Frozen II was an interesting film. I loved the original movie and was amped up going into this one, but I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it just yet. For one reason or another, it didn’t fully resonate with me as I’d hoped it would. However, if there was an interesting highlight of the movie, it was the song “Lost in the Woods,” which featured Kristoff’s Jonathan Groff lamenting over the difficulties of love.

I’d listened to the song several times before seeing the movie, and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t actually catch its goofy, tongue-in-cheek tone until I saw the movie. And, oh, man, am I happy I didn’t see it coming. The song saw Kristoff as a melodramatic, mopey, lovesick dog, and the extreme emotion was highlighted with Les Miserable-esque fades, singing reindeer, and some intense lighting.

So odd and out-of-left-field was this song that Groff actually thought it was destined for the cutting room floor.

“I honestly couldn’t believe that they were going to take such a left turn,” Groff told EW. “I thought, ‘Oh, I can’t imagine that an ’80s slow jam is going to not get cut from the final product of Frozen 2,’ because it was so shocking and surprising and jarring. And I think that’s part of what makes it so brilliant in the movie. It’s also really kind of a gift for the adults watching the movie because, you know, I’ve seen it three times, and the adults in the crowd are the ones that are getting all of the kind of ’80s references in the animation and the sort of execution of the song. The kids are laughing too, but the adults are the ones that are really in on the joke, and I’m thrilled that it made it into the final cut.”

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I’ll share Groff’s sentiment on that one. While I’m not sure it did any favors for the overall spirit and tone of the movie as a whole, it was overwhelmingly entertaining. But Groff apparently talked a lot with the composers about allowing this whole thing to be a joker without taking away from the sincerity.

“Even when we were recording it, I talked a lot with [composers Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez] about toeing the line between emotion and camp, and telling the joke of the song, but also doing it with real sincerity,” Groff continued. “Because those songs from the ’80s, they’re not making a joke. I mean, it seems like it’s funny now because they are such a music of a specific time period. But in those moments of those videos, it was a more innocent time. And there was a purity to it that we sort of laugh at now, but that purity is also actually what the character is feeling. So it was fun to kind of just have that balance of awareness and camp, but also actual emotion that maybe that little girl is plugged into, of ‘He’s really going through it.’”

More than anything, Groff appreciates that “Kristoff is a Disney leading man with a sensitive side.”

What did you think of Kristoff’s show-stopping number in Frozen II? Do you think they successfully toed the line between camp and emotion, or, like me, did you think they fully went completely into camp, for better and worse?

Personally, when I first heard the song out of context, I could only think, “damn, this dude has it bad, and Anna clearly isn’t on the same page.” With change clearly being a theme of the film, I had hoped the movie would end with the pair breaking up after realizing they weren’t necessarily the best for each other. Then again, I also hold the opinion that Ralph should have died at the end of Wreck-It Ralph, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: EW