Frozen 2 (Me) (Kids)

Saw this with the wife and kids. Safe to say only the small humans enjoyed it with reckless abandon. Try as I might, I just couldn't abandon my reck. A few months back, I succumbed to the juggernaut and watched the first Frozen with the family. I was mildly impressed, especially with the re-jigging of storybook tropes and the filmmakers' ability to 'un-princess' the leads while at the same time making them gold for toy manufacturers. Nifty trick. But ultimately, that film wound me up with its singing, constant chatter, irritating voice work and its singing. Oh, I mentioned the singing? Well, as dire as it was in Frozen, it lowered the bar for Frozen 2. This is where I can't square things. These films would be fun kids' films, were it not for the fucking INTERMINABLE SINGING. There's even an 80s power ballad that's eerily similar to Peter Cetera's 'Glory of Love'. And that's the best one!

The plot is worthy but pretty redundant. It tries to squeeze in a few too many threads - dead parents, old tribal rivalries, omnipotence, the 5th element, some awkward romancing, overcoming fear and the comedy ice block man - all while affirming the relationship between the two sisters, fan favourite Elsa and goof but real star, Anna. The four elements at the centre of the film are water - Guinness ad horse; earth - big rock ape Igoo from The Herculoids; wind - just some frisky air; and fire - a cute salamander. Elsa - spoiler! - manages to contain or befriend all of them, like some animated musical version of the Twelve Labours of Heracles. You can probably guess the aforementioned 5th element (and no, it isn't Milla Jovovich).

A few points to note - the people of the forest, the Northuldra, seem to be Native American or possibly Inuit. The idea that they've been stuck in the foggy forest for years and the 'civilised' army hasn't slaughtered them yet is quaint. The forest itself promised to 'transform' our heroes in some way but I didn't see any of the much hoped for weird shit from Alex Garland's Annihilation. And Baymax is a snow toy at the very start of the film. Not so interesting that one, I'll agree.

If you have to see this film, take some ear plugs and pop them in for the singing parts. You won't regret it.

See also:

John G. Avildsen's The Karate Kid Part 2 (1986) and Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin (2013). Why? I'll leave that to you.