Staurday Evening Cartoons: Moana (2016)

 

     Released on November 23rd, 2016, Moana is the 56th animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker from a screenplay by Jared Bush it tells the story of a young Polynesian princess (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) who sets out to find the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) in order to reverse a terrible curse that threatens the people of her island village.

     After production on The Princess and the Frog wrapped in 2009, directors Clements and Musker pitched three new story treatments to studio head John Lasseter. One of them was centered around the Polynesian demigod Māui, an idea Musker had come up with after learning about Polynesian culture and mythology.  Lasseter greenlight the idea and sent the two directors off on a research trip to Fiji, Samoa, and Tahiti so they could learn more about the people and culture of the South Pacific Ocean. On this trip they learned that three thousand years ago the Polynesia people had, all of a sudden, stopped making long-distance voyages to explore other lands. Deciding to shift the focus from Maui (who became a supporting character) to a young daughter of a chief, the two men began forming their fictional story around this event. 

     Moana hearkens back to the renaissance era Disney films, particularly The Little Mermaid. As both films share the same directors, Ron Clements and John Musker this should come as no surprise. Moana, like Ariel, has an overly protective father and leaves her home to find adventure despite his commands to the contrary. While this kind of plot point has become annoyingly commonplace (in Disney films especially), this films at least gives the father an understandable motivation. He too tried to leave the island as a young man but was shipwrecked and lost his best friend in the attempt.

      The main conflict in the film for Moana herself is one of legacy. She wants to honor her fathers wishes and her peoples traditions, but also feels compelled to leave the island in order to save them. This inner crisis is resolved early on, as Moana discovers that her ancestors were seafaring explorers and that she has been chosen by the ocean itself to restore the heart of Te Fiti, which was stolen by Maui as a gift for humankind. The rest of the film focuses on her adventures with Maui and the relationship between the two characters. Maui at first wants nothing to do with Moana but is forced to accompany her on her quest because it is the will of the ocean. Maui goes through a bit of an arc himself. Having been cast aside by is parents as an infant only to be found by the gods and given superhuman powers, Maui has spent most of his life trying to win the favor of human beings. The disastrous consequences of his stealing the heart of Te Fiti, which include loosing his magic fishhook, the source of his power, has shattered his confidence but, with Moana's help, he regains both. 

     Aside from the overly familiar character drama, my biggest issue with the film is, again, the self aware  humor that creeps in here and there. Maui's wisecrack about how wearing a dress and having an animal sidekick makes you a princess, a reference to the cliches in Disney princess movies that it makes no sense for Maui to reference within the universe of the film, is particularly egregious. Also frustrating is the films mythology. For one thing the ocean, which is portrayed as a kind of force of nature with a will of its own, continually interferes in the plot to the point where it becomes a bit of a contrivance. More troubling, from a theological perspective, is the film's climax which establishes that Te Fiti is also Te Kā, the demon who has made the ocean perilous and, slowly over time, poisoned the islands Moana's people live on, and was corrupted into this by Maui rash actions. This makes the gods seemingly subject to the actions of humans and unable to control their own actions. 

     The film has some beautiful animation, particularly of the ocean. The art design is really vibrant and filled with wonderful details. Particularly impressive are the tattoos that cover Maui's body. Done in traditional hand-drawn animation, the tattoos come to life to display the demigod's past exploits to Moana and also (seeming to have a will of their own) reprimand Maui when he makes bad choices. The music, by Opetaia Foa'i, Mark Mancina, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, is quite strong as well. A rising  Broadway star, Miranda injects a lyrical wit into his songs that has not been seen since the days of Howard Ashman during the Disney renaissance. Maui's big number "You're Welcome", in particular, is both clever and wonderfully catchy with lyrics like:

"Kid, honestly I could go on and on
I could explain every natural phenomenon
The tide, the grass, the ground
Oh, that was Maui just messing around"

belted out in rapid succession. Samoan artist Opetaia Foa'i contributes a really authentic Polynesian spirit to songs like "We Know the Way" while veteran composer Mark Mancina provides both a fitting instrumental accompaniment to these songs and contributes a solid orchestral score.

     The film features strong voice work all around. Hawaiian actress Auliʻi Cravalho brings a real sense of spunk and energy to Moana while also making the character feel down-to-earth and emotionally vulnerable. Dwayne Johnson, who's Maui bears at least some resemblance, plot wise, to the genie from Aladdin, brings his usual infectious charisma and confident masculinity to the role. Though he's no Robin William's, Johnson may be the most entertaining comedic sidekick in a Disney film since the departed comedian, which is impressive considering that Johnson is not really a comic himself. Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett from Star Wars) and Nicole Scherzinger do a good job in their thankless role as Moana's parents. Rachel House, by contrast, gets to shine as Moana's eccentric grandmother, Tala. Finally, Jemaine Clement makes the most of his limited screen-time to imbue the villainous crab Tamatoa with an exotic and self obsessed personality.

     In the end, despite some flaws, Moana is still a pretty fun ride and contains enough lovely animation, well written songs and entertaining comedic material to make it worth your while.

Score: 7/10

 

Musical Mondays: Frozen (2013)

 

     The 53rd Disney animated feature film, Frozen was released on November 22nd, 2013. Written and directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee it is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen." It tells the story of Queen Elsa of Arendelle (Idina Menzel), who looses control of her ice creating powers resulting in a massive blizzard engulfing her kingdom. When a tormented Elsa flees into hiding it is up to her sister Anna (Kristen Bell) to help her see reason and save Arendelle from an eternal winter.

     The Walt Disney studio had begun plans to adapt the works of Hans Christian Andersen as far back as 1937. By 1940 they had begun working on a co-production with Samuel Goldwyn about the life of the author. Disney would animate Andersen's fairy tales, including "The Snow Queen" while Goldwyn would shoot scenes from Andersen's life in live-action. This plans were put on hold during the Second World War, as the studio was focused on making propaganda films to support the war effort. After the war the Anderson biopic went ahead without Disney's involvement, and was released as a wholly live-action film in 1952.

     "The Snow Queen" lay dormant at Disney until the late 1990s, when the studio, spurred on by the tremendous success of their Renaissance era films, began developing a new adaptation. This project too came to a halt in 2002, when Glen Keane left the project to work on Rapunzal (which eventually became Tangled). When John Lasseter was named the new head of the studio in 2006 he convinced his old friend Chris Buck to return to Walt Disney Animation Studios from Sony Pictures Animation. Buck pitched several ideas for new films to Lasseter, including a new concept for "The Snow Queen."

     Production on the film began in 2011 after the success of Tangled. Buck's aim was to "to do something different on the definition of true love," something outside of the studios usual prince/princess romances. The writers struggled to update Anderson's story to fit this aim and to make it seem relatable to modern audiences. By March of 2012, when Jennifer Lee was brought on as a screenwriter, the process of crafting the films story had effectively collapsed. It was not until November of that year that a shooting script was finally completed, leaving the animators with less then a year to complete the film. In the meantime, the script continued to go through revisions, and it was not until June of 2013 that it was finally finished. 

     My first viewing of Frozen was a decidedly lukewarm experience. I didn't dislike it but I was confounded by the level of praise it was receiving. Seeing again after all the hype has died down has not improved my opinion of it, quite the reverse in fact. The script, as might be expected considering the chaotic writing process that went into it, is a a bit of a mess. The source of the conflict is Elsa's fear of her own powers, a fear which leads her to suppress said powers until her ability to control them is compromised. The films opening scene establishes the reason for her fear, but its all rather clunky.

     When playing with her sister as a child, Elsa accidentally injures her sister with her magic. Their parents take Anna to a colony of trolls, whose leader, Grand Pabbie, is able to heal their daughter but, for some reason, must also alter her memory so that she has no relocation of her sisters magical abilities. Despite the Grand Pabbie's advising them that Elsa must learn to control her powers and his warning that fear will be her greatest enemy, her parents completely isolate her and do everything they can to suppress her powers. This is portrayed as a well meaning misinterpretation Grand Pabbie's advice on their part, but it is really a blatant disregarding of it. This flimsy and contrived backstory cripples the whole film and makes Elsa's isolation and fear more frustrating then tragic.  

     A subplot involves Anna finding true love (or does she) with a visiting prince named Hans (Santino Fontana), predictably falling in love at first sight, a fact that we are continuously reminded of throughout the film, to the point that it becomes obnoxious. Of course it turns out that Hans is manipulating Anna for his own ends, and hopes to take the throne of Arendelle for himself. Much has been made of this twist and the way it subverts to typical Disney romance. Little girls should not be taught that "love at first sight" is a reasonable foundation for a relationship, it is argued. 

     However the older Disney classics were firmly in the tradition of the old fairy tale and never meant to offer commentary on real world relationships, rather they presented an idyllic and largely symbolic stories meant to reveal deeper truths about the human experience. Men and women should not, generally, rush into marriage. Because of our flawed and fallen state, it takes time and effort to establish meaningful and loving relationships. However, this does not mean that we should reject the idea that there is someone special that we are meant to be with, for God in his infinite wisdom has decreed every truly good human relationship from eternity. It is this truth that the fairy tale reveals. In any case Anna's relationship with Sven, the films "sensible" alternative to Hans, is not particularly nuanced either.

     Of course, the main purpose of the twist was to shift the focus from the romance to the sisterly relationship between Elsa and Anna. This is an idea I could easily get behind. Unfortunately it is a little lacking in execution. The main problem is that there is not enough screen-time between Elsa and Anna to really flesh out there relationship. After the accident that injured her sister, Elsa is kept away from Anna by their parents, and later of her own volition, in order to protect her. Anna, having had the memory of the accident and of her sisters powers erased, does not understand this but, nonetheless, continues to love her sister. 

     Later, when Anna finally finds her sisters frozen retreat and informs her of the fate of Arendelle, a confused and upset Elsa inadvertently injures her sister once again. Going to the trolls once again Anna is told that only an act of true love can save her. The resolution comes when Anna, to protect her sister from the treacherous Hans, sacrifices herself. This is the "act of true love" to which Grand Pabbie referred and allows Anna to be thawed out. This also makes Elsa realize that love is the key to controlling her powers. Again this is not a bad idea for a climax in principle, but it has not been set-up adequately to be satisfying. After all, Elsa does not learn to control her powers because of a loving relationship with her sister (the thing she has been deprived of since childhood) but by a heroic sacrifice, something that Elsa herself has done, albiet in a misguided fashion, in order to protect her sister. 

     The film does have some good music, both the songs by Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and the score by Christopher Beck. As much as "Let it Go" was overplayed to the point of lunacy I have to admit that it is very well done song (it certainly helps to have a professional mezzo-soprano like Idina Menzel) and works well in the dramatic context of Anna's repressed powers finally finding release, as clumsily developed as that was. Indeed, all of the songs are well written and feature clever lyrics, from the bittersweet and tragic "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" to, my personal favorite, the Sondheim-esque "In Summer", an ironic little ditty sung by the films comic relief, Josh Gad's aloof snowman Olaf. 

     Frozen is, maybe, the most broadway-esque musical in the Disney canon in its approach. The songs are presented as a natural extensions of conversation between the characters and reveal their emotional states. Take the scene where Anna finally confronts her sister, their increasingly heated conversation giving way to a reprise of "For the First Time in Forever" with Anna singing in a major key and Elsa in a minor key. This kind of thematic connection occurs again and again between the various musical numbers and even the instrumental score. Unfortunately the pop/rock instrumentals that accompany the songs do not blend well at all with Beck's orchestral score and the film is left feeling rather uneven as a result. 

     The film can be a little dull visually at times. The backgrounds largely consist of endless expenses of barren, empty landscape covered in a blanket of snow. To be fair this approach does lend itself well to the story, which is largely one of isolation and emotional repression, at least from Elsa's point-of-view. For the most part, however, the animation is consistently amazing. The interiors of the castle and the town of Arendelle are wonderfully vibrant filled with eye-popping detail. The facial work too, is remarkably expressive, and easily the best the studio had done with 3D animation up to that point. Also of note is the elaborate costume design. Frozen displays a level of detail in the costumes never before seen in an CG animated, a medium which, up to this point, had regulated itself to the generally more streamlined designs exemplified by The Incredibles. 

     The most impressive thing in the film is the way it animates snow. The studio wanted to create a tool that would provide snow effects without the need for switching between different methods and the effects team created a random snowflake generator that allowed them to generate over 2,000 unique snowflakes for the film. The animators also had to figure out how to believably portray the characters interactions with their snow filled landscape. To achieve this, software engineers used advanced mathematics and physics to create a snow simulator software application that could depict realistic snow in a virtual environment. Much research was done in order to make this all as convincing as possible and the results are seamless. 

     In the end, despite some amazing animation and some really memorable songs, Frozen, mostly thanks to its overstuffed script, never gels into a satisfying whole. 

Score: 6/10

Western Wednesdays: Texas Cyclone (1932)

 

     Texas Cyclone was released on February 24th, 1932. Directed by D. Ross Lederman and written by Randall Faye from a story by William Colt MacDonald it stars Tim McCoy as "Texas" Grant, a cowboy who is mistaken by the townsfolk of Stampede for a rancher named Jim Rawlings, who was murdered two years prior. 

     Texas Cyclone features much of the same cast and crew from Two-Fisted Law, another of McCoy's pictures for Columbia released the same year and which I reviewed several weeks ago. Both were directed by D. Ross Lederman and had stories by William Colt MacDonald and both featured John Wayne, Walter Brennan and Wheeler Oakman in the cast. This was very common for series westerns, which were generally produced by a single person (Irving Briskin in this case) and often used the same contract players time and time again (Wayne also appears in Range Feud, one of Buck Jones films for Columbia). 

     This film features a much better plot then Two-Fisted Law, even if it is a well worn one for the genre involving mistaken identity and, later, amnesia. The denouement is a bit rushed, but other then that the film is paced very well. Like that film, and like most early Columbia sound pictures, it relies heavily on speeding up the frame rate for the action scenes. The climax, however, is really suspenseful and more then makes up for the film's otherwise less-then-stellar action. Lederman's steady, unobtrusive direction, holds everything together really well. 

     The supporting cast is better utilized this time around. Wayne is more involved in the plot, and even gets a short action scene of his own. Walter Brennan's role here is a more familiar one for him, playing the crotchety old sheriff, Lew Collins. Shirley Grey, who plays Rawlings' wife, is a more interesting love interest then Alice Day was and plays off McCoy really well. Vernon Dent is featured in a small but memorable role as Hefty, a bartender who was friendly with Rawlings. Wheeler Oakman makes for a solid villain once again as does Wallace MacDonald as his henchmen. McCoy himself is in fine form, particularly during the climax when his character is clearly under duress. 

     Featuring a strong cast, a well plotted story and a first-rate climax, Texas Cyclone is a solid Tim McCoy western.

Score: 8/10

Western Wednesdays: Hit the Saddle (1937)

      Hit the Saddle is the fifth film in Republic's Three Mesquiteers series. It is directed by Mack V. Wright from a script by Oliver Drake and Maurice Geraghty. In it the Mesquiteers must protect a local wild horse sanctuary from greedy rancher Rance McGowan (played by J.P. McGowan) while Stony falls for the local saloon girl, Rita (played by a young Rita Hayworth, when she was still going by Rita Cansino).

     Hit the Saddle is a good delineation of the camaraderie and chemistry between the three Mesquieteers. The impulsive, happy-go-lucky Stony falls for the Rita, who is only interested in his money which she hopes to use to move to New York. The steady, level headed Tuscon sees right through Rita and tries to warn Stony about her but he won't listen, leading to a falling out between the two. It's Lullaby who has to patch things up, by offering Rita the money she needs if she agrees to break up with Stony. Lullaby is often the glue who holds the trio together. This romantic subplot ties into the main plot only in that the tension between Stony and Tuscon extends to both. When Sheriff Miller (Ed Cassidy) is killed by one of McGowan's horses, which he has disguised as a wild pinto in order to push the townsfolk to call for the protection of the wild horses to be revoked, Tuscon, as the new sheriff is forced to capture the pinto and have it executed. Stony, not believing that the pinto is responsible, opposes him and, after Rita leaves him, he sets the condemned horse free and runs off.

     The cast all do a good job. Bob Livingston is convincing as an unusually hot-headed Stony. Ray Corrigan is cool as ice as the stalwart Tuscon. Max Terhune gets a couple good moments, including an amusing but rather pointless comedic sequence where he uses ventriloquist dummy Elmer to lecture some patrons at the bar about the evils of drink. All three have good chemistry with each other and with co-star Rita Hayworth, who does a good job as the scheming, though still likable, saloon girl. Terhune's scene with her is particularly well done. He and Corrigan also have some rather endearing scenes with Sammy McKim, who plays the sheriffs overeager son, Tim Miller. 

     It's not a perfect film. The two competing plot threads mean that neither one is fully developed, and the pacing is rushed at times as a result. The action is dominated by stock footage of stampeding horses (as was typical for westerns focusing on this kind of thing). On the other hand, the two plot lines are, at least, linked by the drama between the characters and the new action material (a fistfight early on and the shootout which serves as the films climax) is up to the usual Republic standards.

Score: 7/10