<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. Starring the voice talent of Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Sterling K Brown, Alfred Molina

Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes

Do you want to build a snowman? Well if he turns out like Olaf (Josh Gad) then I’d love to! He steals the show in Frozen 2 with his witty dialogue, insightful questions and hilarious plot observations. 

The first Frozen in 2013 was both a recapturing of the drama and darkness of old fairy tales like Snow White as well as a modern take on the ‘knight-in-shining-armour’ theme that most children’s stories would be about. Frozen was about girl power and sisterhood, with the male characters on the sidelines.

Frozen 2 is also about its female protagonists, Ice Queen Elsa (Idina Menzel) and her sister Princess Anna (Kristen Bell), now ruling over the kingdom of Arendelle in peace. Elsa seems a tad bored though. Anna’s commoner boyfriend Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his trusty reindeer Sven (who sounds like Chewbacca from Star Wars) are generally blissful with Anna’s only responsibility to protect Elsa. And as the siren from the foggy forest calls to Elsa, a new adventure begins, to find out about their lost parents and the truth behind an age-old feud, which will save their kingdom and free the forest.

Throughout the film, Kristoff is practicing how he’ll propose to Anna; this leads up to a rousing ballad reminiscent of a Queen video. All the songs in Frozen 2 are beautiful but none of them quite stand out like the original hit Let It Go.

So, while the women are handling the adventure and fighting off the evils, the proposition and marriage in general seems to be an important theme through the film. So are lovely gowns and horses made of water. All, I assume, to appeal to the young girls in the audience. Not as forward-thinking as you might imagine. I played with the thought of Elsa having a female companion, perhaps the siren would turn out to be a partner she’d end up staying with. Just something to break the whole formula of ‘they lived happily ever after’ because of course there has to be a wedding!

Snowman Olaf is wise, wacky, wonderful and very entertaining. I said it in my first review as well, he is unlike most other wise-cracking sidekicks we see in animated films. It’s as if he’s above them all and knows something they don’t.

Frozen 2 is predictable but the songs and the magic and Olaf make it an enjoyable ride. It’s also Disney’s biggest debut for an animated film.