Frozen 2: 9 Ways The Sequel Improved On The Original
4. The Heavy And Mature Themes
Depression, existentialism, colonialism, and murder - who knew Frozen 2, of all films, would be the one to tackle these issues?
From the first teaser, everyone knew Frozen 2 would be a lot darker than the first - so much as a saccharine Disney kids film can be dark - but it was still surprising to see such themes tackled in the story.
In Ana's song, "The Next Right Thing", the steps she takes are incredibly similar to advice about depression - dividing your time into manageable chunks if an entire future of grief seems too overwhelming. Instead of hoping for a consistent future, Ana, in her grief, focuses on actions she can take in the moment - The Next Right Thing she can do to help her loved ones.
Olaf's existentialism is mostly played for laughs, but his talk about change is largely unironic. Change always comes, and it's confusing and scary, and that's life.
As for all the colonialism and actual murder committed by their grandfather, having the two sisters right an unambiguous wrong is a lesson for young people to learn. Not even mentioning the two having to see their parents' last moments as they drowned in the ocean.