Rarely will you hear me say that a sequel was better than the original. So, mark this day down. Frozen II is better than Frozen.

Frozen covered ground that Disney’s animated princess films had not really covered before. Romance was not the central focus, which was huge. With Frozen II, they had to top their original story. They, quite literally, had to go “Into the Unknown”.  Frozen is about sisterhood and acceptance. Frozen II  is about finding out who you are and embracing it.

Visually, this film is absolutely stunning. It felt like there was more effort to make sure the characters looked more animated as opposed to more lifelike. All of the details in the film were so real. The water looked like actual water and the snow flurries looked like actual snow flurries. It was absolutely breathtaking. Frozen II felt like the animators were showing off what they could do and I loved every single minute of it.

My opinion about the music still stands. “Into the Unknown”, “Show Yourself”, and “The Next Right Thing” made me cry just as much within the context of the film as they did when I first listened to the soundtrack. The song that I like even more now, after hearing it in context of the film, is “Lost in the Woods”, the song sung by Kristoff, voiced by Jonathan Groff. Within the soundtrack, the song is good but it felt a bit out of place, melodically. But, the sequence during the film makes the song fit so well. I was actually laughing out loud in the theater. It was perfectly done. Also, thank you to the song writers for giving Jonathan Groff a longer song this time around.

Let’s talk about the character of Kristoff for a moment and how he is a great example of what a supportive man should be. He’s dating a woman who is royalty. She’s busy, she’s got things going on, and he knows that. Even after Anna returns, after Kristoff thought that she left him, he is there for her. He saves her and says “I got you. What do you need?”. He’s not angry at her. He’s not holding any grudges. He’s understanding. And, again, towards the end when Anna apologizes for being so preoccupied, he responds with “My love’s not fragile”. My entire goddamn heart melted.

Anna has always been my favorite out of the two sisters, so I was happy that there was emphasis on her importance in all of this.

Did I cry? Of course I cried. Did I figure out the ending of this film because I was in EPCOT a week ago and went on the Frozen ride and their costumes had been changed to the ones from the end of this film? Yes. But, thankfully, that didn’t take anything away from the film.

I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them for making me cry over an animated anthropomorphic snowman, though.

*All pictures property of Walt Disney