This was a pretty big narrative miss. Corny instead of cute, and cliché instead of heartfelt——the magic was lost on me. As far as the music goes, dare I say Lin-Manuel Miranda was missed here? I think yes.
The only saving graces are two things:
1. The animation is gorgeous. Not surprising.
2. Looks like there will be a third, and maybe Disney will go back to form on that one?
Huge drop off from the first film, which was AWESOME.
2.5/5
Ouch.
I wanted to like this way more than I did, but I was left feeling frustrated and confused. The themes were apparent enough and the acting was FANTASTIC, but the plot I felt didn’t fulfill its full potential——like there was a scene or two missing that could’ve made it feel a bit more whole.
Realism was on point, but that doesn’t always equal “good”.
3/5
Whatta fucking rolling coaster.
The ending of this hits you right where you knew it was going to the whole time, it just was a matter of when. How this film’s subject matter was handled with such grace and levity is honestly really impressive. It shouldn’t have been as entertaining as it was.
I definitely was left wanting more of Ani’s backstory (is she Russian orrr??), but I guess maybe that wasn’t really important. What was important, I suppose, was…
The acting was incredible, and the story concept was really quite genius, but boy oh boy was this a BUMMER to watch.
A movie being “sad” isn’t a bad thing, but I would’ve appreciated a bit more levity or moments of happiness here and there. Also, the ending felt kinda…out of nowhere? Forced perhaps? Not bad, just kinda odd.
I can’t really say I enjoyed this movie, but I can appreciate the artistic vision and talented players within.
3/5
