It’s been a few years since we’ve been subjected to random snippets of “Let It Go” from random strangers on the street. Disney thought today was the perfect day to remind us that’s changing soon enough. Frozen II dropped its first official trailer and I must say, color me impressed.
First off, phenomenal trailer work here, team. It doesn’t reveal the entire plot of the movie. It doesn’t even reveal an antagonist. It does do what trailers should do: build hype. It starts with a powerful premise, that Elsa’s taking her ice superpowers even further, learning how to better control them and refine certain skills like the Jesus (walking on water) and the Frozone (skating on an ice track you create in front of yourself). It also begs the questions, what’s she practicing for?
Then too, the trailer let’s us know that all our favorites are returning, there’s ice hunk Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), second-in-line little sis Anna (Kristen Bell), beach enthusiast Olaf the snowman (Josh Gad), and dog-like Sven (who’s bringing friends!). This is what we want: hype and a reminder of what we loved about the last Frozen. Take notes everyone making trailers out there! We don’t want absurdity, nor do we need the entire film spoiled at our first glimpse.
Frozen II has all the elements necessary for wild success. The original cast returns, and OG writer-director Jennifer Lee is back penning the script and behind the helm with co-director Chris Buck. Lee has a string of wins under her belt, having also penned both Wreck It Ralphs and Zootopia. So, she’s also responsible for the refuse that is A Wrinkle in Time, but let’s give her a pass as she was dealing with dated source material and she didn’t direct it either. Ignoring that one ‘accident,’ she’s batting a thousand.
Frozen premiered on November 27, 2013 and went on to enormous success. While becoming the top grossing film of 2013 (racking up over $1.27 billion worldwide), it set a number of other records as it went: all time highest-grossing animated film, 13th highest-grossing ever, best-selling Blu Ray ever, and prior to Wonder Woman, it featured the highest gross from a female director of all time. It was universally loved by audiences and critics alike and it deserves the praise.
