk, this water horse was inspired by a mythological creature, the Norse Nøkk, which is said to drown anyone that does not have truth in their heart. There is a big moment of Elsa struggling with the Nøkk, but successfully taming it with her powers and the trueness of her heart. The Nøkk was going to be introduced in a different way to begin with. Kristoff would’ve been encouraged by Anna and Olaf to ride the Nøkk, however, Kristoff was reluctant to do this as he knew he was lying about being happy with his new life in Arendelle, especially with all the necessary royal customs. Kristoff tries to ride the Nøkk, but as predicted, it tries to drown him. Anna goes in to save him, but he has to tell her the truth about everything. Anna is crushed and tells him they shouldn’t get married[5].
For the wind spirit, or “Gale”, it is meant to be ominous to begin with, but then become more mischievous as it finds out about the people around it. Since wind is invisible, its personality had to come through by how it interacts with people and its surroundings, such as picking up leaves, or someone’s hair. Gale was created using a new animation tool named Swoop. And finally, there are the Earth spirits, or Earth Giants, monstrous pieces of rock with earth and moss on top of them, so they blend into their surroundings. An Old Norse myth was the primary inspiration for their creation, though the team did also look at how the trolls look in the two movies as they felt the Earth Giants would be linked to them in some way. They are not meant to be villainous, just angry, but they do befriend Anna and Elsa later on, wanting to live in peace and harmony with the people around them[6].
PRODUCTION
The team working on Frozen and Frozen II were thrilled with the reception they received to the first movie; they were inundated with letters from children who had responded particularly deeply to Elsa and her story and obviously the social media buzz proved how much of a phenomenon Frozen became. But with all that excitement from the audience came a lot of pressure and responsibility on Disney to get the sequel right.
Jennifer Lee, co-director of both Frozen and Frozen II alongside Chris Buck, began story development for the sequel by writing a journal from Elsa’s point of view. From there, Lee and Buck started to discuss the ideas from the journal, with Buck drawing sequences and scenes from within it[7]. They wanted to look at the characters from a more mature and deep perspective, needing them to change emotionally through the story, especially as Frozen II takes place three years after the events of the first, meaning that everything that happened to the characters in Frozen will have affected them in some way. Frozen II needed to grow with its audience, since those viewers would be six years older by the time this film was released. The main question Disney wanted to answer during Frozen II was why Elsa has her powers, and follow the group’s quest to find out. Another inspiration for the story of Frozen II was looking at Scandinavian folklore and Norse mythology. The team found that mythic magical figures tend to have to carry everyone else’s burdens on their shoulders, and they sacrifice themselves for their end goals. This sounds a lot like Elsa, so they wanted to explore this idea further, when looking into why she has her powers.
The Frozen II team were also inspired by their research trip to Norway, Finland and Iceland in September 2016. They hiked through Finnish forests which gave them ideas for the Enchanted Forest, including much of the colour palette, which involved lots of oranges, reds, and violets[8]. The artists were also inspired by Eyvind Earle’s backgrounds for Sleeping Beauty (1959) for the look of the Enchanted Forest, specifically the vertical planes and his way of grouping trees. They consulted with a botanist from Norway to ensure they were accurate in their depiction of native vegetation[9].
For the Northuldra tribe, Disney looked to the Sámi community for inspiration during their 2016 research trip to Scandinavia. The Sámi are the indigenous community from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, known for their colourful clothing, a cappella story chants, and reindeer herding, which are characteristics that appear in Frozen II. The Disney team collaborated with the Sámi over the Northuldra tribe clothing and other specificities to ensure that the culture was represented respectfully. Disney even signed an agreement with the Sámi Council and three Sámi parliaments in Norway, Finland, and Sweden to say that the film would give back to the Sámi communities. One way they did this was by releasing a Sámi language dub of the film on the same day Frozen II was released in other Scandinavian countries, like Norway[10]. This representation was particularly important to the Sámi people, as they have had a history of being segregated, discriminated against, and their lands have been abused. This is similar to the Northuldra in Frozen II, who have been tricked and manipulated by a greedy, selfish king, intent on taking land for himself.
Throughout the next three years, the Frozen II team agonised over the story for the film, making multiple edits and revisions to the writing, animation, and music of certain sequences, as per feedback from both in-house and external audience screenings. The in-house Story Trust at the Disney Studios, involving directors and employees from different animated movies in production as well as their own team, discussed the plot at length, due to its complexity and complicated nature in places. Some of these thoughts were echoed at an external audience review, with numerous story meetings taking place after these screenings to figure out the right route to take. Though the audience screening showed that the music played well, and that Olaf and Bruni were favoured characters, some story issues resulted from who The Voice is and the song “Show Yourself”, as well as how to show the backstory of the Enchanted Forest via the prologue. The prologue was reworked as late as August 2019, just a couple of months before release. This was due to the fact that the original prologue started at the Enchanted Forest, following a young girl looking for her mother when suddenly a battle commences between her tribe of Northuldra and the Arendelle soldiers. These were unfamiliar characters and an unfamiliar setting to the viewer. It was decided that the audience needed to see Arendelle and Anna and Elsa first, before introducing the Forest’s backstory[11]. To make things even more difficult, Jennifer Lee was promoted to be Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Animation Studios in June 2018, meaning that she not only had to work on her own movie of Frozen II, but now every movie in the animated slate had to be supervised by her.
Once the story had been locked in, quite late in the production schedule, then the animation had to be completed – and some of those elements came with their own problems. In Frozen, one of Disney’s biggest difficulties was creating the ice palace but for Frozen II, they had a different icy challenge: the glacier of Ahtohallan. Ahtohallan had to have a grand exterior as well as a large interior. They knew the best way to get information about glaciers was to go and see them in real-life. During their 2016 research trip, they looked at glaciers first-hand, even getting to walk on one. The team were overcome by the beauty, and the mystifying nature of these glaciers. They saw that the inside of the glacier was a vibrant blue, matching Elsa’s “signature colour”, and that Elsa would feel connected to this huge icy glacier because of her powers. Visual Designer Brittney Lee was brought in to take a look at the design work on Ahtohallan. She came up with concepts of what the inside would look like, and how Elsa would interact with it, showing that she would be led through the glaciers by the elements and The Voice[12].
MUSIC
The Voice was provided by Norwegian singer-songwriter AURORA. It features heavily in Elsa’s two big numbers “Into the Unknown” and “Show Yourself”, my two favourite songs from the film. This musical motif is called “Dies Irae” and comes from an ancient Gregorian chant, which is associated with death and danger. It even appears in the opening theme for The Shining (1980). Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who returned to write the songs for Frozen II, felt that this motif was the perfect thing to awaken Elsa, and set her on her path to self-discovery as she could only do that by facing many dangers and obstacles[13]. “Into the Unknown” is a very powerful number, and shows how Elsa is torn between leaving the comfort zone of Arendelle, where she does not feel like she truly belongs, and trying to figure out what her powers mean. It’s a beautiful sequence, especially when she gets outside and her magic shows her visions of what is to come on her journey; it’s a really spectacular song and much better than “Let It Go” in my opinion.
“Show Yourself” is the big emotional moment of Elsa’s journey as she gets to Ahtohallan and finds The Voice that she has been hearing was actually her mother’s call. This is a very touching scene, and the song culminates in Elsa’s transformation to becoming the person she was always meant to be: the fifth spirit to connect all of nature. “Show Yourself” went through a lot of changes through the movie, up until the last couple of months of production, with talks of it being cut at one point because nobody could figure out what to do with it; not the directors, the songwriters, or the story writers. It was said that this was the hardest of all the Frozen songs to work on. In the end, the breakthrough was deciding that The Voice was Elsa’s mother, and that they should reprise “All Is Found”, their mother’s lullaby from the start of the film, to connect the past with the present. And I am so thankful they worked all that out, because I love this song and this huge moment for Elsa.
Speaking of the lullaby, “All Is Found” is sung by Queen Iduna to the girls at the start of the film, telling them about the mysterious river of Ahtohallan. It’s a tender song, but also quite haunting, with some of the lyrics detailing not to dive too deep into her sound, or else you’ll be drowned… It sets up the mystery of Ahtohallan to be revisited later on in the journey. The song that follows is quite a contrast: it is “Some Things Never Change”, a very upbeat number where Anna and Olaf talk about how, though things change, they will always be together; Kristoff and Sven discussing his proposal to Anna; and Elsa not wanting things to change despite hearing The Voice. It’s a perfect big crowd number to start the film.
Unlike Frozen, Kristoff finally gets his own song, and a brilliant song at that. It begins with a brief version of “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People”, from Frozen, before leading in to this big 80s power ballad. Kristoff was going sing a song called “Get This Right”, which would’ve talked about how he wanted his proposal to Anna to go perfectly; it was quite a nice song, but “Lost in the Woods” is so much better! Jonathan Groff, though he was proud of “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People”, despite many people saying how it wasn’t a “real song”, including me, did love recording “Lost in the Woods” and liked how a man was being given a song to sing about these deep feelings he has for the woman he loves, instead of having to be macho about it and pretending he doesn’t have feelings. For this song, the reindeers of the Northuldra tribe and Sven join in with the backing harmonies. Groff actually recorded all of these harmonies himself, with there being around 18 in total[14]!
Anna this time had quite a dark song written for her: “The Next Right Thing”. It details how Anna is going to get herself back on her feet and keep going, despite Olaf disappearing, Elsa being gone, and being separated from Kristoff. Anna is normally the upbeat, optimistic one, so it is hard to see and hear her feeling so broken. It is very dark for a Disney song, and must’ve been difficult for Kristen Bell to record. In fact, in the behind-the-scenes documentary, Bell was crying as she sang it. She said that her personal struggles with anxiety and depression were something she brought to the acting of the song, and that sometimes on the worst days, it is good advice: to just take things one step at a time[15].
The remaining song is Olaf’s song “When I’m Older”, which he sings as he’s walking through the Enchanted Forest, getting spooked by all the spirits. He is trying to be optimistic and say that everything’s fine and when he’s older and wiser, he’ll be able to explain all this away and it won’t be scary anymore. Like I said earlier on, Olaf’s emotional state during this whole film must’ve been quite comforting to children who felt out of control and uncertain about global issues, such as COVID-19, climate change, political hostility, and more age-specific problems, like moving to a new school, for example. This is my least favourite song of the seven original songs written for Frozen II, but I still like it.
Pop rock band Panic! At The Disco recorded a version of “Into the Unknown”, which appears first during the End Credits. I don’t normally like covers of Disney songs, but this is actually quite a good one. Country singer Kacey Musgraves covered “All Is Found”, and rock band Weezer cover Kristoff’s “Lost in the Woods”. These are second and third in the credits.
Christophe Beck returned as the composer of the score. I particularly like how much “Vuelie” from Frozen reappeared in Frozen II, such as in the “Introduction” to the film, and when the Northuldra sing it a cappella. But my favourite of all the instrumentals is “The Flood”, which plays during the scene where Elsa protects Arendelle from being flooded and destroyed when the dam breaks. It’s such a powerful moment, as Elsa is found to be alive and because all the people of Arendelle are stood watching, expecting their homes to be destroyed, but instead Elsa saves them all. Again, it’s these big emotional moments in the score that always stand out for me – and usually make me cry! Overall, I really like Frozen II’s soundtrack, and so much more than Frozen’s.
RECEPTION
Due to Frozen’s huge success in 2013, it was quite clear that Frozen II would be widely anticipated. A teaser trailer was released in February 2019, showing Elsa at the Dark Sea, the diamond-shapes in the air, Kristoff riding on reindeer, Anna in the cave, and then shots of the forest. It didn’t say or show much, but it created discussions over how dark the movie looked. It certainly made me interested, because it didn’t give you much idea about what Frozen II’s story would be, just that it looked like an epic quest would take place. In June 2019, the official trailer was dropped. This time it gave some more information, including The Voice and Grand Pabbie’s warnings about Elsa’s magic and the past needing correcting. Again, it didn’t give much away, but it got people talking.
In August 2019, there was a D23 convention where further details on Frozen II were announced. These details included announcing Evan Rachel Wood as Queen Iduna and Sterling K. Brown as Lieutenant Mattias. The creators told the audience that the film would answer questions about Elsa’s powers, as well as those about their parents. They showed snippets of the film, including the scene of the group playing charades and moving into the sequence for “Into the Unknown”, which confirmed the appearance of the mysterious voice and that Kristoff was planning to propose to Anna. Then, Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff came on stage to sing “Some Things Never Change”[16].
To further create excitement around the movie before its release, merchandise was released in October 2019 to be bought at locations around Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and on the Shop Disney online store. A little bit closer to the release date, speciality food and beverage items themed to Frozen II were also released at the Parks.
Finally, on 7th November 2019, Frozen II had its official premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, before having its general release in the United States on 22nd November. It continued to be released in other countries through to the end of 2019. There was certainly a lot of talk about the movie, however, Frozen II was not perceived as superior to Frozen by many. The more cynical amongst us claimed that Frozen II had only been made to satisfy the market and to bring out more merchandise to sell. Some also said that the film was too complicated in places and was difficult to understand. On the positive side, though, others liked how it tackled heavy themes, such as colonialism, environmental issues, psychological reactions to change, and depression. The music and the look of the movie were also praised, and the characters were still as likeable as they were in the original film. But critics were split, whereas the majority of reviews were positive for Frozen.
To further show this split of opinion, Frozen II did not do as well at the awards ceremonies. Whereas Frozen won both the Academy Awards for Best Original Song for “Let It Go” and Best Animated Feature, Frozen II was only nominated for Best Original Song for “Into the Unknown”, losing to “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman (2019). It was not even nominated for Best Animated Feature, with Toy Story 4 (2019) winning that award. Even without Frozen II being snubbed, this was bitterly disappointing to me because I really do not like Toy Story 4 and felt it was not at all necessary for the franchise. It creeped me out with all those dolls and ventriloquist dummies too… But that childhood trauma is for another time. Frozen II did win the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects, and so it should because there were an awful lot of effects in this film and I thought they looked amazing, and Josh Gad won Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting for Olaf once again. Frozen II’s soundtrack did win Top Soundtrack at the Billboard Music Awards and the film won Favorite Animated Movie at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
Despite being named the highest-grossing animated movie in history, this is only true depending on who you talk to. I personally would class The Lion King 2019 remake as animated, since the movie was entirely computer animated. Disney however class this film as a live-action remake, so it is not considered on some lists of highest-grossing animated movies. I would though, so Frozen II in my view became the second highest-grossing animated movie of all time, generating $1.3 billion at the box office compared to $1.65 billion for The Lion King (2019). Still, it outperformed the original movie, and was not surpassed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) a few years later. Frozen remains fourth.
LEGACY
Since Frozen spanned spin-offs and featurettes, Frozen II was obviously going to do the same. Obviously, Frozen II was released on DVD and Blu-Ray, along with a sing-along edition, but the first Frozen-related series to be released after the release of Frozen II was actually a series of shorts, released on YouTube on the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ official channel, called At Home with Olaf (2020) at the start of the pandemic. Each short is just a couple of minutes long, and look at Olaf exploring the world, such as drinking pink lemonade, eating candy, having fun on a swing, little things like that. I remember I was watching them at the time, and they were comforting for both children and adults alike, giving us all a bit of stability and a bit of wholesomeness to get through the seemingly unending lockdown period. Josh Gad returned to voice Olaf, though he does not say much in these shorts, mostly just giggles or mumbles. There were 21 shorts in total, with the final one being a musical short titled “I Am With You”. It is of Olaf writing a letter to someone saying how he will always be with them. It was accompanied by clips from previous Disney animated features. This was the best short of all the series.
After this, Disney released a Virtual Reality short in June 2020, which premiered on Oculus Quest, before being released in a 2D version on Disney+ in 2021. It is called Myth: A Frozen Tale (2020) and shows a family in log cabin telling a bedtime story to their children all about the forest and the four spirits. It does turn quite dark at the end though, as after saying the human fifth spirit brought everything into harmony, we are then told that the fifth spirit got out of rhythm with the others, leading to the world to fracture and the spirits to vanish. But if the fifth spirit can find its rhythm once more, then the others will return. I’m assuming this was a metaphor about humans and their contributions to climate change, but yeah, a bit dark for a Disney project! It is visually stunning though, showing each of the four spirits in turn: Gale, Bruni and his pink fire, the Nøkk, and the Earth Giants. It was apparently inspired by the visual poetry of Fantasia (1940) and by the artistic stylings of Eyvind Earle and his work on Sleeping Beauty (1959), as well as the artwork of celebrated Disney artist Mary Blair.
In June 2020, a six-part documentary series titled Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II shows some behind-the-scenes footage of the Disney Studios during their last year of production on the movie. It was fascinating to watch and I would recommend it to any fans of movie history. In October 2020, a new short was released called Once Upon a Snowman. It looks at Olaf’s journey from his creation by Elsa during “Let It Go” in Frozen to him meeting Anna, Kristoff and Sven in the icy oasis. We see him interact with Oaken at his shop, just missing Anna and Kristoff, and then shows him being chased by wolves, as he was given a nose made of “summer sausage” by Oaken. The wolves then chase Anna and Kristoff. It also shows Olaf remembering his name and that he likes warm hugs, before following Anna and Kristoff to the place they meet. It’s both funny and interesting to see how Olaf’s journey here interacts with the events of Frozen.
But my favourite of all the Frozen II spin-offs is Olaf Presents, a six-part series of shorts released on Disney+ in November 2021, which includes a compilation episode of the previous five. The compilation episode also shows Olaf’s recap of Frozen that appears in Frozen II, I assume as context in case you haven’t seen the film and are wondering what on Earth you’re watching! The five other films that Olaf recaps are The Little Mermaid (1989); Moana (2016); The Lion King (1994); Aladdin (1992); and Tangled (2010). These are all hilarious, but my favourites are The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Lion King (1994), especially with the snowgies representing the wildebeest stamped! I bet Josh Gad had fun recording these! Sadly, Disney confirmed that Olaf Presents would not get another series.
A Frozen III was confirmed back in February 2023 by Disney CEO Bob Iger, however, there is little to no details around this yet, other than the four primary cast members appear to have confirmed their involvement and that Jennifer Lee has said she will not return to direct. It will be interesting to see where this new story will go, seeing as I thought Frozen II wrapped the characters’ stories up quite nicely.
At the Disney Parks, I wanted to find only the Frozen II specific attractions and there are a few. Generally, clips and songs from the movie can be seen and heard during some of the Disney Parks’ nighttime shows or projection shows but in terms of attractions, at Walt Disney World Resort, at the Royal Sommerhus in the Norway pavilion of Epcot, Elsa and Anna have been meeting in their Frozen II costumes since the movie’s release in 2019. This means Anna’s queen gown and Elsa’s white dress; basically, what they are wearing at the end of the film. This is also the case at Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome at Disney Calfornia Adventure Park at Disneyland and should be the same at Hong Kong Disneyland’s World of Frozen when it opens 20th November 2023. It is unclear whether Anna and Elsa are appearing in their Frozen II outfits when meeting guests at Shanghai Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, though it would appear not, in Paris at least.
At Disneyland Paris, the Frozen Celebration event was held from January 2020 for a few months until the park was forced to close for COVID-19. It featured a Frozen II parade, with a float of Elsa as the fifth spirit with the Nøkk positioned at the front and Anna and Olaf in their ice boat in the middle, with an animatronic Sven at the back, before Anna and Elsa came off the float to dance along with the rest of the performers, including Kristoff. Another parade to feature a Frozen II float is the daytime parade Magic Happens at Disneyland, which has been running since early 2020. It features Anna and Elsa, with animatronics of Olaf and Sven, on a float of half forest and half ice. The Nøkk is featured on the float as well, but Kristoff seemingly isn’t allowed on the float and must walk behind for some reason!
Shanghai Disneyland’s Frozen: A Sing-Along Celebration show began to feature songs from Frozen II after the movie’s release. It uses “Some Things Never Change” on the sing-along screen, with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and puppet Olaf appearing on stage towards the end of the show to sing “Into the Unknown”; they are wearing their Frozen II costumes. At Hong Kong Disneyland’s new World of Frozen, there will be a show at the Playhouse in the Woods. Anna and Olaf are planning a surprise for Elsa, to show her that they have restored the playhouse from their childhood. It will be themed to Frozen II, with a lot of interactive elements designed to mimic the four spirits.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The more sceptical among us would say that Frozen II was purely made for money, that there was no sequel needed for Frozen, and that this was just a ploy to get more merchandising and entertainment ideas. Disney were milking Frozen for all it was worth.
Like everyone, I can be cynical at times, but I disagree that the making of Frozen II was just for money. Many of these reviews were written well before any behind-the-scenes footage and documentaries were released to the public, and if anyone has seen Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II, it is clear to see, from all the dithering and constant story rewrites, that the team were determined to get this film right and to do it justice. Why else would they be bothered about this if it was all just about money? I do believe Disney do make certain films just as a money-making exercise, such as Pixar’s Cars franchise, with Cars 2 being a particularly low point for the company, and even to some extent the Toy Story franchise, which really should’ve ended with Toy Story 3. But not Frozen II.
I like Frozen II so much more than the original one. I think the music is more enjoyable, although perhaps not as catchy, it looks amazing, and it touches on some very important ideas. It is one of Disney’s best animated sequels, a fact that is hard to deny.
Frozen II felt like a real adventure of self-discovery, with mature themes to make it more complex and profound, which is much appreciated by those Disney fans over the age of 10, who need just a bit more than a cute snowman and sisterly bonding to impress them!
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 5: Race to the Finish”.
[2] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 4: Big Changes”.
[3] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 3: Journey to Ahtohallan”.
[4] Credit: Disney, “Did You Know?”, from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).
[5] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).
[6] Credit: Disney, “The Spirits of Frozen 2” from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).
[7] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 1: A Year to Premiere”.
[8] Credit: Carolyn Giardina, ‘Making of ‘Frozen 2’: Disney Aimed to Mark an “Evolution” for Elsa and Anna’, The Hollywood Reporter (online), 12th December 2019.
[9] Credit: Disney, “Did You Know?”, from Frozen II (2019), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2020).
[10] Credit: John Hazelton, ‘How the ‘Frozen II’ filmmakers dealt with the pressure: “we built it very honestly, from character out”, ScreenDaily.com, 26th December 2019.
[11] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 5: Race to the Finish”.
[12] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 3: Journey to Ahtohallan”.
[13] Credit: Joanna Robinson, ‘Frozen II Songwriters on the Surprisingly Creepy Inspiration Behind the Movie’s Latest Earworm’, Vanity Fair (online), 5th December 2019.
[14] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 2: Back to the Drawing Board”.
[15] Credit: Disney, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II (2020): “Episode 3: Journey to Ahtohallan”.
[16] Credit: Eliana Dockterman, ‘Everything We Learned About Frozen II From the D23 Footage’, Time (online), 24th August 2019.
The Disney Purist 