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A sequel to the 2013 animated blockbuster film, Frozen II takes place three years later and follows sisters Anna and Elsa as they leave Arendelle in search of answers to questions about their past. Returning are not only main cast members Kristen Bell (Anna), Idina Menzel (Elsa), Josh Gad (Olaf), and Jonathan Groff (Kristoff) but Oscar-winning "Let It Go" songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who also co-penned the story. Joining the cast is Evan Rachel Wood as Queen Iduna. Wood had sung on-screen before, as Lucy in the 2007 Beatles-themed movie Across the Universe. Off-screen, she was half of the short-lived electro-pop duo Rebel and a Basketcase in the mid-2010s. Wood holds her own here, opening the soundtrack with the cryptic, cautionary "All Is Found," a Renaissance-styled piece orchestrated around a harpsichord-like instrument. It's the first of seven original songs in Frozen II. (A brief continuation of Frozen's "Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People" also makes an appearance.) The much brighter "Some Things Never Change" focuses on the reliability of loved ones against a backdrop of the onset of winter. Led by Bell, it includes all the returning leads and plenty of playful turns of phrase ("Peter pumpkin just became fertilizer/And my leaf's a little sadder and wiser"). The ethereal, wordless voice of Norwegian pop singer AURORA is featured on Menzel's "Into the Unknown," a contrasting, soaring tune with dueling vocals that follows the blueprint of "Let It Go," as does the empowering "Show Yourself" ("You are the one you've been waiting for"), which pairs Menzel and Wood. Bell's big number here is the teary, refreshingly nuanced "The Next Right Thing." Elsewhere and on a lighter note, Gad takes the lead on the vaudeville ditty "When I Am Older" ("One day when I'm old and wise/I'll think back and realize/That these were all completely normal events"), and the Kristoff song "Lost in the Woods" reappears during the end credits in a diffident version by Weezer. It's one of three pop revisions included on the soundtrack, along with Kacey Musgraves' "All Is Found" and Panic! At the Disco's "Into the Unknown." The latter is the standout of the three, if only because Brendon Urie's performance easily rises to the level of the musical's stellar cast. While Frozen II is even stingier with songs than the slight Frozen, much of what's here leaves a lasting impression with both emotional and musical might.© Marcy Donelson /TiVo

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