Frozen 2 Review

Frozen 2 Review

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first Frozen movie. I thought it was a mixed bag. The songs were catchy and emphasis on Anna and Elsa’s sibling relationship driving the movie were all high points for me, but I didn’t like Hans as a twist villain and found some of the execution a bit lacking. So I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this movie. I was pleasantly surprised and left the theater having enjoyed the movie.

This film once again put heavy emphasis on the sibling relationship of Anna and Elsa and I felt that it was easily the strongest aspect of the film. Elsa’s anxiety and guilt is explored and expanded upon. She still feels that because of her powers she is the cause of the misfortune and unhappiness that her family has faced and it’s revealed that her parents died trying to learn the truth about her powers which just reinforces these fears and causes her to take the final leg of her journey alone. Anna is struggling to help Elsa see her own self worth and maintain their connection. Both of these character journeys are emotionally impactful at times and make the characters relatable. Elsa finally gets closure on her powers and her meaning in life. Learning that her being born and her powers have a purpose which lifts a large burden that she has had since the beginning of the first film off her shoulders. My favorite part of the film is how their relationship at the beginning of the film is portrayed. Elsa and Anna are allowed to do normal everyday things with each other and comfort each other. I appreciated the scene where Anna notices something is wrong with Elsa and they end up cuddling while Anna sings the song their mother used to to Elsa. I always love when media portrays caring sibling relationships.

I was surprised by the dark subject matter the film chose to cover. It depicted the conflict between white colonizers and peaceful indigenous people with Elsa and Anna’s grandfather killing the unsuspecting, unarmed Northuldra chief, which leads to a non-graphic massacre of the indigenous people. The film deals with the erasure of these past misdeeds and the responsibility of the newer generation to acknowledge these wrongs and work for a better future. I can tell you as someone who is native American that I personally appreciated that this issue was given focus within the movie because it sadly mirrors real world events. 

The standout songs are “Into the Unknown” and “Show Yourself”, which are to no surprise, sung by Idina Menzel (the voice of Elsa) who has an incredible voice. I found these songs to be more emotionally resonant than the songs in the first film while not being quite as catchy as “Let it Go”. The animation in this movie was stunning. The particle effects when Elsa used her powers were incredible. Everything from faces to movements to hair to clothes were so detailed. It seemed like you could see the individual hairs on a character’s head and threads of their clothes.

All that being said this movie wasn’t perfect. I didn’t really like what they did with Kristoff this movie. I found the repeated failure to propose to be tiresome and wished that they had cut this subplot to give more time to Anna and Elsa’s relationship and maybe expanding upon the Northuldra people’s culture.  While I thought Olaf was funnier in this film than the first I felt he wasn’t really necessary. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of Elsa and Anna ending the movie separated. They spent the majority of their childhood apart and now they are once again apart after only being together for a few years. It seemed a bit counter to the arc between Elsa and Anna they had set up. The first movie Elsa’s arc was about learning that shutting herself off from the world and those that care about her didn’t truly free her like she initially thought and it was only through those connections that she could come to accept herself and be happy. And heavy emphasis was put on their sibling bond in both films, so having Elsa decide to live in the forest and live away from Anna and the kingdom was not the ending I would have liked.

Overall I enjoyed this film and found a lot of the character beats hit me harder than the first. I also liked the story more and the expanded mythology within the movie. While not a perfect film I think it was worth the price of admission.

Catra and Glimmer - Moments of Truth

The episode “moment of truth” is a major turning point in both Glimmer and Catra’s arcs. They both get their own moments of truth in the episode, but both are framed very differently despite the episode making it clear they both made the wrong choice.

First up is Glimmer. There are two scenes in this episode that can be viewed as her moment of truth. The first is when she initially goes to shadow weaver who persuades Glimmer to free her through the promise of power and the second is when Glimmer actually takes Shadow weaver’s hand to teleport everyone to the fright zone.

For the first one shading is the biggest motif used. The more glimmer considers shadow weaver’s offer the more bathed in shadow she becomes. Glimmer is partially covered in darkness and partially covered in light. Bow is shown on her left completely covered in light while shadow weaver is in the shadows on her right. This is reminiscent of the angel and devil on someone’s shoulders.

 And in this case the devil on her shoulder wins. Shadow weaver tells Glimmer that she has near limitless potential and guarantees she can help Glimmer obtain power. This is ultimately what gets Glimmer to free shadow weaver, step into the shadows, and take her hand.

The second instance and the one that is framed the most as Glimmer’s moment of truth comes when she is on the rooftop and makes the final decision to take shadow weaver’s hand to teleport everyone into the fright zone. The entire scene is framed very sinister using dark colors to emphasize this point. The music called “moment of truth” swells as shadow weaver holds out her hand and Glimmer takes it. Glimmer doesn’t know this is her moment of truth. She doesn’t know that she is making the wrong decision, but the audience does.

Catra’s is framed as the exact opposite.The lighting is much brighter and the music quiets when she pulls the lever. 

The same music that played during Glimmer’s moment of truth plays during the buildup to this moment not for the actual moment. Catra knows her decision is wrong and I believe this was framed from Adora’s perspective. This was a chilling moment of realization for Adora. This is shown through the quiet music. Adora is shocked, everything outside of this moment is being blocked out and the brighter lighting is used to similar effect and emphasize her realization. In this moment any hope that she had of being able to personally get through to Catra was squashed. Catra made the decision to pull the lever in spite of Adora’s warnings. The look of horror on Adora’s face tells the audience all they need to know about how this moment effected her.

Infinity Train Book 2 Thought/Review

I wasn’t sure what to think when I saw Infinity Train will return at the end of the first season. I felt that it was a really good self contained story that didn’t really need a continuation to feel satisfying to me and I was nervous that they would try and churn out more and more episodes and seasons and maybe lose what I initially loved so much about the show, but I have never been so happy to be wrong. Infinity train book 2 managed to, in my opinion, be even better than the first season. Lake’s journey was one of the most real, emotional, and heartfelt I’ve seen in the past year. They took what worked with the first season and expanded on it. They took the heart and willingness to explore real and painful emotions as well as expand on the world of the infinity train. 

Lake was such a strong character that I haven’t been able to get her out of my head since watching the season. The way the show portrayed her journey and existential dread over not being her own person just a reflection was phenomenal. The last few episodes of the season where she is left to struggle to find her own way out and growing despair were the strongest of the season. They were, in essence, a character study. My personal favorite episode was “The Tape Car”. The scene where Lake fails to get her own number and grabs onto the robot begging it to look at her, that she is a real person, and then breaks the robots in the midst of a breakdown was so full of raw emotion and desperation. I couldn’t help but feel sad for her situation and want her to escape the train just as badly as she did. The whole scene felt like an emotional gut punch and I had to rewatch the scene quite a few times afterwards because I couldn’t get how it made me feel out of my head. And that’s what I like the most about shows, having a character, episode, plot point, or scene that blows me away and sticks with me after the show is over. I like it when a show is able to evoke strong emotions from me and make me look back on it positively and this season managed to do that with Lake. Her question about whether she needs a story like the dead lizard struck me because she has suffered and struggled and grown. Her struggle has been real and just because the robots couldn’t see it and she doesn’t have a number doesn’t make it any less true. She’s had to fight to experience even the simple things that people take for granted and yet she wasn’t allowed a number or a way off despite working to grow unlike many others on the train like the people on the mall car. When she is finally free after all her struggling and finally able to look at her reflection without fear it felt validating in a way. She is finally free of the constant fear for her life and freedom and she can finally embrace her initial identity as a reflection and make it her own.

Lake’s relationship to Jesse was another strong part of the show’s season. I really liked the dynamic that they had with each other and how it made them grow as people. Lake made Jesse stop giving into peer pressure and do what he wants and what he thinks is right despite the fact that other people may not like it. This is a characteristic that Lake starts out with, alibi a bit to the extreme, and she is able to teach Jesse this lesson because of it. Jesse is more open to people and get Lake to first open up to him and the possibility that she doesn’t have to be alone, that connections are another part of life that she has the right to experience. They both had to find a way to define themselves outside of the expectations and pressures of others. It’s hard not to be devastated when they get separated and be happy when they finally both get off the train together. 

This season just seemed to hit more emotional beats for me than the first. And that’s saying something because I thought the first season was really good at addressing the problems that it dealt with and conveying the frustration and denial that Tulip was going through. This season spoke more to me personally. Both Jesse’s struggle to not give into peer pressure and be who he wants to be not who others will like and Lake’s struggle to find validation in her identity and carve out a path of her own outside of expectations that were forced upon her. 

This season was also darker than the first, especially when it comes to Lake’s story. Lake has the mirror feds chasing her and actively trying to kill her, she experiences existential dread over being her own person, and goes through what could be considered psychological torture at times. A show doesn’t have to be dark to be great, but this show handled these dark themes well and made them compelling by attaching them to a strong main character like Lake. Jesse is a strong supporting character/part main character. He does take a backseat to Lake in the latter half of the series and Lake is introduced as our perspective character. I really liked this choice because it keeps the initial concept of the infinity train while attaching it to deeper themes like what it means to be “human”/ be your own person. 

I also want to give props to everyone who worked on the show. From the fantastic performances of Ashley Johnson and Robbie Daymond to the writers of the show like Owen Dennis and Alex Horab to the animation which seems to improve with each episode of the show. 

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this show since the finale. I really hope it gets a third season and gets to explore more of the train and the deeper themes it likes to tackle. The setting is rife for potential and the showrunners clearly like to push boundaries. They constantly push the envelope on what they can show and cover in a cartoon that is aired with a rating of TV-PG. I’m really glad that shows like infinity train exist that are willing to try and one up itself and keep growing and expanding instead of playing it safe.

Dororo (2019) The Tale of the Nue- Conflict of the Want and Need

The Tale of Nue is actually a great episode to watch for an example of character writing and the conflict of want and need they go through in an arc. This is a great example of a setback in a character’s arc. They do this by making it seem like the need necessitates the want. We see Hyakkimaru start to get and realize what he needs, connection and an understanding of others through his interaction with Dororo at the beginning of the episode. The lack that he has seems to have eased because of Dororo. The conflict of the episode creates a clash between the want and the need by having Dororo be in trouble and Hyakkimaru be unable to save her because of the limits of his prosthetics. If he had his real arms he would have been able to save Dororo. This makes him lean even more into his lie that to fill the lack he needs his real body. This pushes him even further into his descent than before despite being so close to discovering what he really needs. 

Ford v Ferrari Review

I went into Ford v Ferrari with very little knowledge about the real world events it was meant to depict within the film. It managed to get me invested in the story and characters during its 2 and a half hour runtime. When I left the theater I wanted to go right back in to rewatch the film. I was blown away by everything from the production to the performances. There didn’t seem to be any weak links.

Matt Damon and Christian Bale do a phenomenal job. These are some of my favorite performances that the two have given in recent memory. The scene near the end where Shelby goes by the Miles’ house and talks to Ken’s son Pete while trying his best not to break down was acted incredibly by Damon. These two had great on screen chemistry and I believed their friendship despite the arguments and fights they got into. The Miles family were all well cast. I was especially impressed with Noah Jupe. He is a talented young actor that I’m happy to see gaining recognition. This whole film is full of A+ casting.

The cinematography and directing were both incredible. It did a good job of making you feel the speed, adrenaline, and tension of each race. The perspective of the driver that both Shelby and Ken talk about in the film was shown by having the sound around the driver mute and the camera angle would open up and slow down. This gives the viewer the same, or a similar, feeling the driver must have felt. 

The real strength of this film is that it manages to capture your attention not just in the loud moments of competition, but in the quiet moments for the characters as well. My favorite shot of the film is actually the wide shot of Ken and his wife Mollie dancing in the empty hangar after Ken has been left behind and told he can’t drive. So much emotion is conveyed in that short yet tender shot. Ken is clearly torn up about being unable to race and his wife knows that. They don’t talk about it, but you know they both understand each other and support/comfort one another. This is the case with just about every scene concerning the Miles family. The movie makes sure you know how much they care about each other and it makes it hit all the harder when Ken doesn’t make it out of the car at the end during the test run.

I highly recommend this film be seen in theaters. I believe it is worth the price of admission and then some. I had a blast with this movie and I hope anyone reading this did as well.

Adora, Catra, and Glimmer and their Relationships to Destiny

She-ra covers a lot of topics in surprising depth, but the one I want to talk about right now is it’s dissection on destiny. It takes a long hard look at the topic through it’s three female leads Catra, Adora, and Glimmer. It’s surprising how much overlap there is and how each character is used as a direct foil to the others in regards to the show’s exploration of destiny.

Adora

Adora has a complicated relationship with destiny. Throughout the series until the series finale she has continually followed false destinies first with shadow weaver and the horde then with she-ra and light hope then finally with the failsafe. Adora has had false destinies forced upon her and she feels she has no way out, that she can’t refuse the call. She actually feels secure in knowing she has a destiny. It’s a path to follow, a purpose, and without a purpose what’s the point of her? At least that’s what she believes. She places her entire self worth on what she can do for other people to the point of self destruction. She is willing to answer the call no matter the cost even if it’s not what she wants. But Adora was never meant to succeed in any of her false destinies. It was always someone else using her for their own gain. All of her sacrifice would be for nothing.

 Her breaking the sword in destiny isn’t her refusing the call. She believes her purpose is to protect etheria and those she cares about and by breaking the sword she is “killing” a part of herself to answer that call. Just like how she left the one person she cared most about and her entire life behind to answer that same call in the pilot. Just like her taking on the failsafe and accepting her, what she believes to be, inevitable death. In a weird way every time she rejects the call from someone else (shadow weaver, light hope, the first ones, etc) she is leaning harder into the idea of her purpose and sacrifice defining who she is, which is in and of itself a false destiny and self fulfilling prophecy that almost gets Adora killed time and time again. 

Adora is never given a choice in any of her other false destinies (in fact she was actively conditioned to believe that she had no choice by shadow weaver and light hope. Adora was made to believe that she was meant to answer a higher call and neglect her own needs and wants) so she feels that the call to protect etheria and her friends isn’t a choice either. To Adora it’s the reason she exists. She is what she can do for other people. She is stuck in her own cycle of service and sacrifice that was forced upon her by shadow weaver and others.

Catra

Catra, like Adora, follows a destiny she thinks has been forced upon her. She feels the role of the villain is her only choice. At first it was a role forced onto her by shadow weaver then it became a way to prove to everyone she felt hurt her and didn’t believe in her that she was capable, that she was strong, but then the farther she went the more she believed that there was no other path for her. She felt she had to continue because she had gone too far to turn back and so she had to make something of it all. She felt she was proving shadow weaver, the source of her trauma, wrong by gaining power and relevance within the horde and etheria, but also that she was proving shadow weaver right, that she was a horrible, good for nothing person that only hurts those around her. She felt trapped within this destiny (the cycle of abuse and violence). 

She continues to double down and claw her way up to the top which culminates in her defeat of Hordak. She is the sole leader of the horde, she has clawed her way up and defeated all of those that were above her, and yet she has lost everything. She has lost everyone who ever actually cared about her and to make matters worse the power she strove after all these seasons was decimated in one fell swoop by Glimmer mainly because of her own actions (though Glimmer’s plan was smart). Glimmer would not have been successful if Catra hadn’t overworked the troops, been lying to Hordak, sent Entrapta to beast island, pushed Scorpia away, put faith in double trouble who she knows is hired help who knows no loyalties, and taken even a little bit of care of herself. It’s in this moment where she’s at her lowest that she is given the brutal and (only partially true because shadow weaver was definitely not pushed away by her. Shadow weaver just sucks.) eye opening speech by double trouble. 

Catra has fallen victim to her own self-fulfilling prophecy just like Adora does during the series. Both had these cycles/destinies forced upon them by shadow weaver and her abuse and can’t see a way out. They feel they have to continue down their respective paths of self destruction because it’s their only choice

Glimmer

Glimmer isn’t like Catra or Adora. She never had a destiny forced upon her, but she wanted one. She wanted to be the hero, to save all of etheria. Glimmer wants glory and power. This isn’t to say that Glimmer is a bad person, far from it in fact, just that she has shortcomings that blinded her to the truth: that she didn’t have a destiny, but that doesn’t make anything she does less meaningful than what Adora does. 

A large part of her season 4 arc is about her clashing with Adora over her feeling as though Adora is failing in her destiny and won’t take the necessary steps to win, but that she can. Adora isn’t willing to use the dirty tactics to beat the horde, but she is. Adora isn’t willing to use all of her resources like shadow weaver, but she is. Adora isn’t willing to fire off the heart of etheria, but she is. Because of all of this Glimmer starts to believe in her own way that Adora is failing as the hero and in her destiny and if that’s the case Glimmer will take that destiny. Adora is meant to finish off the horde by activating the heart of Etheria and since she won’t Glimmer takes that destiny from her. There is a conflicting mix of anger, desperation, pain, and pride that push her to do this, but it still all ends with her going to light hope to take Adora’s destiny for herself and her using Catra’s tactics to take the horde down from the inside. 

She in a way takes the forced destinies of Catra and Adora on for herself. She believes, like Catra, that she has to make it all worth it, all the loss her and her people have gone through, which is what leads her down her spiral like how it led Catra down her spiral this same season. 

How it all concludes in the 5th season

As I’ve said above all of their struggles with destiny come to a head in season 4’s finale. Glimmer in taking on the destinies of others ends up making a grave mistake that almost ends the world and universe. Adora effectively “kills” she-ra to answer her calling to protect etheria. Catra has climbed her way to the top of the horde, but has lost all the power she thought she wanted and had to strive for at the same time. All of these in their own way subvert the expectations of each character and force them to take a hard look in season 5 at themselves and their destiny. 

Catra is forced into a situation where she is effectively powerless and is faced with the same decision she had at the end of season 3. This time she decides to take action against destroying the universe. She hasn’t erased her mistakes, but has shown that she has grown from them. In this decision she has started to break free from the cycle she was stuck in. It isn’t until the episode “Taking Control” that she fully starts to break the cycle. She makes the decision to live and face her mistakes instead of die or run from them. This is Catra breaking free from her destiny. It’s through facing her mistakes that Catra is able to grow and become the person she always was instead of the person she felt she had to be. Catra’s struggle with destiny was always that she felt she had to be someone else, that it was the only way to protect herself and prove others wrong. It’s through actual acceptance, care, and compassion shown to her that she is able to break free from this mindset. Obviously the journey isn’t over, it’s something she will always have to work on, but she has made significant strides and wants to continue making them. Her destiny is her own choosing.

Adora is a bit more difficult because she backslides in a big way in the fifth season. She starts out the season having difficulty adjusting to no longer having her destiny as she-ra and she seems to come to terms with the absence of this destiny by the time she leaves earth. And in “Save the Cat'' she actively goes against her calling and destiny she believes she has to follow. She puts saving Catra above the universe. She won’t leave the ship without Catra and the odds of her getting out, especially without she-ra, were practically non-existent and she knew this going in. This is the first time in the series that Adora really makes a choice that is for herself not her calling. This ironically is what brings back she-ra, one of her false destinies, but this time she-ra is a manifestation of Adora and her will, not that false destiny. Once Adora returns to Etheria and is faced with the failsafe and shadow weaver she backslides back into a false destiny pushed onto her by shadow weaver. She takes on the failsafe and decides that being sacrificed is a better outcome than letting horde prime get the heart. She is fully prepared to die and Catra sees this. Catra becomes the first person to ask Adora what it is that she wants. Adora can’t answer. Her needs and wants are unimportant next to her destiny. “It was always going to end like this.” To Adora this end was inevitable. But then Catra comes back and decides to stay with her when she activates the failsafe. It’s in this moment of selfless love from Catra that Adora is able to break free from the coffin of her abuse and reach for what she wants. In doing so she is able to break the cycle of service and sacrifice. She has let herself want to live and have a future which is what saves her. It’s what lets her break free from her destiny.

Glimmer is once again different. She doesn’t have a destiny to break free from. But from taking on the false destinies of Catra and Adora Glimmer is able to gain perspective that she didn’t before. She understands to a much greater degree what drove Catra to where she is now. Their similarities are no longer a point of contention but rather a point of connection. The new perspective Glimmer has allows her to reach out to Catra and see the potential for good that she was so adamant didn’t exist in earlier seasons. She’s able to see the shades of grey within people unlike before (ex. “Bad people don’t change” in the price of power). It allows herself to see her own flaws with much more clarity such as her desire for power and glory, jealousy, quick temper, etc and grow. She’s able to see the shades of grey within herself. This also allows her to accept that she doesn’t have a destiny, but her actions are just as important as anyone else’s. It doesn’t negate all the good she’s done or will do. This allows her to find the power within herself to defeat her father and protect all the princesses in the final battle with horde prime. Glimmer isn’t defined by this lack of destiny. It’s an interesting foil to Catra and Adora who always felt trapped within destinies. Glimmer felt trapped because of her lack of one like she was limited because of it, but it’s once she discovers that she isn’t, that she can create her own path, that she’s able to create her biggest positive impacts which is rather fitting.