DVDizzy Forum

^Have you seen Moana?

So, the movie was finally released in Romanian theaters, but sadly it's only available in a dubbed version. I couldn't believe it, I was so excited to see it, especially since all trailers were so good. I have ordered the soundtrack, that way I can at least listen to the songs in their original versions.

I guess I'll have to wait, maybe the original version will come eventually.

Finally saw Moana (Vaiana here in The Netherlands) yesterday, the original version. I was looking forward to it al week and I loved it! I thought the animation was beautiful, the story really good (like someone said here before, it had a real nineties Disney classic vibe in my opinion) and I also really liked the songs. Maybe there isn't a real showstopper like Let It Go, but I still liked How Far I'll Go and especially I am Moana (also stunning animation in that clip).

So overall, I loved it! On the same level as Frozen (not that we need to compare everything to Frozen, but you know).

I've seen Moana twice now and I'll admit that it's grown on me during the latest viewing. Fortunately. I did like the film at my first viewing, yet it just felt as okay and nothing else. Now I find it to be superior and frankly more satisfying than it's sister-films, Tangled and Frozen.

I agree with those who said that it didn't felt like the typical Ron/John-movie, with the exception of the physical comedy. Yet there were certain aspects of the movie which surprised me. The bittersweetness of certain scenes in the first act was prominent and the film did improve when our title lead went on her journey. As Maui, the Rock's voice was recognizable enough. But his backstory was surprisingly grim and something that Disney rarely touches upon.

However, what really took me by surprise is that Mini-Maui (who greatly annoyed me in the teaser trailer) was actually somewhat endearing. The Kakamora's were grating, yet they were fortunately reduced to that sequence. Both Hei Hei and Maui were tolerable within the movie. And yeah, though the Maui/Moana dynamic was obviously the same trope which this Revival era has been picked for, at least it felt like a genuine mentor/pupil dynamic. And yeah, though this may seem shallow, Te Fiti could've been seen as taken from Pixar's Lava short (a short which I liked, btw).

Unfortunately Moana followed the current norm of certain movies to have the title appear at the very end, with not even the Disney presents logo. I've would've prefered it Moana actually did the opposite. Certainly a first for a Ron/John movie.

What I also find remarkable is that though Moana is obviously struck by grief on Tala's deathbed, she's not given the chance to grief when Tala actually dies. I'm not attacking Moana herself for this, but though the mantra was obviously meant to be a inspiring catalyst, it's still felt out of place that Moana was never given the chance to actually grief.

Otherwise, Moana was a fine film. Is it Disney's truly best? No, but it's still a well-made addition to the Princess-movies. It's certainly better than both Big Hero 6 and Zootopia.

I thought it was cute. It had good moments, especially emotional moments between the characters. And I think it's the first time Disney got the culture right in a film.

I only found the breakup between Moana and Maui before the climax rather forced, and maybe some of "witty banter" exchange felt rather "been there, done that".

I'll need to watch it again and another time after the hype is over to fully judge it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubZrAmRxy_M[/youtube]

SPOILERS ABOUND (easier than deciding what should be blacked out)

I really loved Tala, although her personality/dialogue reminded me a bit too much of Rafiki at times. The appearance of the sting ray as Moana’s leaving the island was the highlight of the film to me, and I liked that she got to sing later on. Thankfully Te Ka was much cooler than she appeared in what little we saw of her pre-release. Even Hei Hei and the coconut warriors didn’t bother me. I found Moana herself a little boring, but she was okay; I still love her design. I’d say Maui-Moana is one of the better pairings out of Disney’s neverending buddy trip streak, surprisingly. At least, I found Maui’s snarky, asshole behavior better explained than with Flynn, Kristoff, or Nick (the way his backstory was portrayed was a touch overdramatic for me). And Moana was a good choice by the ocean because she will protect defenseless things like the baby turtle at the beginning—which is what Maui was at one time, I guess, and what Te Fiti was after her heart was stolen. (I had just watched Suddenly, Last Summer feat. Maggie Smith just a few weeks ago, and couldn't help thinking of it during the baby turtle scene...., and bringing that symbolism to this movie. ) I still don’t like Maui’s design, but I’m glad it has an in-story reason; he reminded me of a cross between Hephaestus and Prometheus. Btw, this is such a weird thing to point out, but I liked the design of the original chief that Moana sees in visions of her ancestors.

I wish the introduction hadn’t been interrupted with regular CGI of Maui stealing the heart. I hated the ocean blob, although I liked the ocean as a character in general. The father was sort of background fodder to me; we’ve seen so many angry father figures over the years in animation, and he was definitely no Triton. I did like how they gave the mother a little definition by having her help Moana leave, so she wasn’t too inconsequential. Overall, I still feel 3D doesn’t portray people (that aren't stylized) very well, and something about the villagers looked a little too homogenized… The lips in particular looked off to me? Still, the only real bum note in the movie was “Shiny.” And I’m not talking about the scene/sequence or the vocal (Jermaine Clement did a fantastic job), just the song itself. It sounded like a pop crossover between Tim Curry and David Bowie.

I don’t really get why they never addressed Pua again after the boat accident? Was Pua supposed to die in an early version of the film and they decided to let him live at the last second? Or did they think that the audience would be too concerned about him during the rest of the movie after they nearly had him drown early on for effect? What a shame, too, because Pua is one of the absolute cutest sidekicks and there's no reason they couldn't have had him protecting dumba$$ Hei Hei. Hei Hei was pretty funny, but I wouldn’t add him to my personal list of favorites.

Actually, the soundtrack overall was okay—about what I expected, serviceable, but nothing really stood out. The best song was doubtless “We Know the Way.” I didn’t really care for the reprises, tbh, which surprised me because reprises are usually the best moments… I didn’t much like Moana’s singing voice either. I mean, she can definitely sing, but sometimes you just like someone’s voice or you don’t (the same way I'm too crazy about Tom Hulce). Dwayne Johnson was okay—about on-line with Danny Devito or Robin Williams. As far as the soundtrack, I’d definitely rank this below Frozen. I know others have pointed out that this film spreads out its music better, which is true, but I prefer “Let It Go,” “For the First Time in Forever,” and “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” to anything here and they have become Disney classics for me. The Lopezes are really the only thing I’m looking forward to seeing Gigantic for so far. Actually, I'd put this soundtrack around the same area as Tangled, as far as being decent with one standout (although I liked "Mother Knows Best" much more than "We Know the Way," if I have to say).

I liked the movie. I think I’d put it after Frozen and TP&TF, but before the other films in the revival (I’ll give a ranking in the other thread). As far as M&C, I’d put it with Aladdin—as far as being a great film that didn’t really impact me personally as much as their others have. (Btw, I saw a preview for Lego Batman before this and I'm really looking forward to it. )

--I'll probably edit this post with quotes as I read through the past few pages.

Mooky wrote: The characters were either bland or unappealing, the story felt like a mishmash of worn out tropes (I did like the ending, it was very Miyazaki-like),

Yes, it reminded me especially of Princess Mononoke and how the Forest Spirit turns into a force of destruction when attacked for greed’s sake.

disneyprincess11 wrote: Disney has posted the whole You're Welcome scene! So, you can just tell how much John and Ron wanted this to be 2D.

Yes, that was obvious to me throughout the film. M&C are the only reason we got such gloriously beautiful scenes like the intro, the various paintings/tattoos, and the “You’re Welcome” scene.

One thing I forgot: Thank God no secret villain! Although I guess Te Fiki being the real villain under Te Ka could count in a way, I’m just glad no surprise turn was present in this movie. (Btw, in a way I thought Te Fiki looking so similar to Moana might go along with the movie's reincarnation--maybe at the point that Moana seems to be planning to sacrifice her life to restore balance, Moana has reached enlightenment and Te Fiki is a reflection of it, in other words you never see what Te Fiki really looks like?)

Also, I thought this film kind of had the same problem as “Mother Knows Best” in Tangled in certain spots with Moana (the character), as far as how she just looks odd when she’s singing. I mean, it looks realistic the way a person would if they were belting on a stage, but I would rather it seem effortless for an animated character when they’re dancing/singing? That’s the appeal of animation, isn’t it, that it can make things work in a synchronicity/effortlessness that is very difficult to achieve with live-action? I mean, for instance, you get all the emotion of Ariel’s song in TLM like she’s speaking it to you only in song-form, you never see animation of the character straining to hit a note….

taei wrote:I thought that Moana was such a great character! I mean, I can kind of see Rapunzel, Anna, and even Tiana in her, but I think the writing of her character is what really makes her standout. I LOVED that she was chief in the beginning and that she didn't outright reject her tribe/family's wishes and views, unlike most Disney female characters. I think her struggle with the Ocean was really well done! Especially in the beginning, however, I felt we didn't get to see her love for the ocean and voyaging as much when she grew a bit older. I also loved the fact that her first time in the ocean was disastrous. So realistic and shows people that sometimes, just rushing into achieving your dreams might not be the best idea.

I agree, the fact that Moana tried her best not to follow her instinctual desire to explore the ocean because the need for her to be a good chief was really great.

So I saw it...and loved it!

Moana's a great character, and so were basically all the others (except her mean father, and the fact that all the characters occasionally suffer from having modern 'tude with their acting and trying to be quirky like Moana herself...). I thought all the music was great except for the one the giant crab sings. The ending was a little bit, to me, a let down, because they go through all that trouble when all they were supposed to do was put the heart back in the thing they were trying to beat through the whole dang movie, like nothing they did mattered, and it reminded me of like an inferior "The Firebird" from Fantasia 2000, but other than that, great!

I also didn't get if the grandmother really was a manta ray, because she was able to take her true human form again, so...I don't know, I didn't get it. I hate reincarnation anyway...

And did the writers of this music really ryhme "If I GO there's just no telling how far I'll GO"? They ryhmed "go" with "go"?!

Disney's Divinity, it's Te Fiti, not Te Fiki.

Disney Duster wrote:And did the writers of this music really ryhme "If I GO there's just no telling how far I'll GO"? They ryhmed "go" with "go"?!

Yeah, he does that a lot. He also rhymed "island" with "island", "line" with "line" and "me" with "me" in the same song.

I've been listening to the songs more the past two days via YouTube. My current feelings:

1. "I Am Moana"
2. "How Far I'll Go" ~ I go back and forth between this and WKtW... I tend to go towards emotional songs, which is probably why this is getting an edge with me. Maybe I was a little harsh about Moana's voice earlier. I don't dislike Cravalho so much as I think she sounds like someone without much experience you'd see at a local theater. She belts a bit too much at some points throughout the soundtrack, but she's okay. @Sotiris: I think the repetition kind of works for this song, although there are a few other lyrics that stick out like thumbs here and there throughout the soundtrack.
3. "We Know the Way" ~ My initial favorite on first watch. It did sound fantastic in the theater.
4. "Where You Are"
5. "You're Welcome" ~ Even though Dwayne Johnson isn’t a great singer, my favorite part of the song is how bitter it is… That’s part of the reason I ended up liking the character more than expected. Actually, just to be clear, I never hated Dwayne Johnson in general as an actor because I watch comedies he appears in, just I didn’t really see him working in a Disney film (+ part of his appeal is being seen…). I’m glad he proved me wrong. Still, the song is a lot more impressive with the in-film visuals.
6. “How Far I’ll Go” (reprise) ~ Almost ranked this below “Shiny” just because there is barely any difference in tone/power/lyrics between this and the main song to me….?
7. "Shiny" ~ I kind of like it out of context. It doesn’t work with the rest of the soundtrack or the film though, which is why I rank it this low.
8. "Know Who You Are" (Eh... Sounds like an Enya song.)

Overall, I’m a little less bothered by Miranda involved with so many projects at Disney now, even though I still wouldn’t call myself a fan (and I still want him to stay away from TLM Live-Action). I’ll definitely pick up the soundtrack at some point once the price isn’t around $20. I'll try to listen to the deleted songs over the next few days. My Internet takes forever to load YouTube videos, so...

I know there have been some comparing the quality level of the Revival to the Renaissance before, but this is the first time I think I’d come close to agreeing with it. Not that I'd say I prefer it to the Renaissance by any means, personally, only the Revival has a larger number of strong films now, imo. Moana was pretty great, and Zootopia was a good movie, too, if not one of my favorites, and I also loved Frozen (and TP&TF, although not everyone agrees that that one's too great). WIR was just decent, Big Hero 6 was a dud, and I have a personal aversion to Tangled, but overall, the era is feeling pretty strong after these two films. I don’t feel different about most of my criticisms of the company as it is right now, but at least I'm enjoying some of their new product.

I’m just worried this may end up being M&C’s last film. Something about the film felt that way—like it was meant to be a bookend in spirit to The Little Mermaid… I hope they can make at least one more film, because they brought so many things to this film I don’t think other directors would have—including the hand-drawn elements that were incorporated. Those will go away with them which is why I’m not ready for them to leave….

I haven't caught the film yet, since I was out of the country for the last couple of weeks, but I'm glad to see all of the positive reception!

I still haven't listened to any of the songs or read any spoilers, so I'm going into this fresh! I'll be a bit busy for the next couple of weeks, so I might not be able to catch it until sometime around Christmas, but I'm really looking forward to it!

Sotiris wrote:

Disney Duster wrote:And did the writers of this music really ryhme "If I GO there's just no telling how far I'll GO"? They ryhmed "go" with "go"?!

Yeah, he does that a lot. He also rhymed "island" with "island", "line" with "line" and "me" with "me" in the same song.

I've actually found that it's not all too uncommon in a lot of songs, but I'm really not a fan of that sort of thing either. It just bothers me for some reason, lol.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the film, Disney's Divinity! I'm glad you're warming to the music. I was a fan from the beginning but I have to say it's grown on me even more with repeated listens. I'll think one song is my favorite one day, then I'll be listening to a different one over and over and trying to learn all the lyrics the next (a few of the songs have dense and unpredictable lyrical content).

And I agree that those specific lyrics aren't meant to be cheap excuses for rhymes with that phrasing, but intentional repetitions.

And I also prefer the magic of the renaissance overall, but at this point it'd just be denial to say Disney isn't in the midst of another special time period creatively, even if I naturally love some films more than others. Hopefully they continue to do what they do best and don't try to overcorrect after one disappointment or the emergence of other popular franchises (ie trying to out-Minion Minions), like they lost their way at the end of the 90s and through most of the next decade.

Lady Cluck wrote:Those specific lyrics aren't meant to be cheap excuses for rhymes with that phrasing, but intentional repetitions.

Sure but when Glenn Slater did the same thing in Tangled for the same reasons, everyone attacked him for it and called him a poor lyricist. Just sayin'.

Sotiris wrote: Sure but when Glenn Slater did the same thing in Tangled for the same reasons everyone attacked him for it and called him a poor lyricist. Just sayin'.

True dat.

How 'Moana's' Animators Brought a Tattoo to Life
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind ... ife-950985

Tangled's music had a whole host of issues that made people less forgiving I guess? Which isn't necessarily the fault of the composers since by all accounts there were a lot of changes and micromanaging throughout production.

And that's not to say I don't enjoy some of the music of Tangled, but it's considerably weaker and less memorable than what came after imho. It gets more underwhelming as time goes by.


In other news, I'm worried about what Sing is going to do to Moana's box office. Illumination Entertainment is becoming a huge force in animation but most of their films have been garbage. Sing seems to be no exception. It looks mind numbing and absolutely horrendous, but exactly the kind of thing parents with no taste will drag their children to in droves

...because animated pigs and rabbits singing Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj songs are more entertaining than an original Disney musical The Lord is testing me every time I'm forced to sit through those trailers.

Lady Cluck wrote:Tangled's music had a whole host of issues that made people less forgiving I guess? Which isn't necessarily the fault of the composers since by all accounts there were a lot of changes and micromanaging throughout production.

And that's not to say I don't enjoy some of the music of Tangled, but it's considerably weaker and less memorable than what came after imho. It gets more underwhelming as time goes by.


In other news, I'm worried about what Sing is going to do to Moana's box office. Illumination Entertainment is becoming a huge force in animation but most of their films have been garbage. Sing seems to be no exception. It looks mind numbing and absolutely horrendous, but exactly the kind of thing parents with no taste will drag their children to in droves

...because animated pigs and rabbits singing Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj songs are more entertaining than an original Disney musical The Lord is testing me every time I'm forced to sit through those trailers.

It's a poor man's Zootopia, that is full of every cliche you have seen in an anthropomorphic animated movie and that is just going by the trailers.

Hm, I never thought that rhyming words with the same words can actually be used to accentuate different meanings in either word. I can accept that. I don't think it's the best to use but it is alright now to me.

The movie will only premiere January 5 here, so I'm just passing by.

Disney has been using a lot of youtubers to dub here in Brazil, HOWEVER, for Moana they selected three stage-musical stars! I'm so relieved.

Also, John Musker and Ron Clements announced at the Brazilian Comic-Con that a short movie featuring Moana is going to be released on home video. I looked for it but couldn't find anyone talking about it here.

Thankfully the price for the 2-disc set dropped 5 dollars from where it was and I got a used copy for even less than that. Should be here soon.

So I have Moana's, Frozen's, and Tangled's soundtracks. Only one left of the new films I haven't picked up yet is TP&TF (I’m just waiting for it to come down to the lowest amount, which would be .01 + 3.99 shipping, lol). I’ll definitely be getting Moana on Blu-Ray.