Hello all!! It's been a minute since I've posted here, so sorry about that. I've been a bit busy setting up my new art challenge, Erstwhile Academy, which you can learn more about in the previous post. Anyway, today I want to review the animated movies I saw in 2019. I hope to keep doing this in years to come; as I've mentioned before in this blog, animation is a big inspiration for me, and it's contributed a lot to my love for art. I have to say that overall, the past year in animation hasn't been the best in my opinion, but i'll do my best to pick a favorite I think deserves it.
A few quick disclaimers here, I'd like to mention that these are definitely not ALL the animated movies released to theaters in 2019. These are just the movies I chose to see - and this probably won't change in the future. And also, while I'm going to be judging these movies on lots of different merits, and I really do enjoy analyzing movies from an artistic standpoint, the main reason I go to see an animated film is to have a good time. And I'm going to rate these movies as such.
And lastly, these will NOT be spoiler free.
I'm going to be rating these movies on 6 different criteria: 1. Animation, 2. Characters, 3. Story & Plot, 4. Comedy, 5. Music, and 6. Overall Enjoyment.
The movies I'll be reviewing today, by release date, are:
• The Lego Movie 2 - Warner Bros.
• The Lion King - Disney
• How to Train your Dragon 3 - Dreamworks
• Toy Story 4 - Pixar
• Frozen 2 - Disney
It was definitely a year full of sequels, huh! I'm going to be putting these in order from my least favorite to my favorite, and I will be mixing the years for this list. With all that said I think we can begin!
…
5. The Lion King 2019
I know I'm not the only one to get rubbed the wrong way by this movie. The Lion King 2019 feels so pointless and uninspired - it's a very obvious cash grab and it really makes no effort to prove itself otherwise. I typically dislike all of these live action Disney remakes, but just brush them off because, at least they added something different. Something New. Something that makes it feel like a different movie. This movie is just a complete rehash of the original Lion King without any charm. Which is crazy, because the original Lion King is probably one of the best animated movies ever made. It's amazing how just changing a few aspects can leave such a sour taste in your mouth.
• 1. Animation
It is so difficult to judge this movies animation. Technically? It's good. They look like real animals - which I guess is good, since that's what they're going for. But visually? It's bland. Its boring. There's no color, no emotion, somehow no life. The animals may look realistic, but they don't feel alive somehow. I think what's just so irritating about this, is just how masterfully animated the original is. Take the "Can't Wait to be King" scene. The original is colorful, full of movement. Animals are dancing, the whole world is flashing in different colors. In this newer version, it's just Simba walking nearby some animals, who don't join in on his song. The world doesn't change colors at all. It's just a real lion walking through a real Savannah - and its boring. It's actually frustrating, I think that's the moment I really knew I wasn't gonna like this movie. And BECAUSE it chooses not to really add anything to the story (which I'll discuss more later) it almost feels as if it's saying "we redid this movie to have better animation", and that is actually gross to me. The idea that they really thought technical success is more important than color and feeling baffles me.
While the idea that something that looks real is actually animated is cool for a second, it wears off pretty quickly. Then your just sitting there thinking - I've seen all this before in real life. I know what a real warthog looks like. And to be honest - a real warthog is kind of ugly. A real lion can't look like Scar in the original, with that unique design and choice of colors that enhances his feeling of evil and immediately helps the audience know his role. You know - like animated movies do. Instead, Scar looks like every other lion, just a tad more beaten up, so much so I sometimes had difficulty telling him and Simba apart.
The original Lion King is so beautiful - it was made an animated movie in the first place for a reason. It's a movie about talking lions, it doesn't need to take itself so seriously. While the story of the lion king is good, I'd argue that's not necessarily why it's considered one of the best animated films. It's more of the feelings it is able to convey, excitement and fun, but also sadness and tragedy. And it has the ability to do all that because of animation. It upsets me that they felt a need to change it. The animals in this movie never express an unrealistic expression, and it shows. Instead of showing Simba crying at Mufasas death, they simply don't show his face, knowing that realistically, a lion can't cry or even look sad. And it's awful. It's the same movie but without the heart, without the fun, and without the beauty of animation.
1/10
• 2. Characters
There's not too much to say in this category, we have the same characters here as in the original. Still, in some ways they feel like a bit of a shell, but I attribute that to the animation not being able to show their emotions. Really my only dislike here is Scar, who feels so much less threatening in this film. They attempt to give him this side story where he has feelings for (or at least, did once) Sarabi, Mufasa's mate. They even insinuate that Scar wants to become King just because he is jealous of Mufasa's attention and wants Sarabi to pay attention to him. Which sounds SO silly to even say. The original Scar feels like this chaotic evil, he wants to be King just because he wants power, not cause he's jealous of his older brother. Any ounce of scariness is completely taken out of this character.
7/10
• 3. Story & Plot
Again, a lot of this stays the same. Somehow though, it doesn't hit it's story beats quite as tightly. It goes through the same motions - but because of other factors, particularly the animation and the music, it doesn't hit the same way. I also really dislike their small changes to the film, I think things like Shenzi, the female hyena, being a leader of hyenas now feels very silly. It's a totally unnecessary small detail, it means nothing and adds nothing to the film, yet it ends up taking away screen time from characters we might actually care about. Beyond unnecessary changes like this, the film changes nothing - meaning it feels, not like a new twist on the old story, but like you're just watching a worse version of the original.
6/10
• 4. Comedy
The Lion King 2019 does ok with this I think, it chooses not to change a lot of the jokes and thankfully doesn't add too many new ones either. It definitely has a few of a certain kind of joke though. I'm still looking for the word to describe it - which I've been trying to determine for a while now. In recent Disney movies, ESPECIALLY those from 2018-2019, there have been a lot more jokes that break the fourth wall in some kind of way.
They're usually funny in the moment - but feel distracting and take you out of the context of the film. They break the magic feeling that the movie could be real. This movie doesn't have the worst of these, but there are a few. I particularly felt taken aback by the "Be our guest" reference. It wasn't UNFUNNY, it just breaks you out of the film completely. I don't mind these kind of references entirely - I think the Original Aladdin handles this perfectly by incorporating pop culture references from the Genie, while also making it so that if you don't get the reference, it doesn't matter. It's just Genie being himself. (As you can see, the recent Live Action Aladdin is NOT on this list as I genuinely have not been able to bring myself to see it yet.)
8/10
• 5. Music
This section is so perplexing to me. The Lion King 2019 recreates all the same music from the original, and it only changes lyrics in just a few places. And yet somehow, it feels less emotional than the original. Watching the scene with Mufasa in the clouds in theaters felt SO anticlimactic. And I'm not even sure why, or what makes the original soundtrack more powerful. Even the originals score is better. I particularly dislike the new films versions of "Circle of Life" and "Be Prepared", but that is if we dare to consider Be Prepared a SONG in this film. It's more of a chant - which is such a shame since Be Prepared is such a great villain song. I decided not to have a section for acting in these reviews because I didn't feel like it stood out to me as good or bad in any of the films, it's all equally good. But I did dislike Scar's performance, he's so calm and u threatening in my opinion. And of course, Beyonce runs about 20 times at the end of "Can you feel the love tonight" which is absurd.
6/10
• 6. Overall Enjoyment
I have to admit, I walked out of the theater pretty disappointed on this one. And I think that is pretty much the worst thing you can feel coming out of what is supposed to be a fun animated film.
To score my overall enjoyment, i'm tallying up all my numbers from the separate categories, with the best overall score being 50. Here is my overall score for The Lion King 2019:
28/50
4. The Lego Movie 2
Alright - I know it. This is a controversial statement. A lot of people thought the sequel to the Lego Movie lived up to its expectations. But I was not at all impressed by this one. It didn't feel the same at all to me as the original - it was very cheap and sickeningly sweet in ways I didn't enjoy. I also disliked most of the new characters introduced in the film. Let's discuss it:
• 1. Animation
I can't complain about this films animation - just like the original, this film looks great. I wouldn't say stunning from a visual sense, but thinking about the time it took to animate all the details of the individual bricks is pretty amazing! They take so much time to make sure it feels real, that the bricks click together right. I remember when the original came out some people were unsure if it was stop motion! I do feel that this film didn't use this in as many creative ways, but it didn't look any worse.
9/10
• 2. Characters
The main cast all felt pretty true to themselves, though maybe not as entertaining. But Batman definitely got way too much screen time and oh my goodness, I can't stand the new characters introduced in this film. The villain - irritating, the villain sidekick - too sweet, the Chris Pratt 2.0 Joke - not funny. It's such a shame as I think one of the things The original did so well was introducing you to lots of new side characters who were STILL entertaining, interesting, and easy to care for.
Think of how little The Green Lantern Lego is shown in the film, he's only in maybe 2 scenes. And yet I still remember his dynamic personality in an iconic way. That's something that really made the original stand out and yet it's missing here, at least for me. None of these new characters felt memorable or unique, and also not something that would take a child's imagination to create.
4/10
• 3. Story & Plot
I guess I don't have any specific issues with the plot of this film, it just overall felt very disjointed and without a good flow. I can remember very well the order of events of the first film, and I find doing that for this sequel extremely difficult. And I refuse to believe that's only because I've seen the original many more times. To me, a film is either memorable or it isn't. I actually have a hobby of watching these terribly made, low budget films for the sake of making fun of them. And I can vouch there are some I've seen many times but STILL could not tell you the overarching plot in order. I just don't think that rewatching a film is what ingrains it into you, I think its how memorable it is and how understandable it is, and I very directly think it has to do with how you felt watching it for the very first time. I just don't feel connected to this story, not to say that it is necessarily bad, but that it didn't stick with me in any impactful way.
4/10
• 4. Comedy
I have to admit I distinctly DON'T remember the comedy in this movie - which feels very odd to say considering that is basically the point. I just remember not laughing at A LOT of it. I think it's just very difficult to recapture the spirit of something, and I think they sort of dropped the ball here. It just doesn't feel the same to me. I'm no professional, so I can't say I know what's wrong or how to fix it, just that something is.. off?
3/10
• 5. Music
I strongly dislike the music in this movie. In an attempt to replicate the "Everything is Awesome" song from the first, they add another "annoyingly catchy" song to this film. It's alright I guess, my issue really stems from just HOW MANY songs are in this film, it really feels like they just keep coming, and a lot of them are not annoyingly catchy - they're just annoying.
1/10
• 6. Overall Enjoyment
I don't have much more to say for this one. I really did not enjoy it. In some ways, I probably enjoyed watching it LESS than The Lion King. But for the sake of how much The Lion King upset me, I had to place it lower.
21/50
3. How to Train your Dragon 3
The How to Train your Dragon franchise was really important to me growing up, so I really wanted this ending to feel satisfactory. I'd actually say it did. While certainly not a perfect movie, it hit the right places in my opinion, and I actually preferred it to the second one, which was never my favorite.
• 1. Animation
The HTTYD movies are always top notch with this. Sure the original doesn't look so great now, but at the time, it was pretty amazing. This third installment is just beautiful to look at in a lot of different places, especially in scenes involving lots of dragons. Not only do the character designs work, but the color and texture they add to the dragons is always great. Specifically the dragon cave scenes in this movie are wonderful to look at, and also when the dragons are flying. Basically: I like dragons and I particularly like THESE dragons.
10/10
• 2. Characters
I think the characters in this sequel were able to stay fairly true to themselves, and I also really like how our main characters Hiccup and Astrid have grown in this film and learn to get past some of their fears. I don't know, I think they did a really good job with it. I maybe wish Astrid was a little less perfectly calm but eh, that's a nit pick. I like where this film takes them and how they end up, I think it's pretty neat and different to have Hiccup and Toothless separate by the end of the film. It definitely feels like the first two have been leading up to this. I just think they did a good job with it.
8/10
• 3. Story & Plot
If there is any area of this film that isn't strong, it's probably the plot. It's a little drawn out, unnecessary, etc. The villain (who I'm discussing here instead of characters because he is more of an antagonist to the plot than an actual character) is basically a rehash of the second film, who already felt out of place to me. I don't think evil for the sake of evil villains work in these movies, especially not when we had such interesting antagonists in the first film. The original film has an antagonist of a disappointed and concerned father, and I just find that a lot more intriguing. As for the rest of the story, it's decent. Again, a bit unmemorable.
4/10
• 4. Comedy
The last installment of the HTTYD series had a MUCH less comedic tone. While it did still have its fairly huge cast of somewhat unneeded comedic side characters, they didn't feel like they were overriding the film at any points in my opinion, except maybe in the very opening scene. I actually feel like the jokes in this movie, at most points, were more solid than some in the previous films. Seems like a win!
8/10
• 5. Music
The score is maybe the last thing you're thinking about in a HTTYD movie, but it's actually a pretty big part of it, and the original score is very iconic. Especially in flying scenes, the score always feels very grand. I really like that about it. They've also always used the same artist for their end credit songs, an actual Icelandic musician called Jonsi. I really noticed and appreciated his inclusion in the credits here again, his voice sounds incredibly nostalgic to me, and probably a lot of others who grew up on the original movie, and it adds a lot to it to not have some pop singer playing at the end of this movie.
8/10
• 6. Overall Enjoyment
I really did like this as a conclusion to the series. Was it better than the first? Of course not. Would I watch it again? Most likely no. But it wrapped up the life of some characters that are very near and dear to me in a mostly satisfying way, so I don't have many complaints.
38/50
2. Toy Story 4
I debated the right spots on this list for Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2 for a long time. While I was more entertained by Toy Story 4, I was also more upset by it's downfalls. I decided that, because overall Toy Story 4 has more issues, in my opinion, I would place it at number 2. Toy Story was my absolute FAVORITE franchise as a kid, I watched the first 3 movies to death and know them like the back of my hand. To say I was terrified of the idea of a fourth is an understatement. The third Toy Story film is the equivalent of a perfectly wrapped bow - it's not just complete, it is EXACTLY what you were wanting and hoping for. It felt so right. And then this comes along, and you know the only incentive to add a fourth is to get new kids buying new kids and asking parents "Can we go to Toy Story Land?"
• 1. Animation
You know I shouldn't complain here. Toy Story 4's animation is BEAUTIFUL in ways you'd never expect a Toy Story movie to even go into. The textures and lighting particularly are stunning. It doesn't make up for the films mistakes in any way for me, but you can't deny the artistry that went into the film here. There's so much UNNECESSARY detail though. Why is the cat photo realistic, but Jessie gets 3 seconds of screen time? It feels a lot like they wanted to show off how pretty they can make things in this movie. I have to mark it down for that a smidge, because it does feel like they put TOO many eggs in one basket, and it detracts from the rest of the film.
9/10
• 2. Characters
Uh oh, we've hit the rough spot. I have problems with EVERY CHARACTER in this film. We're gonna have to break it down and dissect it a bit. For starters, a majority of the cast is barely seen in this movie, in a way that actually feels very startling and goes against the family/teamwork dynamic of the toys set up in the first 3 films. The toys are all lone wolves, going off on there own adventures, or just staying behind in the van with Bonnie because the movie doesn't know what to do with them.
Buzz is a mess in this movie. They sacrifice all his character development in the first 3 films, reverting him to an even more naive version of his original self, all for the sake of this one running gag that is only funny briefly. Buzz's entire story in this movie is that he doesn't have thoughts, and relies on the voice commands on his buttons to direct him. It basically takes anything heartfelt he said about friendship and family in the first 3 and says "Forget that! Buzz is a dumb dumb now because the kids will laugh!" Buzz is basically Olaf in this movie.
...Which is annoying because we ALREADY HAVE AN OLAF RIPOFF IN THIS MOVIE. His name is Forky and he's only semi funny. He was just born/created, and so he doesn't know that doing things like running in the middle of the road and jumping into trash compactors will hurt him, kind of like a snowman who doesn't understand why he can't go in the sun. Forky's gag of wanting to throw himself away is funny at first but quickly becomes this "not again!" sort of joke. Then suddenly, when the story needs him to, Forky begins to understand the importance of having a kid in his life and making a child happy.
... WHICH is an interesting message, considering Woody's main plot in this film is suggesting that he's actually better off without a kid because then he will always be the center of attention and get what he wants. I hate that message, it's absolutely terrible. Woody's entire journey throughout the first 3 films is constantly rediscovering the importance of self sacrifice for the benefit of others, specifically family. He learns how to share the attention of someone he cares about, then how to stick by their side even when ignored in case they need you again, and even how to let someone go completely when they don't need you any more. It's all about SACRIFICE, sacrificing your own personal desires and gain for the sake of others. In this movie, Woody is ignored for a brief period of time, then goes through the EXACT same crisis as in the second movie. He feels unneeded and unwanted, and that maybe it's time he do something for himself and not others. Except this time he goes and does that. It's not necessarily a BAD message - that's not what i'm saying, i'm just saying that it goes AGAINST the message of the first 3 movies, making this film feel so out of place, and Woody so out of character. Despite it sometimes being difficult, Woody's main trait is his loyalty and his self sacrificing actions. To see him leave that behind in this film for his own personal gain feels wrong to me. And for that to be the end of his journey feels really unsatisfying.
Lastly we have Bo Peep, who feels so out of character here. I'm not saying to have her remain the way she was in the first two, but dropping that completely without addressing it feels very off. We can't just say Bo was ALWAYS this strong, powerful leader. She wasn't. Say this film had started with Bo as we knew her, sort of a powerless character. She's getting taken away from Andy, but this time she doesn't feel confident she can handle it. She's scared, she asks Woody to come with her, he rejects. Now when they meet again she's bitter, she's become this tough, strong person, but it's because she HAD TO to survive. She doesn't regret how she's grown, but she resents that she felt helpless and Woody wasn't there for her. That feels real, that feels interesting, not this idea that Bo was always this way and we just didn't see it.
1/10
• 3. Story & Plot
I basically already discussed a lot of my problems here above, I dislike Woody and Bo's story as a whole. But it was enjoyable to see and I found it's story beats pretty memorable. I definitely would be entertained by watching the film again, it's just simultaneously irritating to think too deeply about.
I do think the conclusion feels distinctly lackluster and not nearly big enough in the scheme of usual Toy Story endings. It's usually a group effort between all the toys, in some sort of scheme, to get away from the villains and return home. But neither of those things need to happen in this film, they don't need to escape the bad guy, as she has turned good, and they don't need to return home because they're still right near by Bonnie. It's not terrible, just not coherent, and it's surprising how much incoherence can make a film feel off and strange. You don't know when you're watching it that "Oh! This feels weird because the ending isn't an escape!" You just know it feels wrong in some way.
7/10
• 4. Comedy
I actually thought the comedy in this movie was it's strongest aspect, even though ive been complaining about Forky and Buzz. I think the successful comedy in this film comes from the side characters, especially Ducky and Bunny, who I thought would be a nuisance but were actually very funny. There are a few more small characters here and there who were very funny as well. The main cast is pretty lacking here, though.
7/10
• 5. Music
I know this is crazy short, but I don't have much to put here. The music felt right on point, basically unnoticeable, which is how I think it should be in this kind of movie. It felt exactly like watching any other Toy Story movie and in my book, that's a success.
10/10
• 6. Overall Enjoyment
Overall, this movie was fun to watch, but also very upsetting to think about. It's definitely one of those sequels I hear people saying they just want to pretend never happened. It takes that perfect bow from before and unravels it. We already had a perfect, entertaining, satisfying, and coherent ending that seamlessly tied into the morals and messages of the first two films. This movie just forgets all that and leaves for an unsatisfying ending with a moral that feels out of place.
34/50
1. Frozen 2
I feel very odd about putting this at first, because I don't think its a very solid movie, but out of all of them I do think it was the biggest success. I maybe felt less irritated by any decisions in HTTYD3, but I also recognize that the memorability of Frozen 2 is just so superior I have to put it higher. Let's get onto my issues:
• 1. Animation
This film totally hits it out of the park here for me. The animation is gorgeous, but never takes the attention away from the characters and their story, in a way Toy Story 4 fails at. There are so many specifically beautiful scenes I can't go into detail about them. The entire "Show Yourself" Sequence is probably more visually stunning than anything in Toy Story 4, and that means a lot. I don't know what else to say here - it's a case of perfect animation. Lots of flow and movement without feeling too cartoonish, lots of magical and unrealistic colors to keep it feeling just cartoon enough. It's definitely my favorite animation in any of the films this year.
11/10
• 2. Characters
Just like in Toy Story 4, the issues with the movie mainly lie here. In fact, the problems with the characters in Frozen 2 are almost identical to those of the characters in Toy Story 4.
First, we have the problem of under utilized characters, like Kristoff, Olaf, and the random ensemble of side characters they decide to add to this film with no sense of purpose. They all end up not contributing to the bigger scheme of this movie, which feels very unsatisfying to me, especially with Kristoff who is totally thrown aside in this movie after his big song.
Anna sticks out in a weird way in this film, very much like Buzz, losing any of the depth she had gained before and reverting to this annoying shell of herself who, honestly, also doesn't get much attention in this film. She doesn't grow in any way, at least to me. I know a lot of people found her "Do the Next Right Thing" scene to be very moving, but to me, it just felt like Anna being Anna. She wasn't learning how to be a better person, she was just reminding herself of the positive person she already was. It just didn't hit for me. She really has nothing to do for most of the movie, which also feels incoherent since the original Frozen is definitely focused on Anna, not Elsa. The only reason Elsa is chosen as the focus of this film is because kids like the magical queen, not the UNmagical princess, not because Elsa's journey really had anything important to say. That's honestly probably why they made Anna queen at the end, to try and balance toy sales.
Elsa is the real issue for me. JUST LIKE WOODY, she goes against everything she learned before in this movie. In Frozen 1, Elsa is very isolated and afraid of hurting people. Because of this, she tries to do everything alone. She eventually realizes that is not the way to be happy and she cannot do everything on her own. She "opens the door" so to speak, letting Anna back into her life and allowing herself to be loved and helped. Elsa finally seems happy to be surrounded by people. It seems like people have the understanding that Elsa is an introvert who prefers being alone, i'm not really sure why that is considered true. Elsa feels trapped and alone in the first movie, until she can finally get past it and let people into her life, when she becomes happy again. She's not an introvert per say, she's just afraid of hurting people. To me, the whole win of the first film was "Elsa and Anna finally aren't alone!"
So when this movie ends with the two separate, it feels wrong. Don't come at me with "But you just said in HTTYD it was GOOD that Hiccup and Toothless learned not to rely on each other!" You're right, I did, and it was a different movie. HTTYD is a series about a scared kid growing up and learning to believe in himself, so yes, his realization that Toothless is better with the other dragons, now that he has finally found a place where life in the wild for dragons is not dangerous, is important and brave of him. Elsa and Anna don't have any reason to separate except that Elsa learns she is even more powerful than she originally thought, and just like before, she just wants to run away and be amazed with herself. Except now, Elsa isn't a semi-antagonist, she's the good guy, and the movie says that this is the right thing for Elsa to do. Just like before, Elsa spends the whole movie pushing others away, claiming she is powerful enough to do everything by herself, and this time the movie proves her right. That is directly contradictory to everything we learn in the first film. Elsa gets away with her actions, but it also doesn't not effect people. Elsa physically pushes Anna and Olaf down a cliff in the pursuit of discovering her own powers, hurting their feelings very deeply. And yet she never pays for those actions. She is warned not to go too far, but she does anyway, in result KILLING Olaf. She never pays for that either. Instead, Anna is forced to do the dirty work for her, fixing Elsa's mistakes. Frozen 2, just like Toy Story 4, tosses aside their morals of family and working together for a message of doing only what's good for you.
I don't like that, if you haven't gathered.
2/10
• 3. Story & Plot
The story in this movie is decent and entertaining, despite being pretty disjointed at times. A lot of things feel sloppy, like the story about their parents and their grandfather as the bad guy. It's as though we are supposed to feel surprised by these plot points, but we as the audience don't feel connected to those characters. We don't care that Elsa's mother lived in a magical forest, we're not shocked that her grandfather wasn't very nice. We don't have any preconceived ideas of what those characters are like, so it's not surprising to us in any way, especially considering Anna and Elsa don't seem very surprised themselves. I also think the way that some things play out, like Elsa awakening the spirits through song, or even her just being the fifth spirit herself, don't work. My main issue is that Elsa never befriends all 4 spirits. She does so with water, fire, and wind, but never Earth. I don't know why specifically that bothers me so much, but Elsa already doesn't have to work very hard at becoming the fifth spirit, you think she could at least befriend them all.
5/10
• 4. Comedy
I don't have a whole lot to say here, none of the jokes struck me as terrible. There were actually quite a few funny jokes, especially Kristoff's song. At the same time, they were always pretty long and unconnected to the main story line, which takes you out of the movie a bit. So the jokes weren't bad, just not always timed right and a bit lengthy.
7/10
• 5. Music
I feel very torn by the music in this movie. I think both of Elsa's songs, "Into the Unknown" and "Show Yourself", are some of the best songs in a Disney princess movie to date, possibly better as a whole than a lot of songs from the original Frozen. But looking at ALL the songs from Frozen 2, it is much less solid than the original. Anna's songs in particular feel lack luster and as though they are not completely utilizing Kristen Bell's singing voice. Again, Kristoff's song is comedic, but not necessarily tied into the film. Kristoff's feelings expressed in this song are not even brought up again in the movie. And Olaf's song in this film is nowhere near as charming or catchy as "In Summer". Which is why I feel so torn about how to score this - Elsa's songs are some of my new favorite Disney songs ever, but as a whole, I dislike the songs as a coherent album. For the sake of Elsa's songs being so good, i'm still going to score this section pretty high.
7/10
• 6. Overall Enjoyment
I did really like the film as a whole, and I did place it as my favorite animated film of 2019, so that's definitely saying something. But at the same time, it's not all that strong, definitely not among my favorite Disney films, and it certainly didn't live up to the hype of a Frozen sequel or match the quality of the original overall, in my opinion.
32/50
...
So, Frozen 2 is my personal choice for Best Animated Movie of 2019!
I wasn't sure if I should rearrange my choices here, seeing as some movies above Frozen 2 actually scored HIGHER out of 50 than it did. But I still stand by my original feelings with this, and the scores are more just a way to visually represent how I felt about the different aspects of each movie.
What do you guys think of my ratings? Where would you place these movies on your list? Let me know in the comment section down below!