Moana Revisited

When I saw Moana at the cinema back in 2016 I was pretty unimpressed. I know my review did not exactly line up with other people’s opinion of the film. I haven’t watched Moana since I saw it in the cinema, until now. So having revisited the movie I thought I would share my opinion of what I think of it now.

To get straight to the point, I was wrong. My original opinion was wrong. I think when I saw it originally at the cinema I was expecting a movie like Frozen. Moana is not Frozen. I think it actually has a lot more in common with Mulan. Personally I prefer Frozen, however Moana is a good movie. It’s not the best Disney movie ever, it’s not my new favourite Disney Princess movie, but it is a well told ‘chosen one’ narrative. I am glad I finally watched Moana again and without that notion of expecting it to be Frozen.

Moana herself is a great character, very likeable. She is very determined, competent, intelligent, opinionated and passionate, but she is also flawed, and has moments were she struggles which helps make her feel like a well-rounded character. I think Moana can truly stand up with the best of the Disney Princesses – like Merida, Anna, Elsa and Tiana. Next time the princess dolls go on offer I need to add Moana to my collection…

I still think some of the songs are weak. You’re Welcome is far too auto-tuned, I also don’t find it funny and overall it makes me dislike Maui. Shiny disappoints me, it sounds like a poor attempt at the classic Disney Villain song, such as Poor Unfortunate Souls or Friends On The Other Side. However my opinion on How Far I’ll Go has seriously changed, I don’t think it is as good as Let It Go or Almost There, but it is a pretty good song and a great expression of who Moana is as a character.

I am still not entirely sold on Maui. A lot of his humorous moments fall flat for me, the Twitter joke still really makes me cringe. However I can appreciate his character arc more than I did previously. Despite my lukewarm reaction to Maui, the movie is really Moana’s story and so he is ultimately of secondary importance.

In conclusion, I was wrong. Moana is so much better than I had originally written it off as being. I am glad I finally decided to give Moana a second chance.

Disney Streaming Service Shows?

So as you might know Disney are going to be launching a major new online streaming service later this year. It was recently announced that they will be creating original series and original movies for this new platform. I thought I would share some of my predictions, speculation and wishes for what new content I would like to see.

Zootropolis – The Series

Zootropolis was a fantastic film. It really deserves a sequel but Disney don't seem to be developing one at the moment so a series could be a good alternative. Given Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are cops there’s pretty obvious potential to develop a crime/mystery series set in Zootropolis. A series could also be a good format to further explore the racial subtext of the film. Why do I want to see this series on the streaming service? Because it could be a really good binge watch series as you try to figure out the mystery at the same pace Judy and Nick are figuring it out.

Disney Princesses United

If you’re a Disnerd you probably know that in Wreck It Ralph 2 the Disney Princesses (from Ariel to Moana) are going to be appearing. Given all the excitement from the announcement that the princesses were going to be meeting each over for the first time (in forever!) I wonder if  Disney will want to build on that hype. One way to possibly do so would be through a series that featured the Disney Princesses united.

Princess and the Frog

Do I even need to say that I love Princess and the Frog anymore? Because I really love it! I have talked before on this blog about how Princess and the Frog deserves more and in that post I mentioned that a TV series could be interesting. The Disney streaming service could be an ideal platform for a series of adventures about Tiana dealing with running her restaurant. A series could also show more of Tiana’s close friendship with Lottie.

Disney Villains

On the complete flip side of the Disney Princesses we have the Disney Villains. The Disney Villains are an enduringly popular group of characters and yet Disney have not really done much with them in the past few years. A series could be a fan pleasing new outlet for characters like Maleficent, Cruella and Ursula.

Star Wars Live Action Series

There’s been reports that there will be a new Star Wars live action series on the Disney streaming service. I think this is a good idea and will probably be a big draw for many geeks to subscribe to the service. Personally I would like to see a series set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens that explored what was happening in the time between the trilogies. I’d also like to see this Star Wars series use completely new characters and not have any appearances from existing characters in order to really expand the galaxy far far away.

So that’s just a few speculative ideas, I will be interested to find out what Disney actually decide to put on their streaming service when it launches.

A Few Thoughts on Moana (Spoiler Free)

I saw Moana in 3D this afternoon and here’s a few of my (spoiler free) thoughts on the latest Disney movie.

My main reaction upon leaving the cinema was that whilst I had enjoyed the movie - and it is a good movie - I didn’t love it. This the type of movie that’s good but it could have been great. I remember back in early 2014 Disney announced that Moana had jumped forward a year in the schedule (partially as a result of the crazy success of Frozen) I feel that Moana probably would have really benefited from that extra year in production.

To me Moana felt like a strange hybrid of a movie that both wanted to be a Disney Princess movie and a movie that really didn’t want to be a Disney Princess movie. It used a lot of the tropes that we’ve come to expect from the Disney Princess movies – like the way Tangled lovingly used the tropes of the Princess movies – but Moana didn’t own its use of those tropes. Moana also defied a lot of the tropes from the Disney Princess movies – like Brave did – however it never fully went with rejecting the tropes we’ve seen from the Princess movies.

Another problem was that Maui was not a strong enough character to hold the number of scenes he had. I feel this movie needed a character like Olaf from Frozen – someone to provide helpful advice, heart-warming moments, humour and just generally help keep the plot moving. But instead of Olaf we got stuck with Maui.

Also I have to mention the music. What a let-down! The songs just don’t really work – there’s no Let It Go, Almost There, I See The Light, A Whole New World or Colours of the Wind. I found them really forgettable and unneeded. I think Moana would have been a stronger movie if like Brave it had chosen to not include songs. Perhaps without the forced songs it would have felt like the filmmakers knew more what they were doing with the tropes of the Disney Princess movies?

That’s enough of the negative. I’m making it sound like I hated the movie when I really didn’t!

Here’s a list of a few of the thing I really enjoyed about Moana…

• ·         Moana herself is a cool character.
• ·         The visuals are stunning.
• ·         Moana grows as a character throughout the movie. She’s not automatically perfect.
• ·         The scenes in the ‘Realm of Monsters’ is like nothing Disney have ever done before.
• ·         Pua (Moana’s pet pig) is adorable!
• ·         Seriously the animation is incredible.
• ·         Moana did a great job at world building.
• ·         The Kakamora were a really interesting and creative adversary.
• ·         Did I mention that the animation is REALLY good looking!

In conclusion I did enjoy Moana but considering how good Disney have been lately this is a bit of a let-down after Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Zootropolis. Moana is a good movie but it really suffers from the bar being set so high by what came before it.