And that's with 79 reviews counted! And and 8.1/10 rating, which is quite high as well! I'm sure it'll come down a bit more as the last batch of reviews come in, but still really awesome to see it that well received :)
Oh Bambi, I cried so hard when those hunters shot your mommy. - Kurt Hummel
Indeed.
It will surely go down. Now we will watch the boxoffice, It doesn't tap the world zeitgeist of low-brow, crass entertainment like Illumination and DreamWorks films so it will be interesting at how it does.
Very impressive. Even the one rotten review is actually more positive
shareWhich is crazy. It's boring, full of padding and forgettable songs. I expected more out of Disney after Zootopia. Zootopia had too much plot maybe, was too convoluted.
Moana has zero plot. The Rock plays The Rock. He starts off being amusing but his schtick gets tired. The actress voicing Moana has a nice singing voice (if it's her) but her acting's pretty much on a par with the star of the high school play.
The drawings are annoying. Can't put my finger on it, they are more realistic than usual Disney drawings which makes the people less, not more attractive and harder to embrace. The animated ocean has some beautiful moments - though Life of Pi did the same thing much better. Maybe I'm unfair to it visually as I'd recently seen Kubo which was drop-dead gorgeous.
When your comic relief is how dumb a chicken is, your target audience is obviously 4 year olds. They may like it. My kids were bored stiff. So was I.
I mean, I haven't seen the movie yet, but just based on all the previews alone, I think it looks absolutely stunning visually myself :) And I don't have the same issue with it that I did with Frozen, where the ice was gorgeous but the actual character animation looked quite awkward to me at time. Sure, with Moana the water is definitely the most stunning part, but the characters look really nice to me as well.
I can't speak as much to the story, but I've heard the main thing there is that Moana's a great character, and I can definitely see that. I think Auli'i sounds great based on the speaking clips I've seen, and she's got tons of personality. I think one of the recurring comments is that it is indeed the classic Disney princess mold in terms of plot, but honestly I'm cool with that if it's done well. As much as I love Zootopia for its freshness with the plot and subject matters, I also do love me some classic Renaissance Disney, and Moana feels like it's basically in line with the likes of Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Mulan, and maybe even improved on those in some nice ways (namely the cultural sensitivity aspect).
As for music, I guess everyone will have their varying opinions on that (I've heard and seen a few other comments about the songs being forgettable), but I for one adore the soundtrack :) I won't even pretend I'm not biased though since I'm a GIANT fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda haha- his music and lyrics just speak to me. It does baffle me a little that some people think the music is forgettable, though, just because I feel like so much of it harkens right back to Renaissance era music! The only thing that might hold it back a touch from reaching quite those heights is that a few of the songs feel short (We Know the Way is such a Circle of Life kind of epic song, but I just wish it was longer! And How Far I'll Go, too- gorgeous "I want" song, but something about it feels a little rushed), but nevertheless I still find it easily the best score in a long while. Music is an art form that's particularly super subjective though, so...
Oh Bambi, I cried so hard when those hunters shot your mommy. - Kurt Hummel
Don't listen to him. I was in awe at the animation in multiple parts. If you think the ocean is the most stunning part, just wait. You're in for quite a treat. And you were definitely right on the music. Absolutely amazing soundtrack. It's competing with The Little Mermaid right now as far as my favorite music in a Disney movie.
shareI would have thought it would be visually stunning - after all it's set in the South Pacific which IS visually stunning. Don't know what it is about the way the people-characters are drawn but it's very off-putting.
It's a film that is curiously devoid of emotion. The heroine doesn't really inspire anything - she's just sort of a stock Disney princess character, full of gumption (as usual). It isn't moving at all - not like Frozen, Little Mermaid, Lion King and so many others. The actress voicing Moana is no Meryl Streep but probably not her fault. The dialogue she's given is so lackluster.
They showed a preview of the live-action (or partially live-action) Beauty and the Beast before Moana and honestly, Moana is probably the least of Disney's films - doesn't hold a candle to something like Beauty.
The Rock sings a song "You're Welcome" which is catchy but that's about it. The others are just... forgettable. Miranda didn't exactly kill himself churning these out - so that was a disappointment too.
Have you seen Kubo? I kept comparing Moana to Kubo which was just devastatingly emotional, witty and stunning to look at. It was poetry, Moana is prose and not very good prose at that. Maybe if I hadn't seen Kubo, I wouldn't have found Moana so pedestrian. There's a scene in Moana that is very like a scene in Kubo. When I saw Kubo, you couldn't hear the dialogue for all the audible sobbing in the theater. The scene in Moana doesn't resonate in the least and in fact was annoying - baldly manipulative.
It's probably a good film for very young kids - mine are in middle school - but if The Rock starts off getting some laughs, they peter out pretty damn quick. The film could have been improved by chopping 20 minutes off it - an awful lot of padding in there, repetitive scenes that served no purpose.
Look, there's nothing wrong with not liking Moana. All films have their detractors, no matter how well they're received. Hell, even Toy Story 3 and the Godfather got a few bad reviews.
But considering most reviews for Moana have been overwhelming positive, it's obvious you're in the small minority in your thinking. Trashing the movie in a thread that is praising the film is a practice in futility.
I thought the movie was great....not on the level of other Disney's classics....but still very very entertaining. Just count yourself as one who thinks otherwise.
BTW, I hated Secret Life of Pets, but I wouldn't try to explain why i thought it was bad....especially to people who loved it. it would just make me look like a d-bag.
For me, the issue is Disney raised the bar so high with Frozen and Zootopia that I expected more than a kiddie carton (which is what I considered it to be).
I didn't particularly like Secret Life of Pets (I haven't seen the other movies Illumination has made as far as I know) though I thought Kevin Hart was brilliant as the evil bunny. Louis CK was awful voicing the lead pet - showing you can be great at something (standup) and lousy at something else.
Pixar has been better than Disney in recent years but with Frozen and Zootopia Disney seemed to be trying to up their game. Neither studio, for me, can come close to Laika or Aardman. I love stop-motion. Their animated films are far more aimed at adults than young kids - and I'm an adult, so that's normal.
It's fine if you don't like the movie. Not everyone is going to love it. That's just how movies are. So you don't like it, no problem. But it gets annoying when you insult its actual quality and say that only elementary school kids would like it, because then you are generalizing and insulting everyone over elementary school age that liked it, which will be a lot of people. I'm 25, and I loved the movie. And, objectively, it is a well made movie, whether you personally enjoyed it or not.
shareWhy does a movie have to be moving in order to be good, particularly if they're animated?
shareWe just come to assume that a Disney and/or Pixar animated film rely on emotional stories... John Lasseter even says that the best films are the ones that make him cry.
But you're right, they don't ALWAYS have to be like that. But you can't deny that when they do it right, it really makes them great!
Good points. Disney movies going all the way back to Bambi, try to break your heart. You expect it from a Disney animated film. That and/or great humor. The jokes in Moana were on a level of ones you'd find in a Christmas cracker. Now, that's dire.
shareChristmas cracker level jokes? Yeesh, that's the harshest criticism I've read in relation to this film... or any other Disney film for that matter.
shareOh my goodness, this film was amazing. Fully deserving of its high ratings!
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I know. All Disney films are the greatest of all time until the next Disney film. I'm sure it's a great film. I have no doubt it's well crafted. But how can each movie be the best?
shareA high Rotten Tomatoes score does not mean that it is "the greatest of all time". It just means that all critics universally liked the film.
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