Review's Resort: Talkie Tuesday: Frozen II

"Step into your power."

Hello everyone!

So after about half a week of back and forth over whether or not there would be a blog post, I'm FINALLY back.

Unfortunately I sometimes suffer from headaches which occur because I either a) haven't been drinking enough water; b) haven't slept enough; or c) I've spent too much time staring at a book or screen.

I think it might have been a combination of all three of these, coupled with the fact that I had friends over on Friday on top of already not sleeping well. I felt the headache beginning while still happily playing Cluedo, but it wasn't until Saturday that it blew into epic proportions. Not quite a migraine, but definitely painful enough!

Here I am, finally, with the promised movie review which should have gone up a whole lot earlier!

And yet, better late than never, right?

For this week's blog post, we're going right back into the cold, so hopefully you've bundled up again.

Show yourself, Frozen II.

The link to the first movie in the franchise can be found at the bottom of the page (and there's a few others there too, if you're interested!).

VERY briefly, however: Elsa has powers, Anna wants desperately to escape life in a closed-off palace, Kristoff wants what Anna wants, and Olaf just wants warm hugs.

That's the very bones of it, but in all honesty, the first movie is about letting the world see who you truly are and not letting anyone else bring you down or say you're different because you don't conform to THEIR view of what should or shouldn't be. It also puts great emphasis on sisterly love as opposed to romantic love, which I thought was rather well done.

The second movie gives us another flashback to when Anna and Elsa are happily playing with Elsa doing magic, and their parents walk in for their bedtime story.

The king tells them of the time when he went with his own father to broker peace with the Northuldra, a people close to magic and the four elements, but he doesn't know what went wrong because in the end, the peace treaty fell apart and there was fighting. He only escaped because someone carried him out of there and he returned to Arendelle a king, as his father died in the battle.

Meanwhile, his wife Iduna puts the kaboosh on the storytelling and sings a lullaby to her daughters about an ancient river with all the memory in the world, but of course there's trials and tribulations before you can get to it. Nothing in the old songs is EVER easy, am I right?

As we know that neither parent is alive in present-day, it's no surprise that we clock back in with Elsa and the others, catching up with what they've been doing.

Kristoff is planning to propose to Anna, although his practicing DEFINITELY needs some work (no, you can't marry Sven, my man), Olaf is trying to learn everything he possibly can, and Anna is worried about Elsa, who can't seem to find peace after their first adventure.

Truth be told, Elsa feels out of place even in simple family games like charades, and it doesn't help that she's been hearing a voice singing to her.

What voice?

Well, mostly it's just someone vocalizing, like they're calling to her, and one night when she's unable to sleep, she finally answers in some way, accidentally unleashing a flash of her magic - which kind of wakes up some MORE magic.

And sends Arendelle into a frenzy because the elements start attacking it.

Realizing what's happening, Elsa spearheads the evacuation, and then admits to Anna what happened (also that she's been hearing voices, but that's beside the point). It's decided the group will go see if they can possibly calm the spirits down, which means finding out what happened in the past - which also means walking into an enchanted forest that nobody can really enter, or if they do they sort of never come back out again.

It turns out, however, that the mists hiding said forest respond to Elsa's magic and let them through - only for them to run smack into a bustling wind, and flames ...

and two groups fighting each other.

They realize these are the Northuldra and Arendelle warriors, still fighting after thirty odd years, caught in a never ending cycle within the forest, and no chance of seeing the sky again unless someone frees them. Elsa and Anna also learn about the dam that their father's people built for the community, though that's not the most important fact.

The most important thing is the salamander who's the fire spirit, DUH.

Ahem.

They learn their mother, Iduna, was actually Northuldra, and she was the one who rescued their father that day when everything went south, escaping out into the world with him.

And while Kristoff finds a kindred spirit in another reindeer shepherd, busting out an old 80s-inspired ballad, the sisters continue on with their journey to try and figure out how to solve this entire thing and bring peace back to both their kingdom AND the forest (after ensuring nobody'll do away with anybody else while this is happening).

Which is how they find their parents' ship, in a place it never should have been, and Olaf explains that water holds memory - it being the substance which circulates throughout the world and its living beings - so Elsa is able to bring back the ships' last moments. This helps the girls learn that their parents were actually searching for Ahtohallan, the mystic river which would help them explain Elsa's powers and how to help her.

Feeling guilty for their deaths, and having a point in saying Anna doesn't stand a chance in this quest without powers (which is true), Elsa sends Anna and Olaf away in a boat while continuing on solo.

She braves the dangerous seas and runs into the water spirit who guards the way, eventually taming him so he takes her to her destination - the glacier that is Ahtohallan, the river of memory. Once there, Elsa learns that the voice she's been hearing is an echo of young Iduna's call, guiding her to where she's shown SHE is the fifth spirit, the one who will be a bridge between people and nature with her magic - and that, contrary to being a curse, her powers were a gift from nature because of Iduna's selfless act when she saved her enemy (Agnarr, her future husband and king).

Unfortunately, Elsa also learns that her grandfather tricked the Northuldra, and that the dam he built was meant to weaken them, not bring strength or prosperity, as nature itself was beginning to die because of it, but in doing so she ventures into the deepest, most dangerous part of Ahtohallan, and freezes over (just like her younger sister said she would, which gives younger siblings around the globe the chance to say I TOLD YOU SO).

Not before sending a message to Anna, however, who learns of Elsa's passing when Olaf fades away - because if he's disappearing, it means Elsa's magic is no more, which means SHE is no more.

Heartbroken because half of her heart is literally gone with her sister dead, Anna figures out the dam needs to be destroyed, and goes to wake up the magical spirits we haven't seen by then in the movie, the Earth giants, who, in aiming to destroy her, actually bring down the dam. This act in turns thaws Elsa and she rides the water spirit to Arendelle to save it from the incoming flood.

With peace restored, and the magical barrier around the forest lifted, the sisters reunite, and Elsa explains they are the bridge between people and magic; Anna and Kristoff finally stop messing around (aka Anna stops misunderstanding everything Kristoff says and he plucks the courage to just ask), she accepts his proposal, and prosperity returns to the land. Anna becomes the new Queen of Arendelle while Elsa becomes the guardian of the Enchanted Forest, living in Ahtohallan and making regular trips to Arendelle, and everyone is finally right where they belong.

Fin!

Sweet, poignant, and getting me even more than the first, the second Frozen movie delivers on the message of finding your place in the world and in your family when you consider yourself an outsider. It isn't someone else who's going to tell you, however, it's YOU, yourself, who has to stand up and plant your feet firmly in the ground.

Once you accept yourself fully - as Elsa did - then you can find peace within yourself to be exactly who you were meant to be.