Frozen II: "No Bops", Say The Kids

The changing seasons. Los Angeles traffic. Thanos’ snap. All of these are inevitable. But nothing (arguably) has been more inevitable than the sequel to Disney’s Frozen.

We knew this day was coming. It’s been six years since the original film’s record-braking release, and the lack of Frozen content has left a growing void in different pockets of filmgoers— hardcore Disneyphiles, OG Frozen babies just now entering adolescence, cinema cynics waiting to pounce on whatever isn’t “cinema”, and maybe the most fervent and vocal in the line of Frozen advocates, the LGBT community, whose handwritten letters and strongly worded emails, all with the same subject line, “QUEER ELSA?!”, have been flooding the desks and inboxes of Disney Animation for half a dozen years. I have been writing these letters as well, although I never really understood the hype behind the first film (shhh). Over the years, however, I’ve become more lenient toward the film, realizing that I may not be the target demo. Frozen was fine. Songs were fine. Themes were fine. Then along comes Frozen II, which graduates the franchise from “fine” to “you know, that’s pretty good”.

Walking out of the theater, I had a hard time pinpointing why Frozen 2 resonated with me (perhaps an indication that the six Frzoen-less years might have softened me up a little). Thinking about it drove me to the brink of madness a couple of times. All I needed was a nudge in the right direction— my thoughts were on the tip of my tongue, waiting to be recognized and pontificated. A couple days after my watching of the film, I was walking around a mall food court filled with beanie-wearing, Tik Tok dwelling, Tumblr children (of the corn), and a girl with the voice of Perez Hilton said, “Frozen 2 was worse because it had no bops”. It was the mental break that I needed.

I quickly moved away from the conversation so as not to bleed from my ears, but I walked away with a thought in mind: If this girl believed that Frozen 2 was “bopless”, it must mean that she thought Frozen had greater than or equal to one bop. My mind awakened, and I could hear many others spouting the same opinion. The songs were worse. I didn’t like the music. No catchy tunes. Meanwhile, I’m listening to the frozen 2 soundtrack on repeat while “Let It Go” is but a distant catchy memory. If the songs are really the differentiating factor for both films like people have expressed, Why is Frozen 2’s music perceived to be worse, or at the very least, different?

Full disclaimer, there are probably plenty of musical theater experts and Disney scholars who can explain the broader meanings and deeper understandings of the utilization of music in a musical. For the purposes of what I am trying to work through, I will try to stick to Frozen and Frozen 2, not hitting songwriting theory too hard or generalizing musical theater to a base understanding. In both films, you have what is essentially a centerpiece song; Frozen has “Let It Go”, Frozen 2 has “Into the Unknown”. For both films, the marketing and ancillaries seem to hang onto both songs, really pushing people to fall in love with the films through these particular songs first. The rest can come later. In one film you have “Let It Go” which, while it may not be my favorite piece of music in the Disney oeuvre (or Frozen for that matter), gets the job done effectively; an emotional main character ballad that builds in dynamics and bravado while effortlessly serving audiences the theme of the film on a silver platter. The theme? Let it go. From young girls harboring grudges against their bffs, to children of divorce, to members of the LGBT community who need an extra push before they come out to their families, it’s a simple message for anyone to grasp. In the case of Frozen, Elsa’s “it” in “let it go” is equivalent to the past. Further proof of this is in the lyric, “I’m never going back, the past is in the past”.

Jump six years into the future, and Frozen 2 has placed “Into the Unknown” as its main musical draw. Ten days before the film’s release, Panic! at the Disco released the track as a single in a pre-celebration to the film. And if that weren’t enough, the song ventured into K-pop territory with Girls Generation member Taeyeon releasing a Korean version. If we are to assume that “Into the Unknown” works in the same way as “Let It Go”, then we should be able to discern a theme from this song as well. At first, second, or third listen, “Into the Unknown” is seems to be derived from the objective plot of the film, rather than the feelings of the character singing it. Seemingly, while “Let It Go” is a tool to show Elsa’s reckoning with her emotions, “Into the Unknown” feels like its main priority is to songify the inciting incident of the film. Frozen 2'‘s characters go into the unknown quite literally (its the plot), while as in the first film, “Let It Go” takes a more symbolic approach. If the “it” in "Let It Go” is the past, then what is the “unknown” in “Into the Unknown”?

Since the lyrics of the song don’t state a concrete idea of what the “unknown” could be, we have to look to the plot. In Frozen 2, Elsa and pals have to enter a magical forest where time is standing still (standing frozen, if you will). This creates a separate time-space where the majority of Frozen 2 takes place. No one has ever ventured there; the unknown, in other words. However, since this time-space takes place in a vacuum about twnetyish years before the events of the original Frozen, we can “the unknown” by another name— the past.

Thus, we have conflicting ideas in both films. Frozen wants wholeheartedly to be a “leave your past behind” affair, but its sequel has its characters venturing into a world stuck twenty years ago. This is why, despite the flaws of the film (the lore of Frozen 2 is a little wishy washy and noncommittal), I lean toward a more positive experience with the film. With its redefinition of “true love”, a main conflict located inside the film’s protagonist Frozen was a film that was thought to have defied trends in Disney’s “princess films” thought to be set in stone. Frozen 2 , while flawed, is allowed to tackle and challenge the themes from the original film.

Individually, both films are solid pieces in the Disney CGI renaissance, but together they can provide something more to the conversation in regards to how sequels and remakes should be handled within the Disney universe. While as most sequels would find their conflict in a falling out or quarrel between established characters, Frozen 2‘s source of antagonism is the theme of the first film: No matter how much you let it go, the past comes back. So what are you gonna do about it? It’s all right right there in the music, and while some digging is required, it makes for a richer experience— minus the bops.