‘Frozen II’ is visually dazzling but messy story

Sequels of movies based (however loosely) on fairy tales offer opportunity and threaten danger: Where does a story go once it outpaces the confines of the fairy tale that birthed it, when the only limitations are the imaginations and computing power of its creators?

Aside from that strange era of Disney direct-to-home-video sequels in the late ‘90s and early-aughts (remember “Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea”? “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas”?), we don’t see a lot of franchised fairy-tale universes. The story usually ends at happily ever after.

And it doesn’t get much more happily ever after than at the end of “Frozen” (2013), very loosely based on Hans

Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” which sees Elsa crowned queen and reunited with her once-estranged sister, Anna, who has a strapping new love interest, and order restored to the kingdom of Arendelle. So, where does “Frozen II” go from here?

Well, kind of all over the place. Elsa (Idina Menzel) is the comfortably established queen of Arendelle, hard at work repairing her relationship with Anna (Kristen Bell). Beefy reindeer wrangler Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) has stuck around and is trying to work up the nerve to propose to Anna, and anthropomorphic snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) is still serving up comedic relief. It’s the perfect picture of cozy domestic bliss.

Until Elsa starts hearing voices. Well, a voice, singing the sonorous strains of haunting song only she can hear, calling her outside her kingdom’s protective walls. She does her best to ignore this summons so as not to upset the newfound order, but when the people of Arendelle are driven out of the kingdom by elements gone haywire, Elsa and company follow the voice in search of answers to an enchanted forest. There, Elsa and Anna find the secrets of their parents’ past, and unearth old wrongs that need to be righted for nature’s balance to be restored.

The story is, not to mince words, a bit of a mess. There’s a plot involving indigenous forest people and a theme of fixing historical sins committed against them (which would be more admirable if the film actually followed through and didn’t rely on tired mystical-native tropes). The characters, driven apart on their own individual adventures, get lost in the film’s sweeping but muddled themes. Once again, Elsa has shut Anna out in an attempt to protect her, and the fraught sibling dynamics that fueled the first film are rehashed.

But it’s not a cheap double-dip, either. “Frozen II” is an attractive film, its animation more assured and experimental than its predecessor’s. There are more magical visual inventions: towering rock monsters and a wild water horse thrashing on a storm-tossed sea; Elsa experiences dreamlike sequences animated in ice and water. And despite the title, there’s an autumnal feel to the color palette, and the enchanted forest is lush with jewel-colored leaves and warm earthen tones.

“Frozen II” also hits a few musical high notes. Outrageously, it’s Kristoff who gets the best song, “Lost in the Woods,” which is shot like a music video for an ‘80s rock ballad with soft fades and wailing guitars. It adds up to a marginally more interesting experience than the first “Frozen,” but this sequel would have benefited from venturing a touch further into the unknown.