Man, I still cannot get over how matureĀ Frozen 2 was. Like, sure, itās still ostensibly a family film that all ages can enjoy, but I think this is the first time Iāve seen a Disney animated movie that was willing to target the adults in its audienceĀ more than the kids. The songs are far less traditional catchy Disney sing-along fare, more classic musical theater storytelling character pieces with weird and experimental tonal choices. It abandons the use of fairy tale language and symbols that the first movie used (no mention of true loveās kiss, royal balls, princess-y stuff) in favor of something far more akin to a mythology-inspired RPG adventure. A massive chunk of the storytelling and themes is communicated in subtext and metaphor, especially with Elsaās big song in the third act. And so much of the drama revolves around feelings that areā¦ far more difficult, complex, and adult-oriented than kidsā movies usually tackle. Self-actualization by way of coming to terms with your past trauma, siblings who love each other yet find their lives drawn in different directions, struggling to do the right thing when you donāt even know what the right thing is anymore, heck, even Olafās comic existential crisis; these arenāt the kinds of emotional struggles kids can relate to as easily as teenagers and grown-ups can.
And thatās entirely intentional. Because in case Olafās blatant fourth-wall break in his and Annaās opening song didnāt tip you off (āAnd youāve gotten older too,ā he says, speaking directly to the audience), Frozen 2 isnāt really for the kids of today that saw the first film after the fact. Itās for the kids of six years ago who first fell in love Anna and Elsa. Or, more accurately, itās for the teenagers and young adults those kids grew up into. It takes us back to the site of one of our favorite childhood memories and dares to let those memories, ironically, unfreeze. Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and all the rest have grown up right along with us, and just as our worries and concerns have changed from when we first saw Frozen as kids, their struggles have grown in scope and complexity as well. If the first Frozen was about as perfect a fairy tale for kids as you could get, then Frozen 2 is about exploring what happens after the fairy tale is over and the lessons you learned from it are no longer enough to contend with an increasingly complicated world. So itās able to be bolder, and less constrained, and go in more sprawling, yet also more intimate directions, and the songs get to do cooler musical things that arenāt as immediately hummable but are so freaking emotionally powerful, and the emotional journeys everyone goes through are able to speak to the grown-ups weāre slowly becoming instead of just the kids we once were, and cripes, can you imagine anything like āShow Yourselfā in the first movie? Thereās no way! That song is just too, well, adult in its vision of self-acceptance and discovering meaning to work in a fairy tale context. That song could only make sense once the fairy tale started to grow up.
I could honestly go on and on about how much I flipping love this, but Iāve rambled on long enough. TLDR, Frozen 2 matures the themes of the first movie in truly fascinating ways, and it makes for the first Disney Princess movie Iāve seen that might be better at speaking to adults than kids. Feel free to add any of your own insights to this post; Iād love to know what parts of Frozen 2 really touched you in this way!
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