When parents brought their little ones to see Frozen II, many were shocked to find it much darker than its predecessor. Some children actually became frightened enough to cry during the movie. The darkness of Elsa's parents fearing their own kid or Hans' disturbing betrayal in the first film were more nuanced, but five-year-olds couldn't not see a horse trying to drown Elsa in the sequel film.
Critics agree that the movie is good, with a Certified Fresh score from Rotten Tomatoes and audiences scoring it even higher, but some parents thought it should come with a warning.
The Nokk Tries To Drown Elsa
Legends of the nokk, water horses and kelpie vary, and while they're all quite magical and captivating, they don't exactly make for great little kids' stories--unless the story is being told by the Brothers Grimm. Elsa had to best the nokk in order to ride it, but the creature's attack included some ferocious attempts at drowning Elsa first.
Hooves on everyone's favorite new version of the snow queen, pushing her down into the dark water's abyss, made the first film's supernatural foes, like the giant snow beast Marshmallow, seem like friendly puppies.
Anna Just Up And Abandons Kristoff
When Anna can't find Kristoff before she and Elsa embark on the rest of their journey to locate the voice, she just abandons him, assuming he left based on Olaf's report. She knows he's not the most reliable narrator, yet she doesn't even really look for him, leaving him with these people they just met.
Kristoff onished Anna for falling for someone she'd just met in the first film, but the same goes for camping with newfound friends. Leaving him like that wasn't very cool of her as his girlfriend or even as his friend.
Olaf Dissolves Into Nothing
Critics will never know just how many preschoolers wailed their hearts out after their beloved talking snowman floated away into flakes before Anna launched into her depressing yet oddly uplifting ballad about doing the next right thing, but surely plenty of children screamed, leaving the theater traumatized.
Josh Gad's naively charming character is one of the most popular among modern Disney personalities. There is no way that kids weren't disturbed by his apparent demise, and it's likely that many a nightmare was induced by this harrowing scene. "Worth melting for" was achingly sweet, but this leaving Anna on her own by way of kicking the bucket was much darker.
Anna Almost Gets Brained By Giants
In order to destroy the dam, Anna courageously does the first thing she thinks of doing, which is entice the giants to chase, nearly crush and throw stones at her. This points at her natural leadership ability, but it also suggests suicidal tendencies following her sister's apparent departure. Does Anna simply feel like she has nothing to lose? The audience is almost made to feel this way.
The scene where Anna and Olaf are careening past the slumbering giants is also heart-wrenching to watch, but mostly because Elsa just shoved them down an ice slide with no idea where it would lead them or if they'd even be able to stay on the path so she could go off on her own.
Elsa Seemingly Dies
It's not as if viewers hadn't already witnessed one of the sisters freeze in the last film, but this time, Elsa was stuck in the deep, dark pit referenced in her mother's foreboding lullaby about drowning. There's absolutely no way anyone could reach her based on her own means of traveling to Ahtohallan, which was complicated and almost impossible, even with her powers.
While many viewers knew that she'd surely be alright since this is a Disney film and love cured a frozen heart before, the confirmation of Elsa's death via Olaf's disappearance made it that much darker in the second film.
Anna And Elsa's Grandpa Is A Murderer
In the first Frozen film, Elsa and Anna's parents are made to look like monsters who fear and can't accept their own daughter, forcing her to "conceal, don't feel" her own powers. In the second movie, their memory is polished up with the revelation that they were trying to get her help, but another member of the royal family, the girls' grandfather, King Runeard, is revealed to be a murderer and possible genocidal maniac.
Runeard is as bad as Hans of the Southern Isles, willing to execute anyone who interferes with his plans, even if it includes wiping out the local indigenous population.
That Creepy Singing Voice
"Into the Unknown" is arguably the best song in the film, and upon viewing it a second time audiences are captivated by the "secret siren" beckoning Elsa home. But when hearing this creepy call for the first time, audiences found themselves a bit unsettled.
A siren isn't meant to be just beautiful; it's deadly. And that was an apt description in Elsa's song, as the voice didn't sound all that welcoming or friendly. In fact, it sounded more foreboding and bone-chilling than anything, at least until audiences finally discovered its source, which ittedly brought tears to many eyes.
Arendelle's Eminent Demise
It wasn't enough for Elsa to launch an eternal winter upon her country in the first film. In the second, she had to rid it of the four elements and render it uninhabitable before her sister nearly wiped it off the map with a massive flood. This definitely enhances her argument that she shouldn't be queen anymore.
Watching a town freeze wasn't as traumatic as watching its power and water disappear, its streets shake and crumble, its citizens displaced and, finally, it almost being sent to Davy Jones's locker. It's almost as if someone said they couldn't outdo the peril of the first movie and Disney said, "Hold my Dole Whip."
Weird Elemental Creatures Everywhere
Like the singing voice, the elementals are fun to watch the second time around when the danger is clear, but the random fire sprouting up all over the forest, the creepy fog, the tornado whisking the characters into the sky and Olaf being attacked without even knowing it all initially gave the movie a Hunger Games sort of vibe.
Being attacked by the forest isn't something new. Disney's done it before. Perhaps the brutal enchanted forest is simply an homage of Snow White's night of terror before meeting the seven dwarves.
The Shipwreck
Everyone wants to see not only the place where their parents took their last breath, but to witness the heartbreaking moment firsthand... except they don't, and yet Disney took it upon themselves to clearly deliver this though the "memory of water" and Elsa's powers. The creepy shipwreck wasn't enough for them to explore; their parents' death masks had to be included. It wasn't enough to simply leave their mother's journal behind for the already traumatized young women, particularly the guilt-ridden Elsa, to find.
Disney's known for brutally destroying many a hero's parent or parents, but this took it to a grim new level.
