Disney's Moana, time for fish hooks

Im pretty sure the majority of Pixar films do have villains

Toy Story: Sid
Toy Story 2: Pete/Al
Toy Story 3: Lotso

Bug's Life: Hopper

Monster's Inc: Randall/Waternoose
Monster's university: Never saw this one

The Incredibles: Syndrome

Cars: Chick
Cars 2: Miles

Wall-E: The computer thing

Brave: Mor Du

Up: Muntz
 
They have villains, but the villains aren't as big a focus. Well, with some exceptions, Syndrome was a big vil obviously, but Sid was just one of the toy's obstacles for example, the ship AI similarly didn't set off the plot but was just the final hurdle, etc..
 

Yeah, good point, I can't believe I forgot about that. In fact one of the big complaints about TS3 and Incredibles is that Lotso/Syndrome, and the darker tone overall, are way overkill for what people were expecting out of a kids' CGI movie and especially a Toy Story movie (then again a lot of people also really liked that).
 
Article:
Critics Accuse Disney of 'Culture Theft' Ahead of 'Moana' Release

Ahead of its debut, "Moana" has become the subject of criticism from some who say it inaccurately depicts Polynesian culture and exploits it for profit.
...
The film pulls cultural aspects from multiple ethnic groups in Polynesia and represents it as one culture, Diaz, who is Filipino Pohnpeian and was born in Guam, said. Though he hasn't yet seen "Moana" in its entirety, he observed in trailers the inclusion of Fijian music, Tahitian drumming, and Samoan tattoos.
...
"For all the bling, all the eye popping visuals, the beautiful music, amazing colors, it's the same old story of the Pacific existing to entertain, to mesmerize, to make modern humans feel good about themselves."
...
"All that glitters is not gold. It's highly seductive, but the more seductive something is, the more you better be vigilant about how its power operates. The trick is about demonstrating how this benevolent narrative and iconography of the Pacific is actually insidious in how it advances and perpetuates colonialism."


To those who have seen the movie, how could it have been improved to not elicit such reaction? Or was it an impossible task for Disney to accomplish?
Have to disagree wit this article. Maui is and has always been a pan Oceania myth
 
Saw the movie today, it was charming as fuck. Maui himself was a good jerk with a heart of gold. And damn, Moana doing the jump!
 
So, well, thanks to finding this thread, I decided to go see Moana.

And, hrm, I'm not sure how to say it, I mean it's hard to say now that I'm face to face with greatness...

:V
 
Too add something that isn't being discussed, but I liked that her dad was actually kinda reasonable for an obstruction, and not the cliche of an overprotective dad.
 
Ultimately she left out of duty, not wanderlust, after all.

Too add something that isn't being discussed, but I liked that her dad was actually kinda reasonable for an obstruction, and not the cliche of an overprotective dad.

Yep. He might not quite be the best disney parent, but he's a good chief and dad in general.
 
I know you yanks have had it for a month but fuck you it only just came out today here in Australia.

Thoroughly enjoyable movie. Perfect? Nah. But a solid... I'll say 7? Nothing film-breakingly bad, plenty of moments I loved, merely a few niggles and missed opportunities holding it back. And... oh hey because all you fuckers already saw it and stopped using spoilers I don't have to either.

Moana helping the baby turtle to the water instead of picking up the shell like any stupid toddler child would've was cute as fuck and brought me on board immediately. The "FUCK YEAH COCONUTS RULE" song was okay and catchy I guess, but it was definitely How Far I'll Go that sold me on the music and made me crave more songs super hard.

One touch I definitely appreciated was twisting up the circumstances of Moana leaving into a complex knot rather than "BUT WANTING MORE THO". She genuinely does her best at being acting chief, and suggested going beyond the reef primarily in that capacity because fuck it the sea has fish in it. Her dad dropping his fudge and undermining her authority in front of everyone like she wasn't trying her best really did a good job putting the audience on her side.

I feel like there are some older script draft artefacts floating around though. That funny pig sidekick was definitely her primary one at first only to be replaced by the chicken because the... shall we say developmentally-disabled chicken was funnier to subject to slapstick because pigs are cute.

Loved the Tamaota scene. Jemaine Clement was funny as hell, did a catchy-ass song, the visuals were wonderful, and the action carried through it rather than going all stop-and-start. I wish I'd stayed to see his stinger scene but fuck it, I heard that generic scratchy-voiced popstar start singing How Far I'll Go and said "NOPE". Seriously will Disney please stop doing this, putting inferior versions of the song I just heard and really liked does not inspire me to stay for your credits.

I Am Moana came at precisely the time I was most craving another song and it made my penis so large I was escorted from the theatre for frightening the family of four beside me. I think what I liked about it most was how Moana dealt with the situation by realising she just wanted external validation for something she'd always felt, which she didn't need any more. And dived down and got the Heart back on her own, the Ocean didn't just go "oh okay you sang the song here have it back". But about when Maui had his "changed my mind, kid" scene I realised that while Maui had the exact same issues of "I need validation despite everything I've already done" but he didn't get a proper resolution for them. Moana gave him a peptalk yeah but that was before his hook got cracked. I think in an ideal world I Am Moana would've been replaced with a distant duet between her and Maui, but in thinking that I answered my own question as to why that didn't happen. Dwayne's doing his best but fuck would he be pushing shit uphill trying to harmonise with Aluli-i Cravalho.

And speaking of the climax I can't, strictly speaking, say it's bad at all. Rather I feel like it could've been a lot better if they'd just iterated it a little more. The fact that Te Ka's spiral-hole was concealed in all her other scenes only to suddenly pop out into full view the instant Moana realised the Te Fiti was missing felt cheap. I think the climax would've been improved a lot had Moana had to put the dots together herself and make a leap of faith, kind of like how the film itself trusts the viewer to put together themselves "Oh yeah, new islands are made by volcanos spewing out lava that hardens into land, it does make sense for her Nobody to be a lavamonster". But that being said I still loved the execution beyond that. When Moana started singing I was kinda like "Aha so you know I want songs during action you just won't give it to me most of the time you fuckers!"
 
I know you yanks have had it for a month but fuck you it only just came out today here in Australia.

Thoroughly enjoyable movie. Perfect? Nah. But a solid... I'll say 7? Nothing film-breakingly bad, plenty of moments I loved, merely a few niggles and missed opportunities holding it back. And... oh hey because all you fuckers already saw it and stopped using spoilers I don't have to either.

Moana helping the baby turtle to the water instead of picking up the shell like any stupid toddler child would've was cute as fuck and brought me on board immediately. The "FUCK YEAH COCONUTS RULE" song was okay and catchy I guess, but it was definitely How Far I'll Go that sold me on the music and made me crave more songs super hard.

One touch I definitely appreciated was twisting up the circumstances of Moana leaving into a complex knot rather than "BUT WANTING MORE THO". She genuinely does her best at being acting chief, and suggested going beyond the reef primarily in that capacity because fuck it the sea has fish in it. Her dad dropping his fudge and undermining her authority in front of everyone like she wasn't trying her best really did a good job putting the audience on her side.

I feel like there are some older script draft artefacts floating around though. That funny pig sidekick was definitely her primary one at first only to be replaced by the chicken because the... shall we say developmentally-disabled chicken was funnier to subject to slapstick because pigs are cute.

Loved the Tamaota scene. Jemaine Clement was funny as hell, did a catchy-ass song, the visuals were wonderful, and the action carried through it rather than going all stop-and-start. I wish I'd stayed to see his stinger scene but fuck it, I heard that generic scratchy-voiced popstar start singing How Far I'll Go and said "NOPE". Seriously will Disney please stop doing this, putting inferior versions of the song I just heard and really liked does not inspire me to stay for your credits.

I Am Moana came at precisely the time I was most craving another song and it made my penis so large I was escorted from the theatre for frightening the family of four beside me. I think what I liked about it most was how Moana dealt with the situation by realising she just wanted external validation for something she'd always felt, which she didn't need any more. And dived down and got the Heart back on her own, the Ocean didn't just go "oh okay you sang the song here have it back". But about when Maui had his "changed my mind, kid" scene I realised that while Maui had the exact same issues of "I need validation despite everything I've already done" but he didn't get a proper resolution for them. Moana gave him a peptalk yeah but that was before his hook got cracked. I think in an ideal world I Am Moana would've been replaced with a distant duet between her and Maui, but in thinking that I answered my own question as to why that didn't happen. Dwayne's doing his best but fuck would he be pushing shit uphill trying to harmonise with Aluli-i Cravalho.

And speaking of the climax I can't, strictly speaking, say it's bad at all. Rather I feel like it could've been a lot better if they'd just iterated it a little more. The fact that Te Ka's spiral-hole was concealed in all her other scenes only to suddenly pop out into full view the instant Moana realised the Te Fiti was missing felt cheap. I think the climax would've been improved a lot had Moana had to put the dots together herself and make a leap of faith, kind of like how the film itself trusts the viewer to put together themselves "Oh yeah, new islands are made by volcanos spewing out lava that hardens into land, it does make sense for her Nobody to be a lavamonster". But that being said I still loved the execution beyond that. When Moana started singing I was kinda like "Aha so you know I want songs during action you just won't give it to me most of the time you fuckers!"

Just to clarify, what sort of 7/10 is this? Is this the Game Informer 7/10?
 
This is why I like either doing a letter grade-based scale (in the US at least it's less ambigious; a C means it's meh or ok, an F means you absolutely hate it) or just flat out say "yeah I really like it it's worth spending money on" or "nah just wait until it's available for rental or on Netflix" or "dude don't even watch it, you should get paid to watch it."
 
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