Disney's Moana

it's Disney. They'd fit her into the Princess line-up even if she WASN'T a princess!

All they need to do is find a way to finagle her into a fancy dress that they can exaggerate and glamorize for profit's sake, on the off chance she doesn't end up in one in the actual movie (which she probably will. This is Disney after all - even Audrey ended up in a fancy dress for two seconds at some point.).

edited 26th Jun '16 12:09:26 AM by KnownUnknown

Ugh

It depends. If it's mega successful on its own they would just let it stand as its own franchise, a la Frozen. It seems folding a mega-super still sort of recent hit into the overall Princess line undermines the individual franchise, or something like that.

> it's Disney. They'd fit her into the Princess line-up even if she WASN'T a princess!

like Mulan!

It seems to be mostly for the financial reports. After all, what sounds better for the stockholders? "We had 1 franchise this past year that did over $1 billion in retail sales", or "We had 2 franchises this past year that did over $1 billion in retail sales"?

It's likely the same reason why they list Iron Man separately from the Avengers as a franchise. It makes things a lot more impressive sounding to the business-people who aren't really interested in these properties as fans.

edited 26th Jun '16 8:53:41 AM by Servbot

Good point.

Yeah, Elsa and Anna are basically in the Princess line already - with all the fixings and trimmings that come with it - it's just that they have their own section all to themselves.

Vanellope is barely in a princess outfit for 1 minute. She even expresses her preference that she NOT be called a princess! But Disney made merch of that dress anyway.

A lot of little girls do like frilly dresses, after all. I'm sure more than just little girls like frilly dresses,, at that.

I see this as just another way to introduce a new princess. There already has been a Hawaii movie: Lilo and Stitch. Lilo and Stitch did such an excellent job at accurately portraying Hawaii that it'll be interesting to see if Moana can top that.

Lilo would qualify for the princess line on a technicality. A Disney Princess needs to marry royal, be born royal, or commit an act of heroism (thank you Super Carlin Brothers for the criteria). That third one was written so Mulan could be included, but Lilo fits it too as she saves earth from aliens and redeems many evil alien experiments. I can see why they didn't make Lilo an official princess: she's only five, has strange tendencies, doesn't look or act like a princess, and her movie had low box office success compared to most princess movies. Most Lilo and Stitch merchandise goes to Stitch.

Once Moana comes out i'll compare/contrast with Lilo and Stitch and see which did the better job of portraying Hawaii.

Moana isn't just aimed for depiction of Hawaii, but the Polynesian islands in general. And aside from that, there's a big difference between modern Hawaii and pre-Western colonization Hawaii.

Also, I think the Disney Princess criteria is a little more complex than just "act of heroism". Mulan isn't a princess by birth or marriage, but her feats merited the thanks of the royals of her country. So in a way, she was appointed as an equal. Lilo is indeed brave, but none of her acts were for the aid of or received thanks from royals.

edited 27th Jun '16 10:46:05 PM by Tuckerscreator

That third one was added as recently as Disney's Renaissauce Age due to how people no longer saw women as being just Damsels In Distress or being confined to the kitchen.

The criteria for being a Disney Princess is being a popular female lead who can be marketed in a very specific way to girls between, oh , say age 5-13 or so (though Disney takes advantage of popular opinion such that girls are expected to be interest in them from an even younger age).

Mulan was a very prominent character who caught on well and was most importantly a major first for Disney in a lot of respects, so there was no way in heck she wasn't going to end up in the line no what her actual royal status is.

Note that Kida isn't popular, so she's not in the line. Disney isnt pushing Wreck-It Ralph and I doubt they would consider Vanellope marketable via the same method as the princesses, so even if she wasn't a De Facto President she probably wouldn't be in the line either.

edited 28th Jun '16 5:50:54 PM by KnownUnknown

Critics Are Calling Out Disney for Fat-Shaming Polynesians With ‘Moana’ Character.

One such critic described Maui as "Half pig, half hippo". I confess, I don't keep up to date on social justice lingo, but isn't that a text book case of fat shaming in itself?

Thoughts?

Summery, for those who don't want to bother hurting their brains or wasting their time by reading that?

Maui's too fat. Makes Polynesians look bad because he's not a chiseled god of manly perfection.

I suppose they missed the part where he's leaping around all over the place energetically. Or tugged an entire continent. Or can transform himself to look however he wants.

They obviously never wanted to go with the usual strong male hero body type, but didn't want to portray him as fat either! He's just very meaty.

WTF? He's muscular, not fat.

edited 29th Jun '16 10:57:01 AM by MrMediaGuy2

Sounds like PC crap to me. If I recall, Polynesians were indeed obese centuries ago -Samoans anyone? If anything, Disney should get props for avoiding having either of its new Major Characters have "perfect" bodies. I like them well enough so far, but will judge when the movie actually comes out, which is what these critics should do.

He's built like a strong man. If you look at people that compete in wight lifting rather than body building competitions, they tend to have a decent amount of body fat in addition to muscle mass.

He looks more beefy than fat to me. Certainly not flabby.

edited 29th Jun '16 12:38:37 PM by DrDougsh

I have a co-worker who is Hawaiian of Samoan descent. He's a ringer for Maui (except the hair and tattoos). I read Maui as powerful, but not sculpted. He ain't a body-builder, after all.

Yeesh no matter how Maui would've been portrayed in body shape there would be complaints. Can't win. I personally like Maui's design and even though he's a big guy he seems really more muscular than chubby.

I dunno a ton about gods/demigods from Moana's culture, but I assume they weren't supposed to be chiseled like the Greek gods?

edited 29th Jun '16 3:19:34 PM by diyedas