Moana

[osprey_archer]

Went to see Moana yesterday! And it was gorgeous, really stunning animation and beautiful songs - quite different from the usual Disney song style; more epic maybe? I'm not sure how to define it, but it was a lot of fun, very epic sounding, quite appropriate to a magically intrepid ocean voyage.

Other things I enjoyed: the underwater sequences, the beautiful lush jungles, Moana practicing her speech to give to Maui (and the way that speech changes over time, gathering emotion like a snowball rolling down a hill gathers snow), Moana just in general, in particular Moana's beautiful hair, Maui's moving tattoo that talks (or I guess gestures) back at him when he's making bad life choices, and also the fact that there wasn't a romance, and that the lack of a romance wasn't a big deal. It kind of annoyed me in Brave how the entire movie revolved around the non-romanciness of it.

However, it strikes me that perhaps Disney/Pixar needed to get Brave out of their system before they could make movies like Inside Out or Frozen or Moana - to grapple with the past of romance-centric princess movies before before they could move on to movies with female leads without a romance or where the romance is only a subplot.

...This makes it sound like I hated Brave, which I didn't at all: I think it's a charming movie, if flawed. But I was worried when it came out that it meant that the princess movie was the only kind of movie Pixar could envision with a female lead, so it's nice to be able to look back now and say "No, the princess movie was a jumping-off point, and they've found lots of other stories to tell since then."

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

It has arrived here in our title town. So i may see it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It sounds great, and I'm looking forward to seeing it eventually. And yes, very glad they escaped from the romance-or-bucking-romance dyad to other plots altogether.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

If you get the chance to see it in theaters, this is one that I think definitely benefits from the big screen: the animation is so beautiful and rich.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I saw it last night! I agree with you about the lushness and the underwater scenes. I loved toddler Moana's interactions with the sea. Moments I especially liked: when her grandmother first whooshes by as a ray, the song of her wandering ancestors (seeing them all in their boats somehow uplifted me so much--I felt so moved) and her high-fiving the lead ancestor near the end, and the transformation of Te Ka into Te Fiti. I appreciated that Moana had both parents living and that they weren't monsters, and that she tries gamely to fulfill her father's expectations, only heading out to follow her heart/find herself when it's also in the interests of her island.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Toddler Moana was so adorable! Just following that line of shells into the water, totally cool with it when the sea picks her up and carries her back...

And the scene with the wandering ancestors is so inspiring and epic. Of course she has to sail away after that; who could resist following that song?