Mike’s Favorite Original Songs of the Decade: #152 – “Into the Unknown,” from Frozen II

152. “Into the Unknown,” from Frozen II

It’s a bit of a weird mashup of a song. Those opening piano notes sound just like “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman” but they’re clearly going for the “Let It Go” ballad with this. The first time I heard this song in the theater, I thought, “What a weird song structure,” with all the fits and stops. And I also couldn’t make out what she was saying in the chorus at all. Truly I did not know until I looked it up afterwards that she was saying “Into the Unknown.” I have no idea what I was hearing instead, but I truly did not know what it was supposed to be.

But also, this is definitely another Elsa ballad — that doubles as a metaphor for the inherent gayness within the character that Disney refuses to acknowledge (let’s not pretend like “Let It Go” isn’t one of the gay anthems of the 2010s) because backwards people will burn their stuffed Olafs if they did that. It’s not as good as “Let It Go” by any measurement, but it definitely is a stronger song than I gave it credit for the first time I heard it.