30. Moana (2016)
The main character will be Moana Waialiki, a sea voyaging enthusiast, and the only daughter of a chief in a long line of navigators. When her family needs her help, she sets off on an epic journey. The film will also include demi-gods and spirits taken from real mythology.
At this point, if you’re not into everything that Disney has done recently, there’s something seriously wrong with you because let’s be honest here, Disney is on a roll, it’s been on a roll for the last couple of years not just with the animated films but with its’ live-action films as well. Yeah, there has been a couple of misfires in there but in this decade of the 2010s, 90% of Disney’s releases they’ve put out have either ranged from good to excellent and at this point, you really should not be questioning much of what Disney has done at this point.
Which brings us to Moana, which is not only another masterpiece from Disney, but I’m at a crossroads because after seeing this movie, I really do believe that when I put my list of the top 10 movies of 2016 out, my top 3 films are gonna probably be all animated movies because Kubo & The Two Strings is #1 so far, Zootopia is #2, and now, Moana may very well be #3 on that list because I really loved this movie.
This really is yet another Disney classic in the making, there is so much to admire about this movie.
The gorgeous animation, not only do you have this excellent CG animation that Disney has perfected very well over the last decade but you also get to see directors Ron Clements and John Musker bringing that unique 2D animation style they brought to The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, & The Princess & The Frog and bring it into the CG animated universe that they’ve created for this film. Even then, this movie does a fantastic job blending the CG animation with bits of 2D animation flawlessly, not even with the tattoos on Maui, which are nicely done, but even in some of the musical numbers, you can tell that the animators tested the limits on how to blend 2D and 3D animation together flawlessly and it definitely shows here.
You’ve also got the excellent music, you really can not go wrong with having a talent like Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame doing the songs for your movie and with the help of composer Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa’i, they’ve created a roster of memorable new songs that don’t quite reach the levels of Beauty & The Beast, Lion King, or Frozen but certainly can stand on their own as new Disney musical classics you’ll be listening to over and over again.
As I talked about in the past, the late Howard Ashman, who co-wrote the songs from The Little Mermaid & Beauty & The Beast, always used to say that “in almost every musical, there comes a place in the second, third, or fourth song where the leading lady usually sits on something and sings about what she wants in life and the audience falls in love with her and roots for her to get it for the rest of the night.”
In this movie, that song is How Far I’ll Go.
Not only is it sung nicely by the star, Auli’i Cravalho, but it’s a great song that allows the listener to understand the character’s motivation and situation in the movie, trying to find her place in the world and what she wants in life and you get why we buy into our heroine and what she needs to accomplish. There’s even a really good version by Alessia Cara that plays at the end of the movie that’s just as good.
It’s a testament to how strong the songs are in this movie and you add Lin-Manuel Miranda’s talents to the lists, he has the potential to become one of Disney’s definitive songwriters on the level of Ashman and Alan Menken and Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. If he decides to do more with Disney in the future, he’s gonna have an incredible future ahead of him.
Like with most of Disney’s classics, there are great characters all around here. Moana herself is a great well-written and well-performed character, newcomer Auli’i Cravalho does a spectacular job in her feature debut as Moana, she’s just such a likeable character in this movie, she’s got those adventurous characteristics that Ariel and Belle have with that flair of Rapunzel, Anna, and Elsa and those characteristics blend together very nicely to create such a great character. You can’t go wrong with having Dwayne Johnson in your movie and as Maui, he’s to this movie what Robin Williams was as the Genie to Aladdin, he’s excellent in this and the fact that 95% of this movie is him sharing the screen with Cravalho, their chemistry together works incredibly well. The rest of the cast is good too, you’ve got Temuera Morrison and Nicole Scherzinger as Moana’s parents, Rachel House as Moana’s grandmother as well as Jemaine Clement as a giant crab.
If there is a downside to the casting here, Alan Tudyk’s role in this is kind of pointless, I know that Tudyk has become Disney Animation Studios’ John Ratzenberger in which they’ll always find a role for him like they do with Ratzenberger in every Pixar movie but here, I really felt like Tudyk was put in here just because they needed to have him be there. He plays the chicken in this movie but honestly, the chicken doesn’t really do that much here, he’s kind of pointless. In fact, Ron Clements admitted himself that he was “the dumbest character in the history of Disney animation.” It just seems like the character wasn’t fully realized, the chicken doesn’t do much except to just be somewhat of the comic relief for Moana’s adventure, which, come to think of it, so was Moana’s pet Pua, he’s barely in this movie, he shows up for a bit in the opening and then the end but other than that, he’s barely in this movie. Though to be fair, Tudyk does have another role in this playing a villager so he’s not a complete waste here, also surprised to see that Troy Polamulu, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, also played a villager too.
Moana is another classic feature film to add to the Disney vault with its’ beautiful animation, great voice cast, great characters, great story, a great message about finding your true calling within yourself, great music, there’s no doubt about it, Moana is yet another Disney masterpiece that will be remembered for years and years to come.
29. Cinderella (2015)
The story of “Cinderella” follows the fortunes of young Ella (Lily James) whose merchant father remarries following the tragic death of her mother. Keen to support her loving father, Ella welcomes her new stepmother Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett) and her daughters Anastasia and Drizella into the family home. But when Ella’s father suddenly and unexpectedly passes away, she finds herself at the mercy of a jealous and cruel new family. Finally relegated to nothing more than a servant girl covered in ashes, and spitefully renamed Cinderella since she used to work in the cinders, Ella could easily begin to lose hope. Yet, despite the cruelty inflicted upon her, Ella is determined to honor her mother’s dying words and to “have courage and be kind.” She will not give in to despair nor despise those who abuse her. And then there is the dashing stranger she meets in the woods. Unaware that he is really a prince, not merely an employee at the palace, Ella finally feels she has met a kindred soul. It appears as if her fortunes may be about to change when the palace sends out an open invitation for all maidens to attend a ball, raising Ella’s hopes of once again encountering the charming “Kit” (Richard Madden). Alas, her stepmother forbids her to attend and callously rips apart her dress. But as in all good fairy tales, help is at hand as a kindly beggar woman steps forward and, armed with a pumpkin and a few mice, changes Cinderella’s life forever.
I’ve already talked about my love of the original Cinderella movie this past week, so, let’s talk about this new version.
I really loved this movie. Yeah, it’s the same story that we’ve seen done over and over again but they did a good job of blending the animated film and elements from other adaptations into this story.
Lily James, who plays Cinderella, perfectly fit into who I would’ve easily seen a live-action Cinderella and she steals every moment of the movie she’s in, her performance is such a great turn and no proof of that comes into full force more than when you watch her in the ballroom scene. The line from the prince when he says that the room is looking at her, you can definitely see that on the screen. She even did a pretty damn good version of A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes that plays at the end during the credits.
…even Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the Fairy Godmother, did a good version of Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.
But next to James, a lot of the rest of the cast was really good. Cate Blanchett was pretty good as Lady Tremaine, Helena Bonham Carter was surprisingly really good as the Fairy Godmother, Richard Madden was pretty good as Kit and the chemistry he shared with James was very good, Stellan Skarsgard was good as the Grand Duke, Derek Jacobi was good as the king, Holliday Grainger and Sophie McShera were good as Anastasia & Drizella and even Ben Chaplin and Hayley Atwell in the brief scenes they were in at the beginning as Ella’ parents were good.
The visual style of the movie is very impressive, this is the style of filmmaking that we’re used to seeing from Kenneth Branagh and it’s interesting to see Disney do a period film like this and pull it off nicely. Also, it proves that Disney can make something look impressive without having to spend an excessive amount of money on it. This only cost $95 million to make, much lower than the $200 million most of these adaptations are.
If they can bring this kind of style to Beauty & The Beast and some of the other adaptations they’ve got coming up, this might be a really good thing for Disney to do in the future…now if only they can get rid of Tim Burton to do Dumbo.
Anyway, back to the movie, I do have some flaws with the film and they are general problems with the story of Cinderella. First up, all the parents in this movie end up dying of unknown diseases and they never really give any kind of indication of what killed them off. I mean, what happened? Did they all just go the way of the Oregon Trail and die of dysentery? That’s my guess as to what happened because they never explain what happened.
Plus, am I the only one that’s always frustrated with the fact that during the scene with Cinderella & the Prince that Cinderella never tells the prince her name before the bell rings for midnight, I mean, honestly, saying your name is like half a second long, I think you would have more than enough time to give the guy at least your name. Just a little nit-pick but it’s something that’s always bothered me in each of these adaptations.
Also, as much as I liked Stellan Skarsgard in this, there was no real reason to make the Grand Duke sort of this traitor to the king because not only does his plan backfire but the Grand Duke was never meant to be a traitor to the king in the original animated movie plus I’m getting sick and tired of movies adding pointless villains for no reason at all. Noah had that exact same problem to it with Ray Winstone’s character and while Skarsgard’s not as bad as that, he’s very much up there.
This new version of Cinderella is very nicely done casting-wise and visual-wise. Yeah, it’s very much a been there done that story but it’s a very good been there done that story. The visuals and casting push this adaptation heads above what it could’ve been and for that, this is definitely one that anyone who loved the original Cinderella or that story will definitely enjoy.
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