Feature
Frozen II
Snow business Disney’s Frozen II makes its long-awaited debut on 22nd November, almost six years to the day since the first movie premiered in the USA in 2013. With product now on-shelf, and excitement for the new movie reaching fever-pitch, Toy World looks at the history of the franchise and asks whether the sequel can live up to industry expectations.
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hen Frozen was released on 27th November 2013 in the USA, no one could have predicted the lofty heights it would reach or the hype it would generate, least of all Disney. Across its Wednesday-Sunday Thanksgiving weekend opening, the movie raked in $93m before going on to ultimately bag $1.27b at the box office, including $400m in the United States and Canada and $247m in Japan. It was the highest grossing film of 2013, and is currently the 15th highest grossing film of all time, ahead of Disney’s 2017 Beauty and the Beast live-action remake and behind Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Outside the box office, Frozen also smashed records for home sales of DVDs and Blu-rays. With over 18m home media sales in 2014, it became the best-selling film of the year in
the United States. And by January 2015, Frozen had become the all-time best-selling Blu-ray Disc in the United States. If one thing is clear, it’s that Frozen II has an awful lot to live up to. The film follows Queen Elsa as she attempts to uncover why she was born with her magical, icy powers. The answer is both calling her and threatening her kingdom. Together with her sister Anna, Kristoff the ice man, Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer, Elsa sets out from the kingdom of Arendelle on a dangerous but remarkable journey, travelling to the ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land to discover the truth. Here, the sisters meet several new characters including members of the Northuldra – people who live in the forest and have a deep connection with their environment. According to Disney’s
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official character bios, Yelana (voiced by Martha Plimpton), the unspoken leader of the nomadic Northuldra, is fiercely protective of her family and community but is known to soften when people show an understanding of nature. Honeymaren (voiced by Rachel Matthews) is a true free spirit and wants nothing more than to bring peace to the enchanted forest. She is bold and brave, with a reverence for the magic of nature. Eager and fun, Honeymaren's brother Ryder (voiced by Jason Ritter) embraces life with optimism and possesses a love of reindeer that might just rival Kristoff's. But, unlike Kristoff, Ryder has never roamed the great plains outside of the Enchanted Forest, and so longs to venture beyond the magical mist that surrounds the forest. And as no Disney movie is complete without an adorable animal, Frozen II introduces Bruni, a curious and