Disney's Moana

I think it had more to do with the fact that the movie has a good mix of the different mythology that comes from the Polynesians. (Am I using the right word?)

Right. As said, this movie takes inspiration from many cultures, not one, so they had to mix and match some, and even create original characters.

The Kakamora seemed to have been a thing in mythology. http://www.wyspy.webd.pl/en,kakamora.html

http://www.mythologydictionary.com/kakamora-mythology.html

edited 19th Jan '17 6:27:43 PM by diyedas

Originally when they would visit Lalotai, they would've encountered Maui's grandmother the real goddess Hina, but that was scrapped. The idea with Te Fiti I think is to pull together several common origins of creation that invoke traditions that would be instantly familiar to most Polynesians, but not the exact mythological figure. It's familiar without marking one single mythology. It's not out of lazieness, they did extensive research for up to five years on and off, but I think it was to not mark any one offshoot as superior. Because if they would've stuck with one branch over another, than which?

Maui makes sense as his name, appearance, and feats are very similar across all of Polynesia, and in-universe Moana helped rediscover sailing, so it's not impossible their story was retold across generations.

I mean, they came into his home uninvited to rob him. And succeeded in doing so. Tamatoa has a legitimate argument for being the wounded party in all this.

It's just a really easy argument to ignore because he's an asshole who eats people. He's not even remotely sympathetic. But, like, does that mean that robbing people is okay so long as the victim is a jerk? Is it only a crime when it's committed against someone we like?

I don't know. The whole Tamatoa scene left a weird taste in my mouth where it felt like it was simultaneously not cruel enough AND too cruel to Tamatoa.

He kinda has something the protagonists vitally need to save the islands, and there's no way in hell he's going to give it back. It's not like they're breaking into his house to nab the curtains.

I dunno about you, but I wouldn't stop a robber in my house by eating them. Alive.

On the other hand, there's probably no police around he can call.

Does it really count as stealing? I mean, that was Maui's fishhook in the first place.

Still home invasion.

Again, who would've Moana and Maui called? I'm almost sure being annointed demigod is equivalent to becoming a police officer in modern society. Or an all-purpose government agent.

I highly doubt ANY of Tamatoa's possessions were obtained in a legal way. Besides we are projecting modern legal concepts on a primitive culture- not to mention a figure whose very purpose was to serve as an antagonist to their demigod.

He found it on the bottom of the ocean and it went unclaimed for a thousand years. I'd say it's rightly his at that point. It's not like he beat Maui up and stole it from him.

He knew that it belonged to Maui. That's robbery, not salvaging. At least by most primitive concerns (again, we're not dealing with a modern culture here.) Not that he cared.

edited 21st Jan '17 6:18:22 AM by Sijo

Totally random post, but I'm really curios how they're gonna dub the "I am Moanaaa" line in Japanese. Every single multilanguage I've heard, even Chinese, has the sentence being literally translated. With Japanese I suspect it'll be the only one having to change it? Or else it's gonna be "Moana deeeesu!"

Lol, curios to see how they'll rephrase it.

What I love about Japanese dubs of non Japanese media is that sometimes I feel like I'm watching anime. It's kinda amusing.

Just watched the movie.

In my opinion, this is the most epic Disney animated movie yet, and by epic, I mean it as in the original literary term.

Haha that's true.

In-jokes are cool, but it's when the obligatory "everything's better in Japanese" comments show up that leave me miffed.

When it comes to Disney though nearly all their dubs are top quality stuff. Casting tends to be great and a lot of the songs don't usually sacrifice word flow for the sake of clunky translations.

In this movie it helps dubs leave the chanting and culturally -specific stuff alone and just dub the English verses, which really is for the best.

@droy: Funny, that's also what I ended up thinking. It has a quality that I miss about Disney films and modern films in general, the "epicness" of it, that sense of grandeur, of gods and destiny, ancestors and legacy. Disney's last "epic" film was Tarzan and that was, what, 20 years ago give or take?

A tapestry on her skin.

I still love that Moana's sex is never brought up once in her journey, neither as justification or condemnation of her quest. She just happened to be chosen by the Ocean, and her people are more than happy to accept her as chief. And while she might have romance later, for the quest at hand it's never brought up as important, even Mulan had some hints of romance.

Not everyone would agree, but I like Moana a bit more than Mulan. It's easier to make her a capable heroine when she's in a prejudice society that doesn't acknowledge her worth, it's another thing entirely when Moana being a girl has nothing to do with her success, remaining distinctly herself while having a tougher body type compared with other Disney heroines.

I don't see how romance has any inherent relation with her sex. Romance could highlight, reforce, downplay, or even ignore sex and gender dynamics. Unless I'm reading too much into what you said - you, in my opinion, seem to be implying that introducing romance into Moana would inherently bring Moana's sex to the spotlight.

Besides, just because the movie didn't explicitly brought up Moana's sex, that doesn't mean it didn't implicitly bright up the topic. I noticed that the only people close to Moana who supported her on running after her own goals were her grandma and mother, while her father was the single opposing figure. It's interesting that her father wished to force leadership upon her, not, say, marriage and subservience (apart because these concepts aren't inherently linked). One could argue the point that the movie was making there is that forcing people into social roles instead of allowing everyone to seek any role they wish for themselves is an issue, whether the role is powerful or not. In a more tangible example, both forbidding women from being breadwinners and condemning women for not being breadwinners are bad.

But I think that's debatable. This is why I wanted to see more of Moana's mom. She was barely a character.

I dunno if her father forbidding her from voyaging had anything to do with her gender. He did say no one, regardless of gender, was allowed off the island, and I feel like he would have forbidden her even if she were a boy.

I also feel that way. The reason she was forbidden wasn't because she was a silly, weak woman who totes couldn't handle it. It's because he remembered being young and enthusiastic like her, and he couldn't handle it. He is directly comparing her desire to go past the reef with his own experiences of how unpredictably terrible "past the reef" is.

He sees himself in her, and that's why he's so determined to keep her out of the water.

edited 31st Jan '17 7:00:34 AM by TobiasDrake