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Beck |
Frozen II: (Christophe Beck/Robert Lopez/Kristen
Anderson-Lopez) To the dismay of progressive parents of daughters
everywhere, 2013's Disney blockbuster
Frozen re-popularized the
"princess with huge eyes" concept for another generation. Instead of
dressing up as astronauts or scientists on Halloween, little girls
preferred to be Elsa and Anna, Queen and Princess of Arendelle,
respectively, in their glamorous Nordic kingdom perfectly suited for
Disney's whitewashed past. The royal sisters, joined again by ice
harvester Kristoff and a magically-rendered snowman, Olaf, return in
Frozen II to confront an escalation of tensions between Arendelle
and a neighboring kingdom. During the journey to determine why forces of
nature are attacking the protagonists, Elsa must travel beyond a
forbidden forest and treacherous waters to find her own origin story and
set things right. The plot contains elements of action and racism that
appealed well to adult test audiences but essentially confused children,
so Disney was forced to change several portions of the film to better
explain the tale's mystical elements and return a larger dose of comic
relief into the story. While critics were only moderately receptive to
Frozen II, audiences turned the film into another box office
smasher, ensuring more princess-fueled sequels (or queen-fueled, by the
end of this one) to entice countless of years of Halloween costume sales
alone. The soundtrack for
Frozen brought the Broadway duo of
Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez to Hollywood and, with the help
of their lead ballad, "Let It Go," moved on to popular encores for
Coco and
Frozen II. The "Let It Go" song is so
overwhelmingly successful that the other songs for the first movie, as
well as the score by Christophe Beck, have been somewhat marginalized by
comparison. In reality, the soundtrack as a whole never really gelled as
much as it needed to, the songs and score too disconnected from each
other to compete with Disney animated classics of the past. This
oversight is partially rectified in
Frozen II, with a more
impactful crossover of melodic structures from the songs to the score,
but these connections are still more limited than they need to be, and a
continued disconnect between the instrumental tone of the songs and
score remains a problem in the sequel.
One area in which the songs and score for
Frozen II
do better satisfy the concept is in the further embracing of Nordic
musical heritage and a sense of mysticism in general, though more of
this success is owed to Beck's work than the songs. The demeanor of the
Lopezes' songs remains solidly Broadway-bound, pop and rock infused and
thus a bit awkward for the otherwise beefed-up fantasy element in this
sequel. If anything, the songs in this context could have used less drum
kit influence and bashing emphasis on certain beats as expected for the
stage, and this includes the lovingly retro 1980's rock stylings
afforded to the Kristoff character, who gets a chance to sing more in
this story. The best moments in the songs are those in which the
orchestral and choral accompaniment is dominant, allowing them to flow
seamlessly with Beck's surrounding material. The foremost example of
this point is the first song, "All is Found," performed by the
mysterious mother of Elsa and Anna, the vocals by Evan Rachel Wood
offering a Nordic lullaby of sorts over regional string instruments and,
at its climax, a full orchestral ensemble. It's a lovely, albeit brief
song. By contrast, "Some Things Never Change" lends the four main leads
a contemporary, piano, drum kit, and acoustic guitar intro with the
standard Lopez technique of repeating melodic phrasing over shifting
bass chords. The main ballad from
Frozen II is "Into the
Unknown," which fails to live up to "Let It Go" but will please fans of
Idina Menzel's oddly abrasive vocal tone yet extraordinarily polished
performance capabilities. Key to this song is a four-note motif inspired
by "Dies Irae," performed by Norwegian singer Aurora Aksnes and
emulating the Scandinavian use of herding calls in "kulning" musical
form. The siren call exists initially as hesitant counterpoint to the
main vocal lines, but that melody eventually matches this four-note
motif as Menzel reaches her higher registers. It's a satisfying
structural technique that makes the song more intelligent than most in
the genre. Unfortunately, the comedy relief song, "When I Am Older," for
Olaf the snowman is an anonymous old-school jazz piece that hopefully
serves its purpose for children, because it will make adults cringe. A
brief reprise of "Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People" from the previous
film leads Jonathan Groff into "Lost in the Woods," the quintessential
1980's love ballad from phrasing to instrumentation, and it's mildly
amusing even if it really badly pushes the film away from its fantasy
core.
A highlight of the
Frozen II soundtrack is "Show
Yourself," though one could argue that this song would have been better
enunciated if it had been a straight reprise of "Into the Unknown." Its
own melody is somewhat overwhelmed by both the four-note siren call of
"Into the Unknown" and an interpolation of "All is Found" in its final
minute. The Lopezes' technique of delaying crashing bass chords under
Menzel's melodic line is extremely obnoxious and unnecessary, inhibiting
the otherwise fluid contributions by the Aurora motif and the orchestra.
Still, the last minute of the song is really gorgeous conceptually and
in the other performance elements. The final song seems tacked on to the
story as means of getting Kristen Bell one solo performance as Anna, and
while she cries her way through the first half of "The Next Right
Thing," the latter half offers her some vocal resonance against the
orchestra in a melody that isn't particularly memorable but pretty
nonetheless. The songs together are a decent lot, and fans will be
thrilled to hear Bell and especially Menzel reprising their royal
crooning and belting, but the latter's songs are really inhibited by the
forced Broadway rock sensibilities of their recordings. The "Vuelie"
song from the previous song doesn't have its own, self-contained
performance in
Frozen II but Beck does bookend the film with the
full vocalized version of it in his score cues "Introduction" and
"Epilogue," along with a reference in the pivotal cue, "Iduna's Scarf."
Its style also informs "Reindeer Circle." Beck's score for the preceding
film wasn't particularly noteworthy, his contribution strong enough to
support the songs but not establishing its own foothold musically. In
Frozen II, this equation is far different, the composer taking a
much more prominent role in shaping the narrative of the film due to the
greater quantity of action and fantasy scenes requiring a robust
orchestral and/or choral presence. In general, Beck improves across the
board in this sequel, his action sequences really solid and his
secondary themes numerous and developed well. That said, while there are
a few poignant connections between the song melodies and the score, Beck
completely loses the vital four-note siren call in his score. In fact,
the melody of neither Elsa song is interpolated into the score as
needed, leaving a gaping hole where Beck was seemingly content to write
all-new themes for concepts without reason. Likewise, the composer drops
some of his own secondary themes from
Frozen and replaces them
with other identities. So while his rendering of beefier material is
highly enjoyable, nagging continuity issues remain.
To continue addressing the Scandinavian location in
Frozen II, Beck returned to his collaborators on the prior score,
Norwegian composer Frode Fjellheim and the choral group Cantus, who
helped craft "Vuelie." He also applies a gemshorn to the score, which is
technically a horn but offers a soft woodwind-like effect. Listeners
will be more impressed by Beck's handling of the robust action portions,
though, with his brass writing particularly improved here. Thematically,
he reprises his main theme from the prior film (heard first there in
"Elsa and Anna") that is confirmed as a representation of Elsa's powers
in this score. You hear the theme in action mode at 0:30 into "Wind," on
piano at 2:23 into "Iduna's Scarf," sprinkled into the battle of "Fire
and Ice," in tenuous mystery at the end of "River Slide," in brass
heroics at 1:39 into "The Flood," and wrapped with a dramatic string
conclusion at 2:01 into "Reunion," where it takes on hints of James
Horner depth. A separate theme for Elsa and Anna is developed throughout
Frozen II, occupying most of "Sisters" and continuing at 0:57
into "Earth Giants," 3:06 into "The Ship," and the first 90 seconds of
"Reunion." In most performances, expect solo elements take the theme;
only in "Reunion" is the idea allowed some volume. An important new
theme in the score represents the Northuldra and enchanted forest, heard
almost continuously in "Northuldra," book-ending "The Mist," and
receiving an ominous statement closing "Wind." The eerie ethnic tones of
"The Mist" return early in "The Ship," and the theme disappears until a
massive statement for the full ensemble at 1:55 into "The Flood." As
vital to the score is a hopeful theme for Elsa's destiny, introduced by
choir at 0:52 into "Wind" and closing "Iduna's Scarf" with delicate
harp. This theme really establishes itself in "Dark Sea," its
performance at 0:39 into that cue monumental in its force on brass. A
redemptive spirit takes hold of the idea in the first minute of "Ghosts
of Arendelle Past" before "The Flood" climaxes with the theme once again
at full throttle. This theme in particular doesn't make a whole lot of
sense in the score, because while it is effective, it isn't directly
connected sufficiently with either of the Elsa songs' melodies. It has
vague resemblances to something the Lopezes would write, which made it
all the more unnecessary to invent a new identity. Beck said that only
some of the songs' melodies spoke to him, so those were the ones he
used. Unfortunately, the lack of "Into the Unknown" in these passages,
and especially the four-note siren call associated with it, is baffling,
and it's hard to imagine why this material didn't catch Beck's interest
when lesser songs did so.
The secondary themes on the score for
Frozen II
include identities for some but not all of the nature-related
characters. The Earth Giants and associated mystery are afforded a
descending motif at 0:42 and 1:27 into "The Mist" that continues at the
outset and at 0:32 into "Earth Giants," this time with pronounced
exoticism. After a brief reference at 1:12 into "River Slide," the motif
resolves in "Rude Awakening," where it opens and closes the cue with
harsher, brassy renditions. Two of the elemental spirits in the story
receive motifs, the one for the wind spirit, Gale, the best applied.
Beck's use of rambling piano and
Predator-like action suspense in
"Exodus" reminds of the most unlikely of Alan Silvestri modes. (It would
be extremely humorous if
Predator was actually the temp track
inspiration for a scene in a Disney princess flick.) The motif takes a
more animation-friendly personality early, at about 2:00 into "Wind,"
and it is joined by chimes at 0:39 into "Iduna's Scarf" for a magical
moment. This motif opens the first few seconds of "The Ship" and returns
slightly at 1:48 into "Reunion" and 1:47 into "Epilogue," by which point
the idea is completely benevolent. The fire spirit has a generally more
agitated motif, though its first hint comes at 1:40 into "The Mist" on
gentle flute. The theme builds to a frenzy in "Fire and Ice" before
extending itself into a second, more playful phrase that continues into
the first 30 seconds of "Earth Giants." Together, all these themes and
motifs make for a highly nuanced score, but more references to the songs
would have been preferred to all these new identities from Beck. He does
use the "All is Found" melody at the outset of "Iduna's Scarf" and twice
in the middle of "The Ship," the idea exerting some power at the end of
"Ghosts of Arendelle Past." The "Introduction" cue closes with a nice
allusion to "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" from the previous film,
"Gone Too Far" offers a somber passage at 0:39 from "The Next Right
Thing," and Beck joyously references "Some Things Never Change" at the
forefront of "Epilogue" to such an extent that a vocalized reprise
worked into this cue would have served Disney tradition well. In the
end, the score for
Frozen II is a definite improvement over its
predecessor but still fails to totally bridge the gap between itself and
the songs. A lack of prominence for the siren call in the score is
inexcusable. Separated from the film, the score plays very well, its
narrative commendable and highlights worth revisiting. The songs suffer
from a poor, dry mix that forces the vocals too far in front of the
instrumental backing. You can only receive both the songs and score
together on a "deluxe" edition product, but skip the atrocious covers of
the songs. Maybe they're meant for people who actually think that
princesses all have huge eyes.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The inserts for all album variants contain similar contents, including lyrics to
each song and a full list of performers. Target-exclusive and Walmart-exclusive versions
of the "Regular Edition" feature an additional fold-out poster.