Moana
I FINALLY saw Moana and happy to say that IT. WAS. AMAZING.
**SPOILERS.****SPOILERS.****SPOILERS.****SPOILERS.****SPOILERS.****SPOILERS.**
If you don’t want any spoilers, don’t read ahead. Go watch the movie now. I recommend you catch it in theaters while you can for the 3D experience.
This is less of a review and more of a selfish attempt to learn from the filmmaking technique of Moana. My goal is to learn what I like about the movies I like, so I can apply it myself.
When I first heard about Moana, I thought it was gonna be totally lame!! Girl wants one thing but parents want another? How cliche! That’s basically every other Disney movie done before. But it actually didn’t feel that cliche. They multitask – sing a catchy song that gives us the info we need (instead of batting it in our faces) while visually showing the rich Polynesian culture and story telling Moana’s growth. They did a similar thing with Mulan in “Honor to Us All”. A bad movie would have shown Moana and the parents face to face giving a boring long cliche speech about why they want her be the chief.
This just goes to show that it’s not just about the story, it’s about the execution. The plot isn’t super original and is a marriage of The Little Mermaid and Mulan. But hey, I love Mulan and The Little Mermaid so better they copy a good plot than a bad one. I’ve also heard there were some striking similarities with Raiders of the Lost Ark but I’ve never seen that or I don’t remember so I can’t say.
As I’ve said before, the setting is the one of the most important things in film because it's part of the execution and brings out the experience. The anthropomorphic ocean is original and takes advantage of the setting (brings out the essence of Polynesia) to tell the same story with a fresh, new experience. It’s why Titanic worked even though it’s pretty much modeled off Aladdin. The storyline is the same but bringing out the full potential of the setting – a boat – creates a whole new experience. It’s okay for a story to be simple as long as it’s executed well with visuals, music, etc.
Execution = setting —> experience
It’s OKAY to copy as long as you copy well. Sometimes the copier executes better than the copy-ee. JJ Abrams copied Spielberg’s ET ending in Super 8, but JJ’s execution was better than Spielberg’s in my opinion. It’s about the idea, then the execution.
Idea —> execution
Ideally though, I wouldn’t complain if Moana had come up with a completely original tale. That might be harder to do since there are essentially nine stories and most stories are just variations of those nine.
The “chosen one” trope is used heavily but I don’t mind too much cause I’m kind of a sucker for that.
I love Moana and Frozen because they’re adventurous. I’m kind of a sucker for movies where they go on big, exciting adventures.
A small issue I have is that strong girl-jerk guy combo that’s overused in newer Disney movies. It’s always the girl’s job to emotionally babysit the guy, pat him on the back and give him a big speech about what a special boy he is. Maui literally says, “Are you going to give me a speech?”, only for Moana to, well, literally give him a speech. So meta, Disney. Then they try to justify Maui’s jerkiness by giving him a super tragic backstory to woo the audience into feeling sorry for him. The only time the girl is the “jerk” or “broken” one is Elsa and that’s why I love her. She’s different from the other Disney female characters and more variety is good.
I don’t mind that Moana doesn’t have a prince. After all, this movie is about self discovery and a love story might distract from that. But what I hate is how fans think Moana is somehow BETTER solely because of her lack of prince. Woah, woah. Apparently even Mulan, MULAN I say, is no longer progressive enough for them because she has a prince. What?? Excuse me, but since when did having a love interest become unfeminist? We let our male heroes have romantic interests so why is it so horrible for a girl to find love? That’s horribly hypocritical and ironically unfeminist.
I don’t like Moana because her boyfriend is absent. I like her because she’s down-to-earth and adventurous like Ariel. She admits that she doesn’t know everything. Otherwise, she could easily have been a Mary Sue.
What I like about Moana is how it’s quietly feminist. Like Frozen, everyone is so CHILL about Moana being single and no one makes a big deal about it because that isn’t the point of the story. Moana’s problem is not that she’s oppressed by some patriarchy and her parents want her to marry. In fact, her dilemma is between two respectable positions and I find that refreshing and empowering. It would have worked too if the genders were reversed – a boy wanting to explore the sea but his parents wanting him to be chief.
NOTE: I know this sounds like I’m bashing the older Disney movies but I’m not. I love the older Disney movies but I’m just pointing out how I like that Moana is different.
The princess bashing in Moana is unnecessary, implying that being called a princess is patronizing. Princesses can be badass too (Mulan anyone??). Calling Moana and Merida the anti-princess, as if princesses needed an anti. As someone else mentioned, why can’t princesses of color have girly fun too? No need to attack the concept of princesses that's a beloved trademark of Disney. Maui is right. Anyone with a dress and an animal sidekick is a princess. That should be good thing! There's nothing wrong about that! Princesses are of high regal status. That shouldn’t be degrading.
The action scenes are unmemorable and the same as any Hollywood movie nowadays – more like busy work for the characters. The best action scene I’ve seen so far is in Frozen– which is artfully designed and has meaning to show the character’s emotions. I could watch that scene over and over again. Even the action scene in Beauty and the Beast is cinematic and artistic and Mulan’s action scenes are shorter, epic and more interesting to watch.
I wish we got to see Pua more. I could see why Hei Hei was on the trip because he was supposed to mirror Moana's self discovery. At the beginning people thought Hei Hei's rock swallowing was dumb, just like how the father disapproved of Moana's way-finding. But then they both proved themselves and found their purpose. Hei Hei proved that his rock swallowing hobby was useful because he protected the heart. They did that self-discovery thing with the Lava and Maui too, but with Maui, I felt it was unnecessary and boring to watch. I just wish they brought both Pua and Hei Hei along. I'd rather see Moana interact with her sidekicks than argue with Maui. We could have seen Pua develop too instead of watching Maui be a huge jerk.
Like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the music is powerful, epic and amazing, though the lyrics are just okay and could use more work. The songs of earlier Disney movies had more poetic lyrics imho. This goes to show that great music can save a bad movie, or make an otherwise good movie even greater. As George Lucas once said, sound is the most important thing, like 50% of the movie or something like that. It's one of those soundtracks where the more you listen to it, the more you like it and want to listen to it even more.
It’s imaginative, epic, adventurous and a great watch.
That is all.
The Blogger