Moana

[D82]

Some more artwork:

Ryan Lang (Visual Development Artist)
http://www.ryanlangdraws.com/3748026-moana# (contains spoilers)

Leighton Hickman (Visual Development Artist)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNmqxgTB93l/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNxHEpHB9QP/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNzyq0rBZp2/

Mehrdad Isvandi (Visual Development Artist)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNuk91bghNi/

Bobby Pontillas (Character Animator and Designer)
http://bobbypontillas.tumblr.com/post/1 ... -the-never

Annette Marnat (Character Designer)
http://annettemarnat.tumblr.com/post/154078026705/moana
http://annettemarnat.tumblr.com/post/154114493780/moana

Andy Harkness (Art Director of Environments)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNpxAmIBr3V/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNxhh0bhkpF/

David Derrick (Story Artist)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNo5_SwB_-O/

Fawn Veerasunthorn (Story Artist)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNqe_ICDEQ1/

Chad Stubblefield (Modeling Supervisor)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNixoX3jxWa/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNpmWIkj568/

[Sotiris]

^ Thanks! I didn't know Moana's ancestors were going to be featured in an earlier version of the film. I guess it's for the best they changed it. That would have been too reminiscent of Mulan.

[D82]

^ You're welcome. I agree with you, I'm glad they changed it.

[Mmmadelon]

Disney uploaded the whole 'How Far I'll Go' scene:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAbx5kgCJo[/youtube]

[Atlantica]

Seeing this finally this evening; I still don't know why, but I'm just not looking forward to it as much as I should. Have no clue why .... maybe because I had a listen to the soundtrack and didn't care for it much at all ? I'm really not sure. But its irritating me how much I'm not that looking forward ! Especially as its Ron and Jon as well. Will let you know my thoughts later on when back

[DisneyEra]

Here's Moana losing Best Song at last weekend's Critics Choice awards. Got a feeling we're gonna see a lot of this over the next couple months.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z03eIrCbf5I[/youtube]

[Atlantica]

Well I really enjoyed it ! Very beautiful film. That was the strongest aspect for me, the beauty behind it.

The songs and score were pretty blah. The score especially was pretty much non-existent for me. We Know The Way was the highlight for sure, and 'Shiny' holds the record for me for being the most awful song I have ever heard featured in a Disney film. Beating the Troll song from Frozen by 1000 miles. Gosh it was just dire. And what makes it even more preposterous is the fact thats its popping up in a sponsored video on Facebook as the 'Villian Song' and they show clips of Poor Unfortunate Souls and Price Ali Reprise. . . . just no. Don't even associate them together please Disney.

Maui was less annoying than I thought he would be, which was a nice surprise. Moana was a good character as well, but feel about as passionate for her as I do Merida. Which isn't a lot I'm afraid. I mean, I like her, but just doesn't grab me as Ariel, Rapunzel, Belle, Anna etc do.

I'd like to go and see it again, and maybe the music will grow on me

[Sotiris]

The songs and score were pretty blah. The score especially was pretty much non-existent for me. 'Shiny' holds the record for me for being the most awful song I have ever heard featured in a Disney film. Beating the Troll song from Frozen by 1000 miles. Gosh it was just dire. And what makes it even more preposterous is the fact that it's popping up in a sponsored video on Facebook as the 'Villain Song' and they show clips of Poor Unfortunate Souls and Price Ali Reprise... Just no. Don't even associate them together please Disney.

So true!

[Lady Cluck]

Well Rogue One has deflated Moana's box office numbers. Disney sure loves competing with itself sometimes.



Sing will take another hit to it unfortunately

People will always compare it to Frozen but even though it was never going to match that, Frozen had the holiday season almost entirely to itself in terms of blockbuster family entertainment. Moana has had to compete with a Harry Potter universe film, a Star Wars film, and soon a mindnumbing animated film with anthropomorphic animals singing pop songs.

It's still doing decent numbers but I wish it was doing better considering how good it is. Hopefully it has decent legs through January. Of course people are always going to be more interested in white, blonde Eurocentric Disney characters too (sorry but true).

Still surprised Zootopia reached $1 billion. Watch Disney greenlight more Chicken Littles and less musical adventures instead of continuing with diversifying its brand.

[sunhuntin]

dont discount it just yet. it hasnt opened in new zealand, and wont until after christmas. its main competitors [harry, trolls and i think star wars and sing] have already opened and many kids will be seeing them this week as most schools here are done now.

many, many kiwis will identify with this film and i can see it doing well on that alone. im also betting moana and maui both rank on the "popular names" lists next year. personally, im not bothered if i see it or not, but if i do it will be when the schools have gone back in late january.

[disneyprincess11]

Here is Shiny. Your favorite song

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93lrosBEW-Q[/youtube]

[Flanger-Hanger]

Still surprised Zootopia reached $1 billion. Watch Disney greenlight more Chicken Littles and less musical adventures instead of continuing with diversifying its brand.

We've had three musical princess movies since PatF was released in 2009 and three more are in development, along with a BatB remake coming in three months. Do you mean more minority characters in the Princess line up? Because they could still do that without making musicals.

Honestly, if they're as good as Zootopia, I'd prefer to have more non-musical, non-princess animated features from Disney.

[Lady Cluck]

Disney also could and should do musicals without the princess formula. Hunchback is a personal favorite of mine, for example, even though it wasn't as successful and has been buried by the company. Moana is closer to deviating from the typical European fairytale nonsense than Tangled and Frozen were, and it left more of the Disney princess tropes behind (romance especially), even if it still fell under the umbrella of a princess film. But if princesses are what sell, especially easily marketable white "traditional" princesses, then I wouldn't be surprised if they return to that.

Finding Dory, Jungle Book, and Zootopia are all going to end up being bigger hits than Moana, and so are The Secret Life of Pets and possibly Sing. I liked Zootopia as well so I'm not necessarily complaining about the quality, but cute talking animals clearly drive people to the box office.

People complain about the sidekicks but I wonder if Moana would be a bigger hit if Pua and/or Hei Hei were more anthropomorphized, or if there was another obnoxious joke machine side character like Olaf that could become the "adorable" mascot of the film. Moana the character was rightfully given the central focus of the film, but the children and rubes out there need more apparently.

[Lady Cluck]

Here is Shiny. Your favorite song

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93lrosBEW-Q[/youtube]

Thanks for sharing. I actually love this! I'm glad they're uploading all the songs.

[ce1ticmoon]

I finally caught this last night! I really loved it! (I don't think I really have any spoilers, but just in case, be advised.)

I probably want to catch it again before I really know how I feel about it, but first off, it was just absolutely beautiful visually. And that goes for all of the 3D stuff, of course, but I loved the use of 2D animation here and there, and wish there was more. I really liked the way they opened the film, and wish that had gone on a bit longer.

Overall, I really enjoyed the songs and I think I personally like them more than the songs from Frozen. I really like How Far I'll Go, and I actually really liked that there were essentially two reprises. I was also surprisingly pleased with You're Welcome and Shiny, which I was kinda iffy about going into the film. I also really like the Where You Are song and sequence.

Actually, I was really just enamored with the first act overall. I'm glad that they spent so much time on the island before Moana even goes out on her journey, focusing less on the action and adventure and focusing more on the contemplative aspects and Moana's personal struggle between what she wants and the responsibilities bestowed upon her. We see how important the island is to her and how strong of an obligation she feels toward her island and her people, so it really makes sense why she would ultimately defy her father's wishes and go out to the sea.

I was somewhat worried about Maui/Dwayne Johnson going into the film, but I like what they did with him. He was surprisingly nuanced and had his time to shine, but never took the spotlight away from Moana when it mattered. Still not a huge fan of his design, but overall I liked him.

I actually felt that the film was a little slow-moving during the middle. Retrieving the fish-hook and running into the Kakamora seemed a bit like filler to me. A lot of the sequences were fun and exciting, and the realm of monsters was definitely nice to look at, but overall it was the quieter moments in the film that worked the best.

Another criticism would probably be the comedy. I think it could have been toned down a bit overall. I wasn't a fan of the breaking of the fourth wall or the meta jokes. They worked in Aladdin and Hercules, but this film just felt much more serious overall, so they just felt out of place to me.

As for the whole water as a character aspect, I think it worked as a whole, but visually, the water blob still just doesn't do it for me. (I think somebody mentioned this here already, but I essentially felt the same.)

As for the climax, I liked it. I loved how they incorporated a song ("Know Who You Are") into the sequence, and it was simply mesmerizing. And I liked the "twist" they had there and I appreciated that the story really didn't have a true "villain" in the traditional sense.

I agree that the very end felt very Mononoke-like. I really liked it. Overall, I'd probably rank this at the higher end of the recent string of films.

[unprincess]

finally saw this today after an initial attempt b4 Christmas that fizzled due to my sis catching a cold.
I loved this film! wow! this is so much the 90' style Disney I love from the studio. The stuff I was dreading wasnt as bad as I thought it'd be. The coco-nutters were only one scene, Maui was ok, Hei Hei scenes could have been cut in half though. And heh, I must have been the only one that was actually looking forward to that crab song... after I head it was Bowie-esque? oh yes! and boy it did not disappoint! Loved the mix of 2d and CGI during Youre Welcome. Loved all the more traditional songs except maybe for Moana's first solo number which I found a bit meh(yeah I think a better singer would have made it a bit more memorable.) But anyway there was so much great neo-tribal new-agey spiritual Miyazake wannabe goodness in the film, I loved it all! Great CGi! much better display of it here than in Frozen. Loved Moana herself, great gal, loved how imperfect she was(worried she was gonna be a bit mary sueish), though i agree her superheroics during the coco-nutter fight was a bit too much. I preferred her just struggling with her fears and lack of confidence.

what a visual and emotional feast this was, and helped wash my brain of of that Secret Pets movie I sat thru at my niece's house on Tuesday( how many scenes of funny animals driving vehicles haphazardly have we had this year?)

[Jay]

Finally go to see this tonight. I really enjoyed it. SOME SPOILERS


The animation was stunning. The music was was ok a little forgettable but nice. "Shiny" and "We Know the Way" were my favorites. I also like "Know Who You Are" Auli'i Cravalho sounded lovely in that song. Maui was ok I liked his back story. I enjoyed Moana she was a very good heroine. Probably the strongest Disney leading lady to date. I also loved the parts with her grandmother those were all very sweet. And glad she had both parents and her mom had a somewhat decent part for a non evil Disney mom. Hei Hei was ok but I wish Pua was utilized more he was a lot cuter. I also liked that there was no villain. I especially liked that there was no twist/surprise villain. While I would have enjoyed a great villain it made the film a bit more refreshing imo.

The meta princess jokes felt a bit forced but overall I really liked this movie a lot.

[Disney's Divinity]

Jay! So nice to see you post again~! I agree with most of what you said. Pua was sooo adorable, and I wish he'd been in more of the movie.

[Jay]

Jay! So nice to see you post again~! I agree with most of what you said. Pua was sooo adorable, and I wish he'd been in more of the movie.

Hey thanks Divinity! I lurk on here pretty frequently nowadays but don't log in as much. Happy New Year!

[Disney's Divinity]

The more I listen to the soundtrack, the more I'm underwhelmed by it. The reprises are particularly unimpressive outside of "I Am Moana." "YW" doesn't work outside the film at all while "Shiny" only works outside the film (and, tbh, what I like is the vocal, not the song/lyrics). "WKtW" is still good, but for me is fodder like most of the Big Brother soundtrack.