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score 3/10
Moana is simplistic plot. Surround a young quasi-islander girl with a big over-weight quasi-demi-god, a few animal "friends", a father afraid of going out beyond the reef because his friend drowned? and a need to return a stone to its source because that demi-god stole it? while disrespecting the father/chief? and becoming a leader of the people before the father dies? of which, women weren't allowed to be chiefs?
Disney's ability to dilute any folklore is well-known, in order to make a quick buck by selling junk merchandise to kids. The tattoo suit was a terrible idea, but kudos for pulling it off the shelf quickly.
Disney has a habit also of producing "girl power" movies, which I find to be cookie-cutter style. Disney has found a formula and they rinse-repeat with the characters, music and script. Recently this has been true with movies like Frozen, Tangled and Brave.
In the meantime, Disney ignores the male lead role with the ability to change and overcome challenges in life. (12) movies in the past have featured male leads but none of which meet the standards set forth today by Disney standards for female lead roles. No, I don't include Pixar movies.
Of those (12) movies, only two have meaningful scripts and two have sad endings. Peter Pan (1953), Sword in Stone (1963), Jungle Book (1967/2016), Black Cauldron (1985), Aladdin (1992), Hunchback (1996), Hercules (1997), Tarzan (1999), Emperor's New Groove (2000), Treasure Planet (2002), Brother Bear (2003), Meet Robinson's (2007).
I could really dig deep and trash this movie for all the things they got wrong, but I'm going to skip it and just point out the few things I liked about the movie.
(1) The animation is good. (2) The movie is about the Pacific Islanders. (meh) There was one tune I thought was catchy, the rest were crap
That's it. The rest of the movie is junk to me. It is a cookie- cutter movie with the same theme, with the same songs, with the same direction. Sure there are some amusing parts of the movie, but over all I really didn't care for it.
I also was disappointed in the use of "Disney staff from the Disney resort" who are of native heritage for the bonus features. It became obvious to me that Disney was doing a fluff piece to show the general public that "islanders" love working on the movie, which is a partial truth.
Overall this movie is an amusing production which will satisfy the little kids and the simpletons. If Disney really wanted to make a movie about diversity they could make the same movie about a gay boy trying to be chief after his father dies.
digitalbeachbum 11 March 2017
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3659086/ |
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