Frozen 2 is about a lot of things. Colonialism and the silencing of indigenous cultures. Sisterhood and its powerful, unknowable reach. The quest for personal identity at whatever cosmetic cost. The nihilism that comes with growing older and more cosmically aware of lifes virtues and terrors.

Does it marry these threads together elegantly? Not always. But its hard to deny the power of the storytellingboth visual and literalin this entertaining Disney sequel. The film strikes many of the same chords as the first Frozen, but does so more gallantly this time around. Its an epic story with an interior core and a mythic sensibility that sends a powerful message to young girls: that sometimes the home you thought you desired isnt the final answer, and personal evolution is lifes real answer.

Frozen 2 finds our heroine, Elsa (Idina Menzel), at a bit of a crossroads. After the events of the first film, shes re-established herself as the queen of Arendelle, but shes not totally content in the role. She watches her sister Anna (Kristen Bell) enjoy her new life in the kingdom, as she banters about with her doofy but lovable boyfriend Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer Sven, and the sentient snowman Olaf (Josh Gad)but Elsa cant find that same complacency. Shes left with the nagging feeling that theres more out there for her, she just isnt sure where or how to get it. Until one day a voice starts calling to hera voice that only she can hear, which seems to exist in the margins of the wind.

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Soon, cataclysm comes to Arendelle, and its up to Elsa, Anna, and the others to find the source of whats preying on their homeland. The mystery that ensues has ties to Elsa and Annas parents, but more than that, to the foundation of every establishment they once trusted. The plot involves a series of revelations that disrupt the sisters worldview. Maybe this harmonious land theyve fought to protect doesnt deserve such esteem. And maybe their personal histories deserve some cross-examining as well.

The film is all about identityits presentation, its dissolution, and the acceptance of its amorphousnesswhich makes Frozen 2 more challenging than its easier-going predecessor. While the first Frozen told Elsas story from a place of confusion and fear, Frozen 2 tells it from a place of reconciliation. Shes accepted who she isa woman with an incredible magical ability to freeze the atmosphere around herbut what does it actually mean to have that power, and how does it inform your future whereabouts?

Frozen 2 begs that question through its soundtrack, which is more robust this time around, though not exactly more memorable. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, who wrote the music and also directed the film, are doubling down on Menzels incredible range with a few ballads that exceed the power of Let It Go but dont necessarily rival its catchiness. All of the songs in Frozen 2 are great, but have a hard time living up to the more digestible tunes from the first film, which are so ingrained in our zeitgeist that it feels a little unfair that this one should have to measure up to that high bar.

And yet there are songs like Into the Unknown that will challenge young audiences to not only look inward, but into themselves on a meta-textual level. (Anna also gets a lovely song called The Next Right Thing near the climax that serves a similar purpose.) Tunes that get into the fiber of peculiar womanhood and examine it microscopically. Im not sure any Disney musical has ever been so powerfully, indelibly mythic as Frozen 2which erupts into moments of visual richness to match the music, with visions of underwater horses and women figures in the wind; markers that acknowledge the storys roots in Danish writer Hans Christian Andersens The Snow Queen, making it feel of an old-time culturethough it remains, ultimately, of its time.

This deep feminine mystique coupled with concepts like Olafs growing sense of innate awareness and Kristoffs masculine ineptitude, make Frozen 2 a strange Disney movie. Its arguably too big and too muchand those moments of grandiosity might float right over its target audiences headsbut its hard to resist a kids movie thats this audacious. Theres a messiness to Frozen 2; it gets lost in its own self-importance occasionally, and loses the plot as it indulges in moments like Kristoffs 80s-esque power ballad (finally, they let Groff sing!) and the confusing mythology of Elsa and Annas parents.

But all of this adds up to a movie that feels recognizably itself. Strange and big, but unparalleled in its ability to communicate certain ideologies to its viewers. Ideas about interiority and self-satisfaction, of forging a future that looks so different from the template you once imagined. Those may sound like understandable concepts to adults, but theyre monumental to childrenanything that tells us we can change ourselves, better ourselves, and always do the next right thing is important. Frozen 2 may get lost in its own mirage every now and then, but when it finds its way, it forges some of the most powerful storytelling ever seen in Disney animation.

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FROZEN 2 Is A Mythic Portrait Of Feminine Strength And Vulnerability (Review) - Nerdist