Frozen II (4k Ultra HD + Blu-Ray + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Mar 5th, 2020
Starring: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Sterling K. Brown, Evan Rachel Wood, Alfred Molina, Jason Ritter, Martha Plimpton
Written By: Jennifer Lee
Directed By: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Studio: Disney / Buena Vista
Buy On Amazon.com
The sequel to the Disney smash hit has been out on digital, Blu-Ray, DVD and 4k for over a week now. I was hoping for my wife to review this but she’s too busy to review the movie. So she’s obviously fired now. People longing for adventure and songs from Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Kristoff have gotten their wish. Not sure which movie is better since I’m not the biggest fan of either.
Frozen II is about Elsa (Idina Menzel), Queen of the Arendelle and her Sister, Anna (Kristen Bell), princess of the Arendelle venturing out into the Enchanted Forest to learn about their past. They are joined by Anna’s boyfriend Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer Sven and of course there’s the bubbly talking snowman Olaf (Josh Gad). Elsa and the others discover the truth about their parents, Arendelle and beyond.
Full disclosure, I’m not really the biggest Frozen fan. I love the majority of Disney movies, but I’m more of an old-school Disney fan than anything. I will say that Moana is perhaps the best Disney animated movie (that isn’t Pixar) since the Lion King. It’s got better characters, songs and a more enjoyable story. The musical Disney films need to have a certain style of singing for me to like it. The Frozen movies never really appealed to me.
With that said, Frozen II was decent. I found fast-forwarding through the songs made the movie more tolerable for me. The reason for that is I really, really can’t stand Idina Menzel’s singing style. It’s just…loud to me. This is coming from someone who listens to punk, hardcore and metal on a daily basis too. You can blame the Wicked commercials for this thinking. As soon as that commercial came on, I’d fumble for the remote to mute the commercial. The same can be said for “Let It Go,” the most irritating Disney song of all-time. Thankfully, the songs aren’t as ear-wormy as the last movie but I guess that might be considered a bad thing for some Disney fanatics.
I actually enjoyed the movie when I skipped over the songs and just liked the plot for what it was. Idina’s acting is fine, I just don’t like her singing. I like Kristen Bell’s character Anna and Jonathan Groff’s Kristoff more. He’s a talented singer but man, did his song go on and on and was beyond cheesy. I’m kind of 50/50 with Olaf. Part of me likes him and the other half wishes he’d just melt away because he can be overly annoying.
In terms of animation, it looks excellent and it’s amazing what Disney is able to do now. It’s come a long way since when the studio first started. They are able to tell stories in such visual ways and do things they couldn’t before. Plus, Frozen II looks incredible in 4k. Story-wise, it was okay but could have used even more explanations on some storylines. It’s like Disney is preparing everyone for several more movies to come out and just giving out little glimpses of the world of Elsa and Anna.
On the 4k disc, there’s a sing-along part for the movie otherwise you’ll find all the extras on the Blu-Ray disc. There’s outtakes, a “did you know” segment, a featurette about the spirits (Earth, Wind & Fire err sorry Earth, Fire, Water and Air), a featurette about the score, some deleted scenes and songs and other things. I didn’t bother looking at “Into The Unknown in 29 languages” since I didn’t like the song in English. There should be a music-less feature on the disc to just cut out the songs but I guess that’s counter-productive since this is a Disney musical after all.
The Frozen movies aren’t really my type of Disney movie, but my son & wife likes them and I guess that’s what really matters. Frozen II was okay and I enjoyed most of it, just not the songs. It does feel like a step-down from Frozen 1 though.
Features:
Sing Along with the Movie
Outtakes
Did You Know???
The Spirits of Frozen 2
Scoring a Sequel
Deleted Scenes
Deleted Songs
Gale Tests
“Into the Unknown” in 29 Languages
Music Videos
Song Selection
Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Japanese: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Japanese, Spanish
Bottom Line: Decent sequel to the Disney smash hit but can the next one forgo songs?
Running Time: 103 mins
Rating: PG
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
