Talk:Moana/@comment-27926499-20170109134658

Hands down, this is by far the best movie of the second half of the Revival Era (2013 - 2016). The first one I finally enjoyed after 3 years of lowkey progressist propaganda.

The locations are gorgeous, the songs are fantastic (between Shiny, You're Welcome and How Far Will I Go, I can't choose which one's my favorite), the characters are fantastic. The first half of the movie is like the perfect mix of The Little Mermaid and Mulan, and "Short Hair" basically played in my mind when Moana finally decided to go on Gramma Tala's advice (really loved that character btw). The rest of the movie was basically a remake of Treasure Planet, in a way. Hell, Gramma Tala's narration scene at the beginning was how would I have wanted Zootopia's introduction to be. None of that disgusting "Now I can be an accountant ! And I can be a police officer !" self aware nonsense trash that just destroys all seriousness of the shift from wild to civilized, and makes it feel like a farce. This introduction was perfectly balanced : serious and ominous, due to the imagery and the veridicity of it and the grandmother's voice, but chuckle-worthy because of how the kids reacted and how Gramma's voice got hammier at certain parts, despite visually showing what doom was coming.

Heck, this movie pulls for the FOURTH time the surprise villain cliche, and it doesn't bother me, because it's well done. There's the sense of meance looming over, and that is actually an evil caused by another cause.

Also, I loved how karma worked in this movie. In Zootopia, everyone was Always a smartass or a goof just for the heck of it, and they Always got away with being smartasses. Here, whenever a character is a jerk, the movie bites him back. It happens with both Maui and Moana.

Besides, finally, Moana is a great female lead. She's not too bubbly, she's competent enough but still needs to learn, she's smart enough, she can hold herself, but you see her vulnerable in many scenes. She was really likable.

I liked Maui too, but I was kinda bothered with how the movie handled his type of character, as if Musker, Clements or Bush weren't sure whether to make him just a bit of a jerk, or full blown genre-savvy like the Genie or Deadpool. I was kinda annoyed by the Whole princess or not princess deal, but I liked him much more than Nick, or hell, Kristoff. His transformations were really cool, although I wonder if he did have some control over the wind (as shown from how he blows the dust from Lalotai's portal), or his abilities were completely hampered. Still a really nice character.

My cons with the movie are :

- Action or danger scenes felt rushed at times, like when Moana tries to trespass the reef for the first time, or Maui's first match with Te Ka. But other were handled better, like the Kakamora attack or the final battle.

- I would preferred to see Maui's change of heart as well, after his fish hook is damaged. Like a duet reprise of "How Far Will I Go". It felt tacky that he just came back because Mini Maui convinced him off-screen.

- Tamatoa.......'''FOR PETE'S SAKE, DISNEY !!!?!?!? REALLY ????? All you give him is less than 5 MEASLY MINUTES of screentime''', 3 and a half occupied by a song.....You can't waste Jemaine Clement like that, really....He played Boris the Animal and Nigel ! Make Tamatoa a mix of both !!! Make him reference some lines like "Let's agree to disagree !", or his annoyance over people staring at his amputated leg ! Or make him a full blown melodramatic hammy sadist like Nigel, and show that even the other monsters at Lalotai fear him. ANYTHING !!!!

But no, you just shoehorn a cheap 4th wall break reference at Sebastian....

It's good to see another full-blown evil-doer again after 4 years, but COME ON, DO SOMETHING WITH HIM !

- And finally, this is more of a small pet peeve of mine : I wished Pua made it as a sidekick instead of Hei Hei, or just have both participate in the journey.