As a die hard fan of the Frozen franchise, I was more than ready for the long-awaited sequel. To further illustrate the extent of my heart for everything Frozen, when I went to Disney World, I cried when I met Olaf (photographic evidence of this can be seen below.) So, I re-watched the magical film that started it all and braced myself for the utter beauty that was about to unfold.

The lights dimmed, the screen woke, the familiar mouse turned his wheel and whistled his tune, I snuggled in with a blanket in the theater seat, and watched the story unfold. The opening scene was the familiar two girls playing in Elsa’s ice and snow. In the figures, you can see a few Easter eggs (an Easter egg is where Disney breaks the fourth wall and puts characters from other movies in the movie) of Dumbo, Baymax, and a few other lovable characters. We get to see more of Mom and Dad and we hear about the enchanted forest that is not far from Arendelle and the people that live there, and we get a nice song from Mom about a river of memory. The song is a nice lullaby with dark undertones as lullabies usually have, and it gives you a nice idea of foreshadowing as to where the story is going, and we hear Dad’s story about the enchanted woods. Seeing the events of Frozen, we know that this was in the past.

We have a song from Anna with Olaf about everything changing with the seasons and time passing, which takes us into Arendelle’s Thanksgiving traditions, and eventually to a game of charades with the royal family. It is all fun and games until Elsa draws a card that she should be able to act out with ease, but she hears a call from Aurora that completely de-rails the evening, this leads us to “Into the Unknown.”

“Into the Unknown” has very similar “Let It Go” tones. Elsa is alone and exploring her own power, which grows every day as she hears Aurora’s call. The animation is just beautiful here, and there is so much to unpack. We see her tossing and turning, we see the royal family portrait updated to include everyone from Olaf to Kristoff, and so much more. There’s two call backs to “Let It Go” with Elsa’s dress and she goes back to the back door where she left for the North Mountain. Again, the animation just takes my breath away. Elsa spins white, purple, and blue ice in a blacked realm for a quick second, and then we see the very air filled with the ice of the elements, little diamonds that have the elements on them. This is where the movie is set into motion, and this is where I started to really get into it.

*THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING, IF YOU HAVE YET TO WATCH THE MOVIE, STOP HERE*

As the plot kicks off and the royal gang goes into the enchanted forest, I can really tell that the animators really took their time with this. There is so much attention to the smallest of details, and it really makes the movie an experience. The story makes decent sense and there is heavy foreshadowing, something that hints to Disney knew the audience this was intended for. During the montage on the way to the forest, Olaf mentions that “water has memory” which ties in to his end-credit scene where he talks about the snow creations living again after they and Elsa die, because “water has memory and that means that we live.”

The majority of the movie is Elsa using ice to help calm the elements and Kristoff trying to find a way to pop the question to Anna. After enduring the trials of the elements, Elsa takes to where the North wind meets the sea to find the frozen river of memory, something she knows about from her mother who sang it to her in a lullaby at the beginning of the movie. She was warned to not dive too deep or she’d be drowned, and while singing the show stopping “Show Yourself,” Elsa learns that she is the fifth element; however, she dives too deep and freezes much like Anna did in the first movie. Elsa dies, Olaf dies, Anna cries, I bawl…to the point where the grown man next to me asks if I need a hug, and Anna sings a song about making the right choices and doing the next right

thing when she is on the floor, sad about the death of her sister and friend. She reunites with Kristoff and makes the decision to do the right thing, but endangers Arendelle. As a reward for this, Elsa is revived and she saves Arendelle as well as brings back Olaf (enter more tears about my favorite little guy being back from the dead). It is here when Elsa decides that she belongs with the elements and the enchanted forest, and Anna is deemed queen.

This movie took me through so many ups and downs, through crying out of sadness and joy, and so much more. I give it 5 out of 5, and I would gladly recommend watching this movie to anyone who loved Frozen.