Did I miss it further down the page?
I watched this today and thought it was terrific. Zootopia’s plot was a bit less conventional than this one, but Moana has far more inventive visuals. It’s an absolutely gorgeous movie, both in terms of art direction and technology (the water, the hair, the little details…). Likeable characters, too. If you like Dwayne Johnson’s work, you won’t be disappointed.
Among the best things Disney Animaiton Studios has produced in the past years.
My wife and I went with my brother-in-law today. Thumbs up all around. Excellent soundtrack, beautiful visuals, a fun story. Thinking back to my first viewing, I think I still give Zootopia the edge for first place in the category of 2016 Disney Animation Studios movies, but this is up there. They’re on a roll lately.
I thought this was awesome. That did not sound like The Rock, but I liked his performance.
I loved it too. It’s just so great. I was moved to tears at one point and it wasn’t even due to a sad part. I was just quite taken with the whole thing. I noticed tons of Miyazaki influence which balanced out the more traditional Disney princess material nicely.
The only criticism I have is the dumb meta jokes like, “You sing, you have an animal companion, you’re a princess.” And I think there was one other similar “(wink wink) You’re watching Disney!” joke which really knocks you out of the world.
Otherwise, A+++. Some great songs too. See it!
P.S. One other criticism unconnected to Moana… The short cartoon before the feature was pretty subpar.
P.P.S. This is my least favorite sub-genre of thread titles. Especially followed by a no-content OP. Did you think all us middle-aged gamer men were rushing to discuss Moana months before release? Can’t find a thread called Moana? Make a thread called Moana!
Hahha, I really liked that princess joke and it didn’t take me out of the movie. After it was over, I was so pleased that there was no romance for the female lead in this. Heh, the male lead spent most of his time tossing her into the ocean, which worked for me.
I do agree that the short cartoon at the start was subpar. To me it felt creepy, but not in a good halloween or X files way. More like an aunt that just wants to hug too much.
Yeah, no love story is great. Frozen was a sister love story but it still had male suitors waiting in the wings at the end of the film. Easily the best way to do girl empowerment is to throw that stale, obligatory, fairy-tale nonsense in the rubbish.
I’m a 50 year old guy, and a Disney musical might be my favorite movie of the year. And not just because of the presence of boats, or the relative size thereof.
I’ve been a bit of a grump about the loss of 2d/classic animation, but the lushness of this movie and the nuance of the facial animations justifies its technology. The ocean is amazing, and it was nice to see the pseudopod from “The Abyss” finally get some work after a long dry (hah!) spell.
In the end, the character’s arc was not just about changing herself, but changing the destiny of her people. I was reminded of Carl Sagan: “Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.”
Beautiful movie.
I wanted sort of to see this, but I’m stuck in the Trolls theater because my nephew has no interest in a girl and sea.
Maybe you should have sold it as the movie that has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson battle a huge lava monster. All of a sudden, Trolls may have looked a bit lame.
P.S.: Not really spoiler.
Heh, I wasn’t the one who sold it. I was invited to see Trolls, the family already made the decision and by family it was grandma and my nephew. My mother actually said she thought it would be more like How to Train your Dragon. I am guessing the 7 year old and grandmother were on the same wave length or something… my lil sis and I, we’ll not be seeing that again. It looks like Moana is in our future though, perhaps next weekend.
Saw this today with some friends and absolutely loved it! Beautiful visuals, cute songs, adorable and inspiring protagonist, neat story, great villains… Seriously amazing.
One of my friends I saw it with was raised around a lot of Pacific Islands culture, as her father did a lot of volunteer and legal work in the Marshall Islands back in the day. She was so giddy to see the stories and art of her youth come to life :-)
My only complaint (and it isn’t a very serious complaint, given that it applies to most movies) is that, while the songs are great, the score doesn’t hold up all that well on its own. Very few movie composers manage that, though. (John Powell, for one. The HTTYD soundtracks are underappreciated masterpieces.)
Saw this last night with the wife and two older daughters. Pretty damned good. Not as good as “Frozen”, perhaps, but still worth your time.
The story itself is a nice mashup of a by-the-numbers “Hero’s Journey” and a well-executed cop/convict buddy movie (e.g., 48 hours). The girl that they used for the titular character was great with a wonderful singing voice. Dwayne Johnson was fine for most of the film, but a little weak in places; you could tell he wasn’t fully comfortable with voice-acting.
I appreciated that Disney further diverged from a lot of the “Princess” tropes (even poking fun at them in one scene), especially that of the loyal, intelligent, animal companion. I loved the fact that the “cute animal” in this film was literally as dumb as a rock and was used more as a comedy prop than a character.
I thought the songs were great. This is the first Disney movie that I’ve considered picking up the soundtrack for since “Emperor’s New Groove”. I guess I agree with @Fishbreath above that the background score was nothing special, but I’m not a guy that typically notices the score one way or the other.
Took my 3 year old to see it. (Her 2nd theater movie ever). She liked it, although she took a while to warm to it, as it was pretty plot heavy. She was scared in a couple places (mostly loud noises and the lava monster), but the comic relief chicken helped her recover from those.
Stray thoughts:
- While the lava tech was flashy, the subtle flesh tech for Maui’s tattoo segments are what really made the movie work.
- There was a great depth of field shot I don’t remember ever seeing anything like before (when Moana wakes up on the beach after her shipwreck).
- Dwayne did a good job of disappearing into the character, albeit a character that was written for him. But I never found myself thinking “Oh, that’s the Rock”.
- The Mad Maui: Fury Road segment was pretty great.
- Jemaine Clement did an admirable job channeling Bowie in his villainous turn
- The songs were…good. Not outstanding, but very good. Anthemic, but they didn’t have the easy hook of “Let it Go” anywhere, so there was nothing to hum as you’re leaving the theater.
- I’m happy that my daughter gets to live in an era where this is what Disney Princess movies look like. This is also probably the closest she’ll get to a princess of her own ethnicity in her lifetime.
- Unfortunately, the lack of a ball gown means I’m pretty confident that this will be relegated to ethnic princess status (best case: Brave, worst case: Pocahontas), which is too bad, as it deserves better.
- I have somewhat minimal true understanding of Polynesian culture or lived experience, but a bit of academic knowledge, and I thought it did a pretty good job with representation.
- I rather enjoyed it.
I finally saw this with my family today. The kids seemed entertained. I thought they did a beautiful job, animation wise and the story. The soundtrack was okay, and a couple of songs stuck but this was not Disney’s strongest soundtrack. I thought Dwayne did great as Maui, and Moana still felt strong and youthful beside him when he finally joins the screen. One of his dances reminded me of a couple of Maori dances right off the bat so it seemed like the Polynesian effort was there albeit maybe the experts out there can say for sure.
I hope @CLWheeljack is wrong though, and this is only the beginning of a more diverse Disney which will lead to a lot of interesting stories and characters in the future. At least the 3 year old helps explain the reason for that chicken.
Yeah, the kids love Hei-hei. I found him less annoying on the first viewing than Olaf, but that may change over time.
As the father of 2 young, mixed-race daughters, I think an almost troubling amount about Disney’s Princess line and marketing.
In my opinion, the future for the line remains to be seen. Is it an evolving brand that will include Moana, it will there be separate girls-action and girls-princess brands? Or is it just a way to repackage older franchises without any separate hook to keep them a viable market (like Sleeping Beauty, for example, which lacks the immediate recognition of say, Cinderella, or the easy ethnic hook of Princess and the Frog)?
Rapunzel (Tangled) definitely gets princess treatment, but Brave is included somewhat inconsistently into the Princess materials, suggesting they dont really know how to manage it. Merida has a dress, but she’s also an action hero, but she’s also a Pixar creation (in case that matters), and she’s also “ethnic”, in that she comes from a specific culture that isn’t just generically western european. She’s probably the closest analog to Moana. (Frozen stands aside for several reasons: the breakout star, Elsa, isn’t technically a princess - Anna is, and Frozen is enough of a standalone marketing juggernaut that it doesn’t need the boost from the Princess branding, it’s like putting a belt on John Cena).
So, does Moana get mainlined into Princess branding, despite the movie’s protestation that she isn’t a princess? She is pointedly the chieftans’s daughter, which wasn’t really necessary to the movie, all things considered. Or does it get included half heartedly, like Brave (closest thematic analog), or essentially memory-holed, like Pocahontas (closest ethnic analog - though admittedly way more embarassing than Moana is).
I think it’s a very interesting test case, because I don’t think Moana has the marketing clout to survive completely on its own (in the US, at least: there will be SE Asia specific merch forever, and possibly in Japan as well, and the Disney resorts in Hawaii are going to be rebranded toot sweet).
It’s also possible that it’ll just survive as an alternate “ocean” branding, which they use The Little Mermaid for pretty generically at the moment, so that will probably give it some life every summer.
I don’t really have any answers. Just a lot of thoughts. Moana isn’t on the official Disney Princess site atm, but I think they officially inducted Merida when her time came, so they could be waiting for that (and for a marketing boost when it comes out on DVD).
As a bi-racial woman, I can think of pretty much zero characters in the Disney franchise that ever really connected with me in terms of identity as a child, and even as an adult the one black woman they had on the screen had white women hair and not a great story… she’s not even a princess without the prince. Moana did several things differently though, somewhat similar to Brave. They kept the parents in the picture, which shows yes you can grow up with your parents around. She has no love interest at all and she strengthens the people around her, for the most part, not the other way around.
I understand the princess line-up concern, and she probably has a similar problem Jasmine has, her dress has a lot of skin but with the water parks, cruises, Hawaii resort I think she will stick around for some time to come. And while I enjoyed Brave, like I said, I just think Moana has a better and more memorable story than Princess and the Frog or Brave.
I won’t even enter Pocahontas and Hunchback territory.
Here’s to hoping!
Just wanted to chime in and say that I really enjoyed the last few posts’ worth of discussion, and the viewpoints the two of you brought to the table. Thank you both for sharing :)