A young special named Moana since childhood was familiar with the story. Only the person in whose veins the blood of the Chiefs is flowing can find them. One of the legends is that there is a mysterious island in the ocean that holds unprecedented treasures. They lived peacefully, peacefully, without conflict.Īlready there were legends and different tales. The human tribe lived in a small archipelago lost in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes they loved into ordinary women, and the result of such unions was born demigods. This film is an animated fantasy, but as 2016 comes to a close, one could be forgiven for wishing it were real.Many centuries ago, the planet Earth, except people, also inhabited the gods. But in the context of such news stories, it’s worth remembering that Moana is the story of a female leader-in-waiting who is independent and progressive, who cares about the environment and who looks beyond the borders of her homeland to face the challenges of the future. In September, Disney pulled a range of kids’ costumes and pyjamas amid complaints that they constituted a ghastly form of “brownface” cultural appropriation, an offence that the company clearly took seriously. But the most beautifully realised character is that of the ocean itself, a symphony of fluid movement whose waves become hands that aid our voyagers on their way, not least in constantly saving Moana’s half-witted chicken companion Heihei (the aforementioned “animal sidekick”), who provides many slapstick laughs.Īs always, success has not come without controversy. In the course of their adventures, Moana and Maui encounter a swarm of diminutive Kakamora pirates, whose ships weirdly resemble the morphed monster trucks of Mad Max: Fury Road, and face a fiery lava monster that pushes at the boundaries of the “mild threat” outlined in the BBFC’s PG rating.
Other musical highlights include Jemaine Clement’s hermit crab Tamatoa’s bling-tastic Shiny, and the poignant I Am Moana, co-written with Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina, both of whom do superb work on the soundtrack. Johnson clearly relishes the role and wrings self-deprecatory laughs from the ego-massaging song You’re Welcome (“I know it’s a lot, the hair, the bod!”), written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose adored stage show Hamilton has been riding a new tidal wave of popularity since Donald Trump peevishly tweeted about it being “overrated”. Inspired by her grandmother who loves “to dance with the water”, Moana is on a mission to restore the Heart of Te Fiti, a magical stone stolen years ago by Maui, whose muscular frame is adorned by dancing tattoos (think of the muses on the vase from Hercules), which provide Jiminy Cricket-style conscience and commentary.
So when the time comes to save the island’s failing ecosystem, it is Moana who ventures into the wide blue yonder, drowning out her father’s instructions to remain Where You Are with her own song celebrating How Far I’ll Go. As a child, the waves parted for Moana (whose name means “deep water”), marking her as the ocean’s chosen one. But Moana has fallen in love – not with some handsome suitor, but with the sea. Her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), insists that his people stay within the bounds of the reef surrounding their island home of Motunui. But Disney now has another frontrunner in the shape of Moana, a joyous tale of a Polynesian teenager’s quest to save her homeland, which boasts eye-watering visuals, earworm songs and heart-swelling messages about respect for the past and hopes for the future.Īs demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) jeers: “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.” Yet 16-year-old Moana (beautifully voiced by Hawaiian newcomer Auli’i Cravalho) is something else – an explorer with a fire in her soul, passed down through generations. All of these have been tipped as contenders for the best animated feature Oscar, alongside Studio Ghibli’s The Red Turtle, which, like Illumination’s eagerly awaited Sing, opens in the UK early next year. Alongside the superb stop-motion of Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings, we’ve had the provocatively sociopolitical joys of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootropolis (aka Zootopia), the gentle waves of Pixar’s Finding Dory and the extraordinary body swaps of Makoto Shinkai’s runaway Japanese hit Your Name.
2016 has been another strong year for animation.
0 kommentar(er)
