Wednesday, 7 December 2016

Moana

DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. All images and footage used are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise. I do not claim ownership of this material.





Disney’s latest animated film is a beautiful one, with fantastic songs, animation and brilliant characterisation. The story itself focuses on a young girl named Moana, who travels across the Ocean with the legendary demi-god Maui, to save her island from destruction.

First of all, this is a visually incredible movie- it just looks stunning. It’s one of those films where you owe it to yourself to see it on the big screen. In addition to incredible computer animation, there are also certain scenes that blend hand drawn animation and CGI in a unique and wonderful way, which is something very creative and rarely seen in animated films.

It is also really funny, with a witty script and some great characters. It gets very meta at times, in terms of it’s references to Disney tropes and this feels very refreshing.

Something else not yet mentioned is probably the movie’s greatest strength- it’s wonderful music, written by Lin Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina and Operaia Foa’i. It is everything you could want from a Disney film- highlights include ‘How Far I’ll Go’, a great, ‘I want’ song with a rousing reprise or two, a brilliant (oddly enough David Bowie inspired) villain song, ‘Shiny’, and the infectiously catchy ‘You’re Welcome’.     

The only criticism thrown against it could be that (in terms of the plot) it is a rather by the numbers Princess film. But something about the characters and the way they interact makes the whole story believable in a way that overrides this.

This is also helped by the brilliant voice acting. Dwayne Johnston does a brilliant job playing Maui, just as you would expect. But the nicest surprise is newcomer Auli'i Cravalho, who does a fantastic job as Moana, especially considering that this is her first film role and that she is only 16.


Overall, this is a great Disney movie, and I could not recommend it more.

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