#df2mstuff

I don't understand everyone's sickened complains about oversaturation, but that's only because I usually stick to anime/manga spaces. I wasn't inundated with Frozen or "Let It Go" the way everyone else was. I *still* sing "Let It Go" to myself (in Japanese). I'm not sick of it.

But it's usually so hard to find people who can critique Frozen 2 without tinging it with how sick they've become of the whole franchise. I found some. But I had to wade through some pre-judgmental dismissive vids first. As soon as a video essay starts with dismissing even Frozen 1 because they got sick of oversaturation, I'm gone. Frozen 1 was very good. I don't need to hear nitpick arguments about Frozen 1.

But Frozen 2... I'm not crazy, right? That movie was disappointing, wasn't it? It wasn't just me? Events, all the way up through the ending, felt like they were being presented as resolutions to---something. But whatever that "something" conflicts were, didn't feel like they were presented. They were told through song, but not experienced along with the characters, through scenes. Like, "Into the Unknown" talks about how Elsa wants to go out of her known world, but we never feel that longing. All the scenes beforehand felt very cozy in her environment as-is. What justifies the triumphant tone of "Into the Unknown" as if that was something she wanted? The only thing the previous scenes established the audience feeling she wanted was to stop being freaked out by that weird singing so she could be present with her family, these lovely characters around her. I often think back to Frozen 1's scenes before "Let It Go". So many scenes just establishing the feeling of anxiety, repression, tension, and fear, and how trapped and under pressure Elsa felt in her environment, where she felt she needed to hide her powers. So when the movie finally got to the "Let It Go" song, our emotions were right along with her relief. That was showing, not telling. So much of Frozen 2 is telling, not showing. Telling through good songs, but still, just telling. Up through the very end, until it felt like just a bunch of stuff happening with no emotional investment, stakes, or payoff. Like, what is Anna becoming queen supposed to payoff? What is Elsa living in the forest supposed to pay off? We never got the sense that Elsa wanted to be in the forest or even away from the castle. We never got the sense that Anna was way more suited as queen or that things would fit better if Anna was queen. There are lots of relatable real life emotions in feeling like you don't belong, even in a place that's perfect, surrounded by people who care about you. Frozen 2 could have used some of that for Elsa. Maybe they should have consulted with people with depression. But instead of showing scenes like that, to make the audience feel along with Elsa (and Ann), we got told she wants to go into the unknown without feeling why. Same for everything else.

I was just so disappointed, after how much I loved Frozen 1, that I couldn't even buy anymore Frozen Nendoroids. I LOVE Nendoroids. I bought both of the Frozen 1 Nendoroids. I almost bought Elsa's Figma. But despite how pretty the F2 Nendoroids are---and there are FOUR of them!---they just reminded me too much of how disappointing F2 was. And now I'm sad.

I feel like I was mostly *told* the story more than *felt* it.  There were key things in the story that the climax and act 3 were supposed to make feel resolved…but I never really felt they were set up.  There was a line here and there about Elsa not feeling like she belongs in the castle, Olaf afraid of impermanence, etc., but those were things told to me.  I didn’t feel it.  I didn’t see Elsa not feeling like she fit in at the castle, even though everyone accepted her.  I didn’t see Olaf afraid of impermanence, even though he talked about it A LOT.  But all those times he talked about it, never conveyed Fear, because the movie was too busy using him for comedic relief.  Even though half of the “telling vs showing” was done through song, it still didn’t convey the proper feelings to me!  ~o~;  

And those songs.  Too many songs.  Look, I know I was going in to watch a musical, but most—or maybe even all—of the songs felt unnecessary.  I expect songs to be a punctuation of a feeling that can’t be expressed as well through dialogue. Kind of like what Howard Ashman talked about. Like intense feelings that can’t be done justice through just dialogue.  The movie needed to EARN those grand moments of song. But these songs felt like inserting songs just for the sake of songs.  And they were nice songs.  But did the movie need to feel like it was stopping for each one?  I felt like I was more in the audience, watching Broadway performances, rather than in the experience of the story’s world.  Maybe if Frozen 1 hadn’t done it so well, I wouldn’t have a comparison to contrast Frozen 2 against…  But so many of these songs didn’t need to happen.  They weren’t expressing things intense enough to warrant songs.  Even the important story/character moments didn’t feel intense enough to NEED songs.  I could have done with Elsa just following the voice and awakening the Forest Spirits, Olaf expressing/demonstrating Fear while talking about impermanence, Kristoff just saying a few lines about his uncertainty about Anna accepting his proposal, etc.  And Kristoff’s 1980’s pop song music video definitely didn’t need to happen.  If I hadn’t watched a long interview with the songwriters yesterday, I wouldn’t have realized the entire visual sequence was a joke about 1980’s music videos.  I’m getting old and even I’ve practically forgotten what those music videos looked like.  So how are little kids supposed to get the joke?  Is the joke solely for the adults who bought the tickets?  Are the kids supposed to be carried through by just the music?  What about those of us who needed more than that song and don’t connect with the visual joke’s reference?  Are we just outta luck?  ~_~;  

But the thing that really irked me while watching the movie was that I didn’t feel the characters’ perpetual, urgent goals. Those goals felt so nebulous, and even the movie seemed to forget them sometimes.  The pacing kept stopping for these side-line sequences, turning them into main attractions…when they really weren’t main attractions.  Connecting with the villagers?  Kristoff getting proposal help?  The length of Olaf’s recap storytelling?  The unnecessary songs for unearned grand moments? None of that stuff needed to happen.  Maybe it needed to happen off-screen or for a few seconds on-screen, but scenes like that dragged down the pacing into multiple pit stops.  This needed to be a race.  Arendelle was in danger, right?  The citizens were still stuck on that cliff ridge all this time, weren’t they?  (I’m really surprised some people didn’t sneak off, back down into the kingdom, either ignoring Grand Pabbie’s lead, or desperate to save something in case Grand Pabbie was right, or just being stupid kids following that *fuchsia* fire.  FUCHSIA FIRE!  Kids would get curious about that!  But maybe it flickered out there; whatever.  The point is that I forgot about what exactly they were questing for, whether in cause or in goal, because the movie seemed to.  Or at least decrease the urgency of those goals, causes, and repercussions.  The story didn’t keep a steady feeling of urgency in purpose/goals throughout the entire movie, so I often didn’t know what exactly were their specific goals at any given time.  And I think I needed to know that and feel that, in order to understand the stakes and always feel like what was being done was important.  …Whatever it was they were doing at any given time…There was so much meandering and random finds in their quest.  It would have been nice to have concrete, specific goals, driving the characters through every scene AND feeling urgent.  

So yeah…That was Frozen 2.  Disappointing with long cringey song-jokes.  …But if Good Smile Company comes out with a Nendoroid of Elsa in her new dress, I’ll probably get it anyway.  ~.~;;;