Moana

I absolutely adored it. After being thoroughly disappointed by Frozen, I thought this was the best Disney animated musical I've seen since the 90s. Lin wrote a great and varied soundtrack without a single dud. Not only that but his songs worked as songs in a musical should, they furthered the story along, which doesn't always happen in Disney films.

Agreed on the emotions, I teared up several times. It's a simple story but is told in the most beautiful way. It was visually stunning also. I will rewatch this again and again in the future.

I saw Moana this afternoon, and loved it. Disney have had a good run of films since Tangled, with not a duff one anywhere and quite a diverse mixture of genres as well. Musically this is certainly a step above Frozen: whereas The Princess and The Frog, Tangled and Moana are quite definitely musicals, Frozen always felt to me as though it was designed more to sound like a musical than to be a musical. (Not long after Frozen's run I said that Frozen sounded the way someone would expect a musical to sound if they'd seen ten musicals and thought that was a lot, while Tangled sounded the way someone would expect a musical to sound if they'd seen a hundred musicals and thought that wasn't many.)

There have, inevitably, been some complaints about how Disney has altered the real culture to fit the requirements of the film, but I think the company deserves credit for doing as much as they reasonably can to bring that culture to the screen in the first place, considering that it would have been far cheaper to skimp on the research and 99% of the audience would have neither known nor cared. They've done a good job here, making the mythology feel entirely natural.

There were a couple of trailers. Pixar are doing another Cars movie, as that dead horse clearly hasn't been flogged enough. And Illumination are soon to release Sing, which looks OK but for some reason Illumination keep promoting themselves with Minions as if they believe that won't cause traumatic flashbacks. Why do you do this to us, Illumination?

LOVED Moana! Utterly gorgeous film. Didn't know The Rock could sing. Worth sitting through the credits for the post-credit sting.

Finally seen it here in New York this morning (it's not released in Germany until the 22nd - and I'd have to find an English screening anyway) and hugely enjoyed Moana. LMM did a great job, I really loved the songs and will also buy the soundtrack. The animations looked great and were really impressive - lots of wow moments.

I found the chicken rather annoying (I'd have preferred the pig), and the audience was beyond horrible - lots of badly behaving kinds and infants. As much as I'd love to see it again, I'm waiting for the Blu Ray to be released.

I saw Moana again today. I bought "The Art of Moana" last week and it adds considerably to the film to know the thinking behind the designs. Until I read the book I hadn't realised that the film is set 2000 years ago at a time when the voyaging really had stopped for centuries, although I doubt the reality behind the story involved a giant singing crab.

Something I meant to mention yesterday but forgot:

The "tweeting" joke needs to go. I don't know what they were thinking. It's the weakest line in the film; possibly the weakest line in any film. It's clunky and out of place for the setting and will make what should be a timeless classic feel jarringly dated in a decade or so when Twitter has been replaced by the latest Internet fad. If Disney have any respect for the film they'll rerecord and reanimate that couple of seconds and insert a cactus into whoever it was who came up with the line in the first place.

I just saw it today, and I loved it. I thought it was very original. Also love How Far I Will Go. I am astonished (but not surprised) at how a more nuanced, original and special work was relatively overlooked compared to the overrated Frozen.

This is also good:

Just watched my blu ray copy that arrived this morning. Visually its stunning, beautiful. The Rock i really liked also thr girl who played Moana. The story wasnt the strongest but the scene where Moana leaves the island (wont spoil it) brought a tear to my eye, simple and beautiful.

The songs though, ugh after all the hype i was surprised how forgettable and bland they were. I think it would have almost been better without songs. And 'Shiny' reminded me of the songs from the Disney wannabe movies from the 90s