Elsa the Snow Queen has an extraordinary gift — the power to create ice and snow. But no matter how happy she is to be surrounded by the people of Arendelle, Elsa finds herself strangely unsettled. After hearing a mysterious voice call out to her, Elsa travels to the enchanted forests and dark seas beyond her kingdom — an adventure that soon turns into a journey of self-discovery.
Plot: Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven leave Arendelle to travel to an ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land. They set out to find the origin of Elsa’s powers in order to save their kingdom.
Director: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Runtime: 103 min
Rotten Tomatoes Consensus: Frozen II can’t quite recapture the show-stopping feel of its predecessor, but it remains a dazzling adventure into the unknown.
Online Ratings:
- Rotten Tomatoes 77% (Audience 92%)
- IMDB 7.1
- Metacritic 64
- Cinemascore A-
“Just as good as the first film.”
Review:
This movie was animated and ultimately finished as a 2K Digital Intermediate — that means you will get an upscaled image on this release. As per the norm with UHD releases, it was also given a HDR color grade for your viewing pleasure in HDR10. Beyond that, there’s no grain visible (the usual with animation), which means you’ll get an amazingly sharp image.
The first point to cross is the jump between the Blu-ray and the 4K UHD. Is it a dramatic jump? No, the Blu-ray is amazing all on it’s own, but the HDR brings the visuals to life and the extra resolution adds more detail and sharpness consistently. Where will you see some of these improvements on the UHD? You will notice little things like the detail of Sven’s hair across his body, the slight freckles on Anna & Elsa, the different textures on the characters wardrobes and the body of snow that is Olaf — you can pick out the purposely placed imperfections when you look for them.
On top of that you’ll see more detail in the environment — the various roads, homes and castle of Arendelle all get a boost in texture. When we enter the lands in and around the Enchanted Forest in Chapter 7 & 8 you get the misty-overcast effect on it’s intended level — all with fall colors surrounding every scene.
When it comes to the HDR, you’ll see it work it’s magic in the various environment palettes. You will notice the fall-like colors starting in Chapter 3 & throughout the film, the effects of Elsa’s powers in Chapter 5, 8, 9, 12 & beyond, Bruni the Salamander’s fiery effects in Chapter 9 and the entire sequence of “Show Yourself” in Chapter 15. Lastly, the white snow that makes up Olaf looks more lifelike during the whole film in UHD — that carrot of a nose is bright-bright orange too.
Finally, the black levels in the low-lit and night scenes look amazingly lifelike with more depth and shadow detail at every turn. Sometimes you’ll see a touch of softness or maybe an imperfection or two with some movies, but not here. This is a top to bottom, start to finish amazing transfer. I’m not sure that it’s a reference quality disc, but it’s the best way to watch the movie.
In conclusion —
I was born in the 1990’s, so I grew up on Disney — anything they make I will end up seeing either for myself, with my younger cousins or with my niece and nephew. By the time any of them ‘grow out of it’ I should have a family of my own starting the process all over again. My point is that these movies won’t be escaping me anytime soon and reviews will continue to populate on this website for a long time to come.
Frozen 2 had a lot of pressure and built-up expectations, maybe some of the biggest the animated genre has seen and good news, they pulled it off. I was worried that this movie would be void of depth, but it’s a surprise that they not only expand on the characters you love, but add new ones to care about as well. You can be rest assured that the music and story will entertain younger and older viewers alike.
This movie pushed past the $1.4 billion mark at the box office and that doesn’t even include the sales from physical media, clothes, toys, etc — this is a gold mine. I wouldn’t say Frozen 3 is a guarantee, but now that we have something like Toy Story 4 with the potential of more… it’s never out of the question. Beyond that, the bonus features on the Blu-ray disc includes a Sing-A-Long version, song selection, outtakes, deleted scenes, deleted songs, music videos and more. Rest assured, there is a lot to uncover when it comes to special features, there’s a ton.
Taking everything I’ve said into account, Frozen 2 gets my recommendation for an automatic day-one purchase. The first movie was an instant-classic and this one is just as good, so do yourself a favor, grab a copy at your local retailer on either 4K or Blu-ray today. You won’t be disappointed.
Did you catch Frozen 2 in theater? Were you a fan of this movie? Will you be picking it up to own? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Cheers,
Matt.
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