My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analyses: juli 2016

Hi folks! Welcome to my My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analysis blog. A blog where I'm analyzing several Disney films, Disney or Animation in general! These entries are just meant to be my analyses. Not reviews or statements. Just fun analyses! Though I'll make some personal remarks now and then, the content of these entries are meant to be depicted objectively. They're made for entertainment purpose only and the pictures/clips are copyright Disney or other companies.

Make sure to leave a comment if you like this site! And if there's something you think could be improved, please let me know. But in a constructive way, please. And just a note; I'm not a Native English writer, so my incorrect grammar may be notable.

And finally; If you haven't seen the films, beware of spoilers! And the funny lines aren't meant to be nothing than funny. So I hope you won't find them offensive. If so, I apologize

We look so much alike, don't we?

It's fan-art, not an
actual interaction :)

Released November 23d 2016, Moana was the newest addition to the new Princess streak which Disney has revived again with their current Revival motion pictures. However, Moana was the first Disney Princess since Pocahontas be the daughter of a tribal Chief (which she's been compared to).

Which suggestions is worse?
You're ought to choose :)

Moana herself has been the third "official" CGI Princess of this era (if you'll exclude Merida, Sofia and Elena, of course). Despite that the creators have desperately detracted her from her Princess role in the press and labeled her as a strong badass heroine. Despite that she's, oddly enough, referred as a Princess in the movie (which was the line that audiences commented on most). And her red outfit is, ironically enough, a royalty symbol in Polynesian culture.
It's tempting to claim synergy, due to how these Princess movies was released every third year (though it was originally slated for a fall 2018 release). However, Moana is the first of these CGI Princesses to be a non-Caucasian one and the first one since Tiana.
It's tempting to say that Moana is somewhat a

Remember to sign me
in on American Idol ;)

full circle for John Musker and Ron Clements. It's needless to sum up that in late 2009, The Princess and the Frog was their addition to revive the hand drawn medium. Of course the buzz surrounding it was about it's African American heroine. Unfortunately the film wasn't the big revival of hand drawn animation that it needed to be and the next CGI feature Tangled was already on it's way, crushing the theories of it being handdrawn.
And the rest is history, guys (which is needless to sum up, since that issue has been debated to death)! But Moana comes full circle by being another Musker and Clements movie with a non-Caucasian Princess. And oddly enough, The Princess and the Frog has been mentioned in the directors credits on the official press synopsis of this film (and funny enough, one of the choreographers who worked on this movie is named Tiana, from the group Nonosina).

Moana`s Origins, Directors & Sea Setting

Note one wrong :)

I'm Flubber's cousin.
Twice removed ;)

It's unnecessary to cite the fact of Moana being a John Musker and Ron Clements movie was the primary reason to see it. Despite having Don Hall and Chris Williams (who also storyboarded several scenes) as co-directors as well. For aforementioned reasons fans knows about, since I`ve already brought up that fun and comedy is prominent in their films (though according to them, the bathroom humor got the biggest laughs and apparently they have a problem with length in all of their films). But at least Moana is their first movie in CGI (and having two softwares called Tonic and Quicksilver made for our heroine's tick hair for posing and movement and also different simulations for wet and dry hair and clothes). Though the idea was greenlit in 2011, the actual animation was executed within eight months.

Enjoy it while you can :)

Paintings by Paul Gauguin, novels by Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad, but mostly the stories of the South Seas and why Polynesian navigators suddenly had their hiatus (and Westerns like True Grit), were the genesis for this original storyline (the crew also looked at books from Epeli Hau'ofa, Wade Davis and Patrick Vinton Kirch, as well as films and documentaries as Nomads of The Wind and The Navigators for inspiration). Ron suggested that the voyaging idea should be kept a secret for our title lead initially (and they also researched traditional navigation). That's certainly something which Ron and John are known for, to write their screenplays.

It could also be speculated that Moana is another full circle for the duo, being their second Ocean-setted movie since The Little Mermaid (and taking some obvious story cues from it), since Treasure Planet takes place in the space, after all. A system called Splash (haha) for the water effects was made, despite having different systems for certain parts of the Ocean. And the crew have cited this movie to be perhaps the most technically complex film in Disney's history (at least for the time). Which was proven by the challenges the crew met, with even such things as making the necklaces for the characters. And the amount of animators was the biggest amount that the directors have ever worked with (ninety).

Silver would've loved this ;)

And a little Easter egg alert; Flounder has a cameo in this movie, alongside with Olaf, Baymax, Genie's lamp (Maui doing a gesture similar to what Aladdin did with the apple) and has something Tangled and Wreck-It-Ralph-related (the latter appearing on the end credits). And yeah, the directors has a cameo in Moana as well (but a very brief one), alongside with hidden Mickeys on the Ocean. At least one credited Easter egg was deliberately put in the Tamatoa's lair sequence (whch was the last sequence animated, within three weeks, worked by half the song)

Don't ask us why, that's just our habit. We're born this way ;)

We're a dysfunctional family :) Due to this mixture :)

However, while some settings in Disney's features are labeled as characters due to their presence, the filmmakers have taken a step further and made the Ocean a living character in this film. A literal interpretation of Polynesians relationship with the Ocean (with the help of the technology from the Finding Nemo-films). As well as taking a Biblical cue, by having the water parting (and showing the designs of the debris that get's washed up on the beach).
The name Moana is no coincidence, meaning Ocean in several Polynesian languages and also being the symbol for the color blue (and the spiraling letter o on the logo having the Maori symbol Koru, which is about new beginnings/growths). Despite Moana being actually a male, Polynesian god as well.
There as speculations about this film being Musker and Clements last movie (due to them reaching a certain age). Though it wasn't officially announced during Moana's release, at least the half of the duo, Musker, officially retired from Disney in 2018. While Ron Clements left Disney for Warner Bros Animation in 2020. Most of the movie was made in the Tujunga Campus building (which is used for Disney Imagineering's theme park ideas), due to the main studio being renovated.

Moana`s Non-Adjective Title Change

Unlike Tangled and Frozen, Moana has fortunately escaped the fate of being renamed to an adjective title! AndtThank goodness for that! It's certainly a confident step further for Disney to get rid of that radical habbit! But Moana still got a rename! Apparently her name was seen as too tentative for Europe! In some countries (Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium) it's was renamed Vaiana due to existing registered trademark of the name Moana there. In Italy it's was named Oceania, since Italy already having a star named the name Moana there (despite that Disney`s Moana was the first film with that same title).

It may look harmless, but it can
beat the *** out of you

By taking consideration of the marketing of these films, it's impossible to exclude their trailers. It all started with Tangled's famous teaser (despite that it actually had a former teaser that depicted the tower and some dialogue from the film). Frozen was a step further by sharing the Pixar trend of having a complete sequence of it's own, which wasn't a part of the final movie!

Me and my weapon are
the same size! Awesome, huh? ;)

Moana's first teaser was quite centered on the shapeshifting Maui, an actual mythological person in Polynesian folklore (while the perception of him tends to differ, they all agrees about his magical fish hook, that transforms him). Despite how this teaser was not as misleading and irreverent as the former teasers (and having scenes which weren't even in the film), Maui's presence in it was dominating and notable.

But there's a valid reason for this marketing, folks! Movies for male demographic are normally labeled as fun, while female-centric movies are labeled as otherwise (as skillfully analyzed on this article).

However, remarkably enough Japanese trailers for Disney's features have lately been less irreverent, more subdued and more true to their actual tone. So it's no surprise that this happened to Moana's trailer. The early Japanese teaser showed our toddler Moana interacting with the Ocean (being labeled as a Miyazaki-scene by reporters, storyboarded by Big Hero 6 director Chris Williams). It was the first scene the effect team worked on and being John Lasseter's favorite

scene (though Moana was orginally supposed to be older on that sequence). And storyboarded in 2015, which shaped the screenwriters to rewrite the movie to include it (and it was the first scene to be shown to Moana`s voice actress, Auli'i Cravalho). But the third, official trailer is in true, irreverent trailer mode.
Remarkably the Disney Parks Unforgettable Christmas Celebration showed a brief clip of Maui in 2015. And at new years eve that same year, Disney Channel launched a brief sneak peak which some clips (which weren't in the movie, though).

Moana`s Innovations, The Villain & Early Presentation

As you've guessed, Disney milked the Revival stock component of showing the heroine as an infant with Moana. Regardless of which era we live in, it's what's Disney's always done, guys; recycling!
Regardless of the current flack that Disney and Pixar has received for blending their components (and now being homogeneous), Moana has a family demise within it with her grandmother Tala, which is the relative core relationship for our titular lead (Gramma was added in the second screening by second writer Pam Ribon, who wanted a elderly female for our title lead).
At least Moana has both of her parents alive, another kudos! While the mother (Sina) was out of the story for a time, she was added to give our titlular lead a mother for once (which Musker joked that his own mother disliked the absence of mothers). Moana was originally going to have two brothers, which she surpassed them in sailing (and her mission was originally going to be about rescuing her father).

We're posing because of that dust below us ;))
Don't ask where it came from ;)

Yes, I'm rising because I'm burning the *** out of me :)

But at least Moana is invigorating in that sense that she's devoid for any love interest whatsoever (and therefore is confirmed as an action heroine who's feminist, though female empowerment is not unusual in Polynesian mythology). It's certainly a huge step further, since her relationship with Maui (who was at one point going to be more villainous) is the core of the movie and they never get involved romantically. And as with the Revival Princess streak, Moana is a road-movie.
The villainess (Te Kã) is an Volcano and the simulator Matterhorn, that was created to make the snow in Frozen, was upgraded to handle the mud, foam and sand in Moana, as well as Te Kã.Who originally was called Te Põ and her voice was reduced to make her more mythic. (Though originally a bat was going to be among the antagonists, where one of them appears in You're Welcome, which was animated early in the production).

The Disney D23 Expo revealed the character designs in the summer of 2015 and also presented the opening song (which initially was We Know The Way, which was the first song written for the movie, in New Zealand). But it's notable that the opening of this movie was rewritten within a year! It was reported that Moana's birth celebration chant would open the film (not being particularly different to another birth celebration from a certain Savannah movie, The Lion King, which the music was deliberately modeled after). The opening was of course been changed into the hand drawn animated section, which was one of the last things to be completed (despite that the CGI animation of that scene was completed earlier, while the idea of the backstory of Maui was added late).

Otherwise, the story may be the typical Disney-story with the classic Disney components (and of course the Revival-components of having a male/female sparring dynamic). While Disney of course gets criticized for being derivative, at least the derivative components never become awfully tiresome in Moana )(in my opinion). And besides, it ends up with a moral about not forgetting your true identity.

Moana`s Setting, Design & Controversy

I know I'm not Taylor Swift, but at least
I'm bold enough to be with you ;)

A Polynesian setting may not be pioneering for Disney, due to them already explored that region with their 2002 hit Lilo & Stitch. However, it's evident that Moana's location is more naturalistic and tribal than the contemporary Lilo & Stitch. Which makes it more diversifiable (and due to the cast not being fully clothed, the animators dealed with anatomy more).
Moana is set in the fictional Motunui (which means Big Islands in Pacific languages) in Oceania. Which was modeled after the wild Tetiatora, to make the setting different than other animated island settings, Despite how Motunui is an actual place (Linguistics advisor Paul Geraghty suggested the name)! The fictional aspect was encouraged by advisors which the team spoke to. Moana has also been dubbed in Tahitian, which was also a first for animated movie.

However (to tap into the racial issue), the Polynesians in Moana are fortunately dark skinned. And due to our scrutinizing era where it's easy to cry racism, it's a nice step. And before attacking me, folks, take a look at this; Despite that Disney had dark-skinned characters in their previous movies, some of their films like Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove had most of their characters white (and let`s not forget the fuzz of Tiana not looking black enough). Yet Disney have been aware over this racial havoc.

My outfit matches the sky, doesn't it? ;)

Moana herself has been given some curves and meat on her body, compared to the regular Disney Princess. Which she's of course received praise for, but also remarks, Of course it's not coincidental due to obvious reasons, but apparently it was a conscious decision by the creators. In order to make her an action hero and to differentiate her from her peers. Which the female staff approved.
But this overweight issue has created some havoc before the movie was released. But remarkably enough with Maui, who was labeled as being too obese (which is funny, since the creators looked at both wrestlers and football players for his physique)! Remarkable enough, Maui has often been depicted as being slim in previous works, but the Oceanic Story Trust (which was a Polynesian crew of the movie) encouraged to make him massive. A costume of his skin also fueled some fury (which was pulled back)!

Another attack on Moana is how Disney used the design of the traditional boat camakau (pronounced tha-ma-cow) without permission. And for being plagiarism of Guy Wallarts' Tahitoa.
Though Disney has been criticized for sticking to a similar pattern with the designs for their Revival Princesses since Tangled, at least with Moana they've taken a step further and made a different design (at least in my opinion). While there's of course been some fanart on the Internet prior to the final reveal, Moana's design is still a quite compeling one. Being both interesting and good looking. She certainly resembles a Mark Hehn drawing in CGI (in my opinion).

Voice Actors, Comic Relief & Music

The biggest star of Moana is of course Dwayne Johnson, making his first job for a Disney animated feature. While he`s far from being a pioneer at Disney, having starred in The Game Plan and Race to Which Mountain (though Johnson was already working on four other projects at the time of Moana, as Ballers and Fast & Furious 6). Johnson was the first choice to play Maui, despite that he wasn't cast after the second preview of the story reels.
Johnson is of course mainly known for his wrestling (his physique was the reason for being chosen), but lately has been more prominent as an actor. And Maui is indeed a larger than life-character in the film an one of it's comic reliefs.

Those other eyes are not mine, they belong to... someone else :)

However, the crew were initially considering making Maui the main lead and depicting some of his myths mashed together (and having the storyline be a rescue mission with a love interest), before switching back to Moana. Despite that the story wasn't settled the first year of pre-production, yet Moana was a candidate between three pitches (and yes, folks, a suggestion for a title was Mighty Maui). And funny enough, Maui was bald for a time, before the crew realizing that he's known for his mane. And yes, the crew were intending to depict the movie as a time traveling story from our modern time to the ancient past, in King Arthur's Ocean-mode.

Despite picking unknowns is certainly not a new task for Disney, they took it to a literal extreme by choosing then unknown Hawaiian newcomer Auli’i Cravalho as the part of Moana herself (and being credited in both the trailer and poster, despite not even being a star at the time). She turned the same age as her on-screen character a day prior to the film's release. While Moana's age was risen from fourteen to sixteen (and Auli'i also improvised some parts, as the cheering of Maui). And the remarkable thing is that she didn't audition herself and was discovered by an agent in a charity competition where she sang (and Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride from Lilo & Stitch was recorded in her school)! She was offered the part through Skype (and her mother also participates in the movie, as the voice of the village woman who praises Chief Tui for his daughter..

As for the rest of the cast, Nicole Scherzinger from Pussycats Dolls plays Moana`s mother, Sina (making her animated debut).

Jemaine Clement is the comically, villainous crab Tamatoa (who sings the glam rock-inspired Shiny, which was consciously inspired by David Bowie). Alan Tudyk (the recurring voice veteran at Disney) is the rooster Hei Hei (and also the villager that wants to eat him). Who was going to be excluded from the movie in April of 2015, but got redesigned when some team members were sick (which was celebrated with a chicken lunch, haha). Despite Hei Hei wasn't originally

going to swallow the Te Fiti-heart during the Kakamora attack. But Hei Hei was transformed from a smarmy character to a complete moron.

Moana's sidekicks are quite traditional and conventional for a Disney movie; A rooster and a pig. Pua was originally going to have more screentime, but got reduced to have more focus on Moana herself (yet Musker have confirmed his regrets about it). But both (alongside with Kakamora) were based on actual research on these islands and were originally going to be charicatures of the directors (and that Kakamora were coconuts was decided for economical reasons).

We're hostile because people has labeled us as cute all along :)

At least the music was by a new Disney-composer. Since Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez were a part of the recipe to a certain Sun Queen success, one would think that it's would be tempting to wear them out, right? They've were hired to work on Gigantic and recommended Samoan musician Opetaia Foa'i (who joined the team in Samoa). Versatile lyricist/actor/rapper Lin-Manuel Miranda penned the lyrics (and sang on several of the demo's) and cites that this project was like a calm place for him and kept him grounded (and was the last member on the team, being discovered by researching musicals in New York and being the most willing to collaborate of the musicians that were selected). And this was prior to Hamilton taking off (and the choice of letting him sing in We Know The Way was made prior to Hamilton).
But at least the movie has Mark Mancina as the composer (being a part of Moana from the get-go), having already a Disney resume of his own with The Lion King (where he brought Elton John and Lebo M together) and his successful solo scores for Tarzan and Brother Bear (and sure, several people have cited that the Polynesian chants have a Lion King vibe to them).

License With Hasbro & Hand Drawn Animation

Since Disney ended their license with Mattel in 2015, Hasbro has been the distributors for the Princess lineup. And therefore have been behind the Moana toys. Of course Hasbro is no stranger for Disney, due to them having a brief takeover of their merchandise in 2001.
As with the other Revival films, the leaks and information of Moana were sparsely revealed in the beginning. But apparently a whole Disney Infinity game of it was canceled after the scrapping of Disney Infinity.

The graphic animation of Maui's Tattoo'

s, who's his own character, is actually a hand drawn component. It was superimposed on the CGI model of Maui (clearly the creators should've heard how the directors for Atlantis The Lost Empire raved about how easy to make the tattoo's on the characters, haha). Animated by Eric Goldberg (and partially Mark Hehn), Mini-Maui acts like a conscience for our demigod. The tattoo`s reflects his history and the creators claimed that CGI was the best way to bring the tattoos to life (Goldberg also pre-animated toddler Moana and the Ocean in hand drawn)! And the animators pleaded to work with Mini-Maui due to work with Goldberg, though his crew on it was small (the idea of making Maui's tattoo's into quadrants was made for that reason).

Look at this, Herc :)

Such animation is certainly something typically Disney, due to them having similar, cultural style to their prior films (though it's tempting to scream Kung Fu Panda ripoff, due to those films sharing a similar style of hand drawn animation).
Regardless of the debate of the dismissal of hand drawn, it's still nice to have a slight touch hand drawn within Moana (while of course true hand drawn should've been revived again). As in the film's opening scene and in Maui's showstopping number, You're Welcome (the title of the song which Lin suggested, which originally Moana herself was going to sing). It was rumored that Moana would be made in Meander, the same technique which Paperman was made. But apparently it was too early for the crew to pull it off.

Expectations to Moana & It`s Revival Counterparts

"Whoops, I did it again" ;)

Of course expectations to Moana was huge, both in terms of it's quality and by it's Box Office expectatuons. Especially coming off the heels of a overwhelmingly successful and influential Princess movie (which why reporters frequently used the phrase "move over Elsa and Anna"). Who happened to have a complete opposite location. And also coming off the overwhelming Box Office success of Zootopia.

Therefore, Moana had a lot to live up to (and was the second theatrical Disney-release in Dolby Cinema in AMC after Zootopia).

Since Big Hero 6 and Zootopia managed to escape the Deja Vu fate of Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Moana definitively didn't followed the same path as it`s Renaissance predecessors. Since the Revival era has reflected the Renaissance, position-wise, which would technically make Moana it`s era's Hercules.

It's notable that the Revival era has been more diversified than Disney is usually associated with. And the non-Princess films has not been stuck in what we consider the Disney rut. As proven with Wreck-It-Ralph and Big Hero 6. The following fairytale film was originally going to be the aforementioned Gigantic. Which was the first fairy tale film of the Revival era with an male lead (yes, I've ranted about the term Princess-film in my previous entries, but let's face it guys, it's inescapable to use it). While it was scheduled for a 2020 release, it was unfortunately scrapped in the fall 2017. As known, Walt Disney Animation Studios followed a short sequel rut with Ralph Breaks the Internet and Frozen II. But now they`ve returned to original content with Raya and the Last Dragon and the upcoming Encanto.

Epilogue

Either way, Moana was a succes! It was critically well received and it's been praised to be a worthy addition to Disney's huge legacy. It had a solid Domestic opening of $ 88. million dollars (the second best Thanksgiving weekend to date) and has made $ 643,350,998 million dollars Worldwide!
A sing along-version was released in theaters January 2017, following the footsteps of Frozen (and yeah, folks, it's commercial purposes actually served Frozen well, though unfortunately it's didn`t the same served Moana as well). And it's soundtrack has done well at Billboard. The film was finally released on Blu Ray and DVD in March 7th, 2017. Now that Disney are going to sequel territory, let's hope their legacy will last long.