People(s) vs Person(s)

Both ‘peoples’ and ‘persons’ are accurate plurals of ‘people’. Yet ‘peoples’ seems like a plural to both these plurals. So it can seem confusing.

 

‘Person’ refers to a single individual human.

 

‘People’ refers to a group of humans, i.e. multiple humans, as a single unit. It could be generic, as in ‘people over there’. Or it could be a specific kind of group, such as nationality, ethnicity or religion.

 

‘Persons’ refers to multiple humans but not as a single unit, i.e. multiple people doing their own thing independently from one another.

 

‘Peoples’ refers to multiple people organised into multiple groups or, in other words, multiple groups of people. Indigenous humans as a whole are referred to as ‘indigenous peoples’ because, whilst they’re all indigenous, they are all members of their own separate groups. This can be applied to meetings where several different nationalities, ethnicities or religions are together.

Critique: The Rings of Power (Series Two) 2/2

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Negatives

 

Nori was present far less in Series Two than Series One.

Nori, Poppy and the Stranger are in a desert. Somehow, the acorns in Nori’s hair are still fresh and green. They should have dehydrated in the desert’s heat.

They finally find food, the flood of beetles emerging from a tree trunk. Nori watches the beetles get away rather than catching any. Creepy-crawlies are a regular part of her diet so she should know that, although they are streaming out, the onslaught will end as quickly as it began.

 

Desa, wife of dwarf prince Durin, is my favourite character. So it’s especially disappointing to see problems.

To summon the bats, Desa sings in a low pitch. Considering bats ear high pitch frequencies, her summoning them with a low pitch doesn’t make sense.

When Desa is in mourning, her long hair is worn down. Usually, she wears it in a truly massive updo. Seeing how long her hair is when down, it definitely isn’t long enough to produce all the volume its updo needs.

Desa says, “Light at the end of the cave.” Considering the phrase usually ends in ‘tunnel’ and dwarves live in tunnels, ‘tunnel’ would have been appropriate. Hence changing it is pointless. Also, caves can’t end in light: they are largish spaces in rocks so there’s no end because it’s not a space that leads to another space. They might have tunnels leading out from them, but then the light would be at the end of the tunnels, not the cave. They might have light shining in through the ceiling, but calling the ceiling ‘the end of the cave’ is ludicrous.

 

Other problems relate to Numinor’s queen.

When the Numinor queen was ruling in her father’s stead, she was called the queen regent. However, as daughter of a king, she would have been a princess, so her title should’ve been ‘princess regent’.

As the queen regent is being crowned queen after her father’s death, it’s discovered that she’s been using a Palantir (something forbidden because it’s elven). This makes the people unhappy. A giant eagle comes to the coronation, which should have legitimised the queen as having divine approval. Somehow the chancellor used this to say he was the true king and everyone went along with it. That didn’t make sense.

 

The Stranger and Tom Bombadil are both problematic.

The Stranger says, “A name isn’t something you’re given. It’s who you are.” Names literally are something that’s given to you, whether you’re born like a human or created like a wizard. Plus names aren’t who you are, it’s something used so that people listening/reading the name know what individual is being referred. A name is nothing but a sign post. Yes, one can want a signpost that fits better with the destination that it points to, but that’s different from the signpost being the destination.

Tom tells the Stranger that if he goes off to find Nori, he can never come back to the forest to find his staff. Why not? How can this be? It doesn’t make sense. This one-or-the-other decision is purely for the plot rather than truly being actionable from the character’s viewpoint.

Tom Bombadil was a complete let down. He’s my favourite character in the books. He’s meant to be this fun and joyous character. But here he lacked substance and purpose.

 

There were problems with other characters, too.

Elrond says that, because Galadriel turned her back on the light of the Good Place, maybe the darkness of Sauron was already calling her. However, Galadriel turned back from the Good Place before she met Sauron, so how could Sauron have influenced this? Sauron’s powers are based on deceiving people and you can’t deceive someone unless you meet.

The Numinor Chancellor says, “Throw him in.” But the guards take the captain’s manacles off, stepping back from him, letting him walk forward and stand there for a while. Letting the captain do something is different from their instruction to do something to the captain.

Sauron and a guard elf were talking about the city’s defences in the middle of a battle. One of the smiths, Mirdalnia, was part of this conversation. Why? What’s a smith got to do with the city’s defences?

An orc gets shot in the leg by an arrow. So the orc steps away, does a twirl, then falls flat on his back. There’s no way an arrow would’ve resulted in that chain of events.

The elves on their horses gallop towards the orcs at full speed. With the distance between the orcs and the elves when the horses started slowing, they wouldn’t have been able to stop before colliding with the orcs, let alone have stopped in such an orderly fashion.

 

 

Problems with Sauron

 

Celebrimbor’s interactions with Sauron constantly problematic.

Sauron shows Celebrimbor ‘powdered mithril’ the material was small chunks. Perhaps something like ‘grains of mithril’ would’ve been better.

Sauron says he’s enjoyed his time with Celebrimbor and the elf replies, “Nothing lasts forever.” But literally just before this, Celebrimbor says that the rings will last forever. This contradiction doesn’t make sense.

After Sauron drops the illusion from Celebrimbor’s smithy, the elf sees his tower’s been ruined by ballistae. How could have Celebrimbor have worked in the smithy when everything it is was broken? Even just getting to the forge means climbing over rubble and destruction. I doubt an illusion could make the materials whole to be used or to hide the physical sensation of climbing.

 

Galadriel and Sauron’s encounter had two flaws.

Galadriel picks up a sword to attack Sauron whilst Sauron has his back to her. Yet she let her sword drag on the floor, making a noise that alerted Sauron to her incoming attack. Yes, he was most likely expecting an attack, but hearing Galadriel’s attempt makes it much easier to defend himself.

Galadriel falls from a cliff with Sauron looking down. Then in the city, the audience sees the elves’ perspective. Galadriel (falling sideways) is about twice the length of Sauron. However, in every scene with them together, Galadriel is the shorter one.

 

 

 

Series Two made for a good watch. It was nothing revolutionary but not everything has to a stellar production. The concept it definitely worth pursuing in the future.

Critique: The Rings of Power (Series Two) 1/2

*****SPOILERS*****

Questions

 

Winterbloom said that she and her ent friend have tended the forests since before mountains rose up.

However, ents look after wild plants whilst entwives cultivate domestic plants. The forests are wild, not domestic, so why is Winterbloom looking after them?

Although, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Treebeard seems a bit forgetful about the entwives. So maybe the entwife-domestic plant link isn’t as solid as people assume.

 

I have two other queries.

When Sauron died, he froze everything nearby. Somehow, his blood remained liquid. However, if he’s strong enough to change the entire weather system, maybe he’d be strong enough to make sure it didn’t affect him. Also, in Lord of the Rings, the Eye of Sauron is a ball of fire. Perhaps Sauron is inherently fiery, hence warm, so that might prevent him from freezing, too.

The queen takes the captain’s place in his sea trial. When she’s found to be innocent, the public want her to be their queen. Also, when she initially offered herself, everyone was shocked and horrified. If the people felt this way about her, why would they have let the chancellor become king? Maybe it’s because the trial was one of the Old Faith and the people of the Old Faith are supportive of the queen.

The Stoors are leaving their destroyed home. Poppy goes with them because she’s in love with one. Nori and the Stranger have a talk, Nori walks off to join Poppy and the Stoors, and then the Stranger goes back to Bombadil. Nowhere in the Nori-Stranger conversation did they mention they’d be going in different directions. Nori was talking about the Stoors’ first migration so presumably she’s helping them. Considering she disobeyed custom to help the Stranger in the first place, and she believed in his cause strongly enough to leave her community, one would imagine Nori would have preferred to stay with him.

 

 

Who is the Dark Wizard?

 

This is the question.

Tom says that the Dark Wizard is looking for someone far more powerful to spread his influence. Now, I originally thought the Dark Wizard was Saruman. However, Saruman only became evil after he made contact with Sauron. If the Dark Wizard wants to work with evil, and Saruman only became bad after contacting evil, Saruman can’t be the Dark Wizard.

So, the Dark Wizard isn’t Saruman. He can’t be Gandalf (it was clear since Series One that the Stranger was Gandalf. That, and the Stranger names himself Gandalf at the end of this series.) He doesn’t seem enamoured with animals or nature, nor is he a hermit, so he can’t be Radagast.

So, that leaves him as either one of the Blue Wizards or as an unknown, sixth Wizard. Nowhere in the literature does it mention more than five Wizards, so I’d conclude the Dark Wizard is a Blue Wizard.

The Dark Wizard tells the Stranger that the Stranger told him to leave the lands of the west. The Blue Wizards are known to have left the west. This does make me wonder where the second Blue Wizard is.

The Stoors and Bombadil have West Country accents, meaning it’s an accent of that area. Bombadil is a known resident of the Shire. The Shire has West Country accents. So maybe this desert is the Shire but in the past? This would make the Dark Wizard, another resident of the desert, in the west and thus he couldn’t be a Blue Wizard. However, the Dark Wizard (another resident of the desert) says long ago the Stranger told him to go east, which means the desert can’t be in the west. So was all this misdirection?

Series Three better answer this.

 

 

Visual Positives

 

Much was achieved on the visual side of things.

One scene is dark in a dull hut then the next scene is a light and bright open space. Not only did it make the open place seem more positive but it made the hut seem even more oppressive.

Often, the hairstyles of the elves have it cover their ears. This is clever because it means not as much time or money needs to be spent on the false elf ears.

 

Sauron and his crown had good moments. It’s the first time an inanimate object had truly captured my attention on film.

Adar turned the pointed crown upside down to stab Sauron rather than crown him. This was clever.

The way that Sauron used both crown and sword to fight Galadriel, the way its choreography was put together, was genius.

 

Two points on the animation are noteworthy.

Winterbloom, an entwife, has cheery blossoms. She’s very pretty. This was great because she has the twisted, gnarled shape of the rest of the ents, a feature that would otherwise make her visually unappealing to most.

When the Stranger is getting sucked in by the tree, the bark growing around his was done extremely well. However, the bark growing around his head was done poorly.

 

 

Positives

 

There were four instances that really made me chuckle.

Durin calls Elrond a, “tidal-haired, flowery-tongued beanpole.” Brilliant. By far my favourite line.

Estrid stabs Isildur, removing the knife upon realising he’s not an orc. Isildur says you’re meant to leave it in and Estrid says, “Well I don’t know, I’ve never been stabbed before.”

The dwarf Durin doesn’t trust a guy who saw Elrond because “Elron wouldn’t say such nice things about me.” Hilarious.

When Elron kisses Galadriel, she raises her eyebrows like, “What the f*ck did you just do?” So funny.

 

There were three particularly clever moments.

Nori’s missing her family and the Stranger says something quite profound: “It’s strange that what’s left behind is the heaviest burden.”

In Series One, Galadriel and Elrond were friends. In Series Two, they have been at odds with one another. So when Elrond kisses the orc-captured Galadriel, it’s a shock. However, we see his badge in her hand (containing a lockpick to get free of her manacles): the kiss was nothing but a distraction.

Elrond tells an elven archer to take the shot. Instead, several orcs take the shot at the elven archer. Then the elven archer uses one of the orc arrows to blow up the siege engine.

Critique: Brave (Film) 2/2

*****SPOILERS*****

 

 

Visuals

 

The animation team did a superb job.

The hair in the film was epic. The animation for Merida’s hair, in particular, was great. Her hair is multiple strands of ginger, and these base colours are affected by the shade and sunshine. The other hair of note was Queen Elinor’s braids (they were just a really pretty design).

There’s a horn in the shape of a bear. When it’s blown, the bear’s tongue moves. This was a nice detail.

When Merida shoots in the archery competition, she hits the bull’s eye on every target. Her arrows even goes through the centre of the Dingwall suitor’s arrow which was already in the middle of the bull’s eye. This was visually pleasing. In fact, seeing the arrow animated in slow motion was also satisfying because it bended and wobbled just like a real arrow when it’s shot.

The Queen transforming into a bear under the bed sheet is clever for two reasons: how it was animated and how it was not animated. What was animated was that, as the Queen got bigger and bigger, the sheet could cover less and less of her until it falls off. But also, being under a cover meant the transformation itself didn’t have to be animated, saving much time.

 

 

Humour

 

Despite the serious tone of the film, there was humour.

 

Merida’s triplet younger brothers are much fun.

When the triplets are dismissed, they run away. One trips and lands, spilling buns everywhere.

When the Queen as a bear walks into a room, the mouths of the triplets fall open. This would only be a minor amusement to some, but they’re playing with a stuffed deer head and its mouth falls open, too, elevating the level of amusement.

As the visiting clans wave goodbye from their ships, the triplets are on the mast waving to the king on the shore. Always causing trouble.

 

For the amount of screen time the whittler-witch has, the amount of humour she has is out of proportion. She was enjoyable.

Her entire shop is full of bear carvings, including a bear version of the famous painting where Jesus and God reach a finger out to each other.

The whittler, with all her sharp objects floating, advance on Merida to make her exit the shop. When the princess says she’ll buy everything, all the sharp turn on the witch.

Everyone has to leave to whittler’s hut then enter again so in witchy place. The whittler says, “Never conjure where you carve.” This brings to mind the phrase, ‘Never shit where you eat.’

 

King Fergus, Merida’s dad, is funny (no surprise there considering who his voice actor is).

He gave toddler Merida a bow. She struggled to hold it, which is no wonder when seeing it was five times her size. This was both funny and cute.

Merida says to crack open the king’s caskets so the king in a panicked voice begs a servant to ‘bring the tiny glasses’.

The king says to Mor’du, “I’ll take you with my bare hands.” He’s dealing with the bear with his bare hands. Nice use of a homonym.

 

Queen Elinor’s humour doesn’t come from her personality. Rather, it comes when behaviour goes against what is proper for a lady.

The Queen criticises everything Merida does in order to make Merida ladylike. So seeing Merida stroll like a guy, i.e. carefree with big movements and heavy stomps, was funny. Then when the Queen burps in front of all the Clan Chiefs, she’s doing behaviour that she’d punish Merida for.

Merida points at the Queen to shout, “Bear!” The Queen turns around, sees a bear-shaped shadow, then panics. People being scared of their own shadows is a fun trope; it’s almost like seeing a dog bark at its own reflection. Also being calm is an important trait for a lady and this behaviour certainly isn’t calm.

Queen trying to be dainty and queenly whilst she’s a massive bear is pure comedy.

 

The suitors, and their fathers, provide a lot of entertainment.

The other three clans present their suitors. One has an unintelligible voice. Dingwall’s appears stupid and incompetent. The last is a muscular pretty boy yet is easily frightened and angered. The latter also screeches in a high voice and slaps people, going against the traditional image of masculinity. So all of Merida’s suiters are undesirable.

Dingwall’s son does well at the archery. His dad lifts up his kilt and says, “Feast your eyes!” A funny, disturbing and graphic choice of words. A kid crying in the background brings the humour of that moment up a notch.

 

 

Problems

 

Some mistakes were so glaring that someone should have noticed.

Merida goes riding on her horse Angus whilst shooting her bow. At one point, Angus jumps over a log in slow motion, Merida’s hair and arms move in slow motion, and yet during this her arrow shoots at the same speed as all her other arrows. It’s only after this that Angus lands and slow motion is ended. So having that arrow at normal speed is a mistake.

When Merida walks out the hut and she, along with Angus, appear in the centre of the stone circle. Considering Angus refused to enter before, one would expect him to be even more panicky if he just appeared in the middle. It’s possible the whittler calmed him down, but this seems more like an excuse than a reason.

There are two smaller issues. The volume needed constant changing which means the audience can’t just sit back to enjoy the film. Another thing that was disappointing was the sporrans. They look like bumbags! What’s up with that?

 

Whilst Merida and Queen Elinor don’t quite get along, some of their behaviour surrounding the other is not believable.

The Queen never told Merida about the upcoming betrothal, yet is surprised that Merida lashed out? That’s not believable.

Merida complains her clothing is too tight and Queen Elinor says, “It’s perfect.” What, it’s perfect that your daughter is uncomfortable? That’s sadistic.

Merida gives a speech to everyone so that her mother could sneak up the stairs to the tapestry room. But the Queen stays for the entire speech because Merida finally takes some responsibility. Throughout the speech, Merida keeps on looking at her mother rather hard, at times for prolonged periods, yet no-one follows her line of sight to see what Merida was so fascinated with. Her speech wasn’t captivating enough for people not to act naturally.

 

 

 

This film makes for an easy, enjoyable watch. The visual and humour were superb. The fact that the film manages all this whilst having a serious vibe is a job well done.

It provides different things for each age group yet the baseline is relevant for all ages. (Teenagers rejecting things from their younger youth wouldn’t object to this film as being childish.)

The problems were more irritants than plot-destroying features, but they were irritants nonetheless. It’s what’s in my ‘Queries’ section that devalues the film for me.

There’s plenty to think about, to ponder once the film is done. For example, there are four Clans and four princes from Queen Elinor’s story, making one wonder if the Clan Chiefs descend from the princes.

When in a low mood, to keep the mind from wondering a film needs to be easy enough to follow but hard enough to grab your attention. Between this and all the positives already mentioned, this film was my most used DVD over my university period. That’s definitely a noteworthy achievement.

Critique: Brave (Film) 1/2

Merida, Princess of a Scottish Kingdom, gets constantly criticised by her mother, Queen Elinor. When a betrothal gets arranged without Merida’s knowledge, she turns to magic to change her fate.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Queries

 

Will-o’-the wisp lead people astray in marshes/bogs to die in mythology. In this film, wisps lead people to their fate. These are not remotely the same but I think I know from where this confusion arises.

            In mythologies, creatures are often said to ‘lead someone to their fate’. However, in these accounts it’s already been stated (or later clarified) that the creature causes death. Thus there is a very clear meaning that the fate they’re talking about is death.

            So, it seems like someone making the film read that wisps ‘lead people to their fate’ and then took it wildly out of context. Not to mention the wisps in the film are in a forest, not a marshy environment, so wisps were taken out of their location/physical context, too.

 

At the start of the film, Merida does a voiceover about destiny.

She says different people’s destinies weave together like a cloth. She also says destiny is tied to the land. The film perfectly shows how destinies of different people are intertwined. However, the film doesn’t showcase how destiny is tied to the land. Yes, people are tied to the land and those we interact with usually share the same land. However, this is not the same as destiny being tied to the land itself.

Merida says people look for their destiny. The film is about Merida changing her destiny, not looking for it. She’s not trying to find out what her fate is but rather change the fate that’s been shoved upon her.

 

At the end, Merida concludes, “Fate is beyond our command. That destiny is not our own. Our fate lives within us. We only have to be brave enough to see it.”

            Until this final line, the title of the film doesn’t make sense. But Merida was brave enough to see what her destiny was and then accept it. So ‘Brave’ is a good, unexpected title. If this line wasn’t in the film, it wouldn’t change the film in any significant way. Hence the fact the title successfully manages to sum up the film with something that’s largely irrelevant is an amazing achievement.

            However, if fate is beyond our control, this means that something will happen no matter what you do about it. Maybe even all our actions are predetermined. It’s a bit defeatist, like it’s telling the audience to just give in and to never try. This is not a positive message to give to people and potentially ruins the film.

But maybe I’m predetermined to think this. So the final lines of the film open up a philosophical debate but then it abandons the audience to grapple with it. That’s certainly one way to keep the film on the mind.

 

 

Positives

 

Merida wants a spell to change her mum because that will change Merida’s fate.

The spell becomes permanent unless, by the second sunrise, they ‘mend the bond torn by pride’. Merida doesn’t want to hear this because, if everything goes back to as it was, this means the betrothal she’s trying to escape will still be on.

Then she thinks that as the tapestry was torn, mending that would prevent the spell from being permanent. This doesn’t work. But Merida taking responsibility, saying, “This is all my fault. I did this to you. To us,” does. Taking responsibility where once she rejected it is great character development that’s also believable.

 

Merida and Queen Elinor come to an ancient throne room. There’s a relief showing four guys, one split off from the rest. Merida thinks of the four princes from her mum’s story.

Then seeing so many skeletons, she remembers the whittler saying a prince ask for the strength of ten men. Like a bear.

The whittler turned her mum into a bear, so she might have turned the prince into a bear too: the demon bear Mor’du. The whittler only produced bear carvings. It’s no surprise that her spells only produced bears, too.

 

Based in Scotland, this film takes its setting seriously.

            A festival of sorts precedes the archery competition. Many traditionally Scottish things are there, including log tossing and highland cattle.

            Usually, Scottish characters are relegated to comic relief. So an entire film of Scottish character with a plot and message that has a serious tone? Nicely done.

 

The suitors for Merida’s hand in marriage provides many opportunities for creative cleverness.

The Queen says, “They’ve all accepted,” to which Merida replies, “What did I do now?” The response clearly doesn’t match the queen’s original comment. So that throws the audience off. But it goes to show just how primed Merida is to think that whatever the Queen says of her is a criticism. That was cleverly done.

The first born of each Clan can present a suiter to fight for Merida’s hand in marriage, competing in archer. Merida, as the firstborn of her clan, decides to fight for her own hand in marriage. This was so clever and original.

 

The triplets cut off a guard’s moustache then disappear around a corner to the right.

When the screen zooms out, it shows (to the right) a small indent, like a bricked-up window, and later on a corner. The ex-window isn’t deep enough for the triplets to hide in. The corner was too far away for them to have disappeared around at the speec they were travelling in. So what happened?

It’s revealed later in the film that the triplets travel along passageways hidden behind random wall and floor stones. The film answers what would otherwise be a major floor without bringing so much as a word to it!

 

Merida says the Queen turning into a bear isn’t her fault.

Merida coerced the witch for the spell so the spell overall is Merida’s fault. Merida didn’t specify how she wanted her mother to change so the witch had to fill in the blanks, so Merida is at fault for not setting out clearer instructions. Merida pushed a spell onto her mother without her mother’s permission, so the lack of consent is Merida’s fault.

From whatever angle, Merida’s at fault. She refuses to take responsibility when she clearly should. Though is this really a surprise? Taking responsibility is acknowledging that you’ve done something wrong. Her mother is always criticising her, tell her she’s doing something wrong. Merida feels like she has to defend herself from every angle, especially those concerning her mother. Just because now is a genuine reason for taking responsibility doesn’t mean she can alter her long-conditioned behaviour.

No, Mindfulness isn’t Meditation

 When people speak of mindfulness, they sometimes call it ‘mindfulness meditation’. This is wrong.

 

All forms of meditation start with what the West calls ‘Mindfulness’. Undoubtedly, mindfulness is an import part of meditation. But it isn’t meditation in of itself.

 

To go on a hike, for example, one must step out the front door. Stepping out the front door is a vital part of hiking. But people wouldn’t call leaving the house hiking. It’s literally just the first step.

 

Just like mindfulness is the first step of meditation. Hence it doesn’t make sense saying mindfulness is meditation.

 

Critique: Moana (Film) 2/2

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Songs

 

These songs were simply stunning. They were beautiful to which to listen. They are clever and deep, giving the audience something to chew on. They present a character’s true nature and desires so that the plot is free for actions and humour. (The best example of this is Maui’s ‘You’re Welcome’ song perfectly demonstrates his egotistical nature.)

 

Quite often when a song was refrained, it morphed into a refrain of a different song. The music of these combinations flowed well, rather than being choppy like other musicals that refrain several songs in one track.

However, when listening to the song list independent of the film, the songs do feel repetitive because their backing tracks are so similar that they’re interchangeable. So it makes you feel like you’re listening to the same song multiple times. Yet when just listening to the track list during the film, the songs are interspaced with plot which breaks the repetitive feeling.

A musical’s track list is designed mainly to be played with the film rather than without it. Thus how songs feel during the movie is much more important than how the songs feel without the movie.

My favourite example comes after Maui leaves. Moana’s grandmother Tala comes to comfort her. She sings a short part of ‘Where You Are’ which morphs into a bit of ‘You Know the Way’. This combo was done beautifully.

 

‘Where You Are’

This song uses homonyms often to great effect, such as ‘The fishermen come back from the sea. I wanna see’ and ‘coconut leaves… no-one leaves’. Another example is ‘everyone has a roll on this island so maybe I can roll with mine’.

This song is about finding happiness where you are, which is a good thing because the attitude of ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’ can be damaging. But Moana finds this constricting. Not only is the theme conflated with Moana running off to sea all the time, but the line ‘Every path leads back to where you are’ puts a finality on Moana experiencing what she wants.

Throughout the song, Moana does become more involved with the island. Finding happiness where you are doesn’t have to come at the expense of wanting to experience and explore more.

 

‘I Know Who You Are’

This one is my absolute favourite. The notes and rhythms are perfect. Moana’s voice has a pacifying tone, something not easy to express whilst singing.

‘They have stolen the Heart from inside you, but that does not define you’ is clever because it’s saying Te Ka is not defined by someone else’s actions. This is an important message.

Then we have, “This is not who you are. You know who you are” which is good because it is saying people know who they are on the inside despite people’s perceptions. Just like Moana always knew who she was despite the restrictions put on her by her father Tui.

 

 

Animation

 

The animation is fantastic.

When the sea parts, allowing Moana to walk along the sea bed, she can see the sea life all around her, perfectly animating the way light refracts in water and thus changing how it appears. The way the toddlers were animated to toddle was very realistic. One kid does a dance and it’s the exact same sequence the lead monkey does from the Dreamworks film ‘Rio’.

We see a bunch of ancestors to the people of Motunui. Each person was different yet it was quite clear they were related to the modern population. Beautifully done.

When the demigod Maui transforms into his various animal shapes, all look very similar to his human form. This means that, no matter which form he takes, Maui is always recognisable. The best example of this is his iguana form: the head especially couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else.

 

 

Problems

 

Whilst the songs and the humour were well thought out, the makers didn’t think of the consequences of a lot of their decisions. Sometimes they were just odd, like how Maui pronounces sea as ‘zee’ in the ‘You’re Welcome’ song.

 

Some things make no sense.

A kokamori steals Hei-Hei because the rooster swallowed the Heart. It then goes back to its ships and holds Hei-Hei up like a trophy, prompting all the kokamori to cheer. Considering the Heart is tiny and the kokamori were far away from Hei-Hei when the Heart was swallowed, there’s absolutely no way they could know the Heart was inside Hei-Hei.

Maui says he has no magical powers because he doesn’t have his Hook. However, he was trapped on that island for a thousand years. Considering that’s far beyond a normal lifespan, he clearly had some power.

Moana repeats, “I am Moana and you will board my boat and restore the Heart of Te Fiti” too much. It gets tiresome. When it changes to “I am Moana, I am aboard my boat and I will restore the Heart” this is very impactful. However, it would have been just as impactful even if the original speech was only given twice.

Maui wonders why it chose to give Moana the Heart, wonders why the ocean didn’t put the Heart back itself, and wonders why it didn’t give Maui his Hook. These are all valid questions that never get answered. These are the type of questions audience members have after films, so to have this acknowledged in the film is clever. Yet raising questions that don’t get answered is a bad choice.

Te Ka cracks Maui’s Hook so he flees, telling Moana that the ocean chose wrong. This makes Moana completely lose confidence in herself. I don’t buy this. She’s shown utter confidence throughout without even a hint of self-doubt. Yes, Maui might have left, but there’s no way this would rip all her confidence away.

 

Maui says he gets his tattoos when he earns them.

Yet he has a tattoo of being defeated by Te Ka. Things are earned when you are successful, and being defeated clearly isn’t successful. Unless it was the motivation behind it: Maui stole the Heart to give humans the power of creation.

Also, Maui has a tattoo of his birth parents throwing him into the sea. He was a baby so he clearly didn’t earn that!

 

The cockerel Hei-Hei is mentally challenged, being unfairly used as comic relief. (Just like the seal in Finding Dory.) The animators wanted to portray these characters as stupid but there are plenty of ways to animate ‘stupid’ instead of ‘disabled’. Not only that but it creates an unjust, false link between disability and a lack of intelligence. How did discriminating against a vulnerable group pass inspection? This is highly disappointing.

 

 

 

Overall, this is a really satisfying film. The songs and animations were beautiful. Every aspect of the film was filled with cleverness easy to appreciate. The humour was constant but didn’t override the plot. Yes, there are problems (some of them quite serious). No, this doesn’t detract too much from the film: it is still intensely enjoyable.

Critique: Moana (Film) 1/2

Before I even introduce the film, there’s one thing that must be addressed.

Maui calls Moana a princess. Moana says she’s not a princess but is the daughter of the chief. These aren’t mutually exclusive. A princess is the daughter of any sovereign leader… like Moana’s father is. So she is a princess.

It’s almost like the makers forced a situation so they could include the (admittedly funny) joke of, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.” Disney referencing themselves is rather funny.

Still, if they didn’t try to force the situation to fit the joke, Moana wouldn’t have been given the ridiculous line of “I’m not a princess.”

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Plot

Easy to follow yet full of nifty details, the plot of this film is special.

In the distant past, Maui stole the Heart of Ta Fiti from an island. It started to die. Then the volcanic demon Te Ka comes, defeating Maui. The Heart and Maui’s Hook (the source of his powers) were lost to sea.

In the present, Moana’s island of Motunui is losing life, the plants succumbing to blight and the fish stocks disappearing. Moana suggests that people fish beyond the reef. This makes her father Chief Tui refuse. Not only did their people stop being voyagers after Te Ka came, but Tui ignored this tradition to not go beyond the reef and, as a consequence, his friends died.

But unless they find food elsewhere, everyone in the island dies. Not going beyond the reef guarantees that everyone will die; going beyond the reef means there’s a chance of survival. Yet all the chief sees is tradition, guilt, and thinking Moana’s using this as an excuse to go to sea like she always wanted.

The sea chooses Moana to restore the Heart of Te Fiti. She teams up with Maui, find his Hook, and then they go on their merry way.

There’s no island to which to restore the Heart of Te Fiti. Moana then notices that the Heart and Te Ka’s chests both have the same spiral. Moana puts the Heart into Te Ka and the demon becomes Te Fiti. With Te Fiti restored, her life-giving powers start to cure the islands.

 

 

Clever

 

So much intelligence went into crafting this film.

Toddler Moana wanted to get a flower but instead she helped a baby turtle get safely to the ocean without being taken by frigate birds. Even as an infant, she puts other’s needs in front of her own.

Each new chief of Motunui adds to a rock pile. Moana uses a conch instead: this is nice symbolism because she is of the sea. (But I do wonder how future chiefs will manage to balance their rocks on a curved conch.)

To escape the cave Maui trapped her in, Moana toppled a statue in order to jump through a hole in the ceiling. Just like Moana topples Maui’s ego in order to help.

On the mountain to Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters, there’s a frigate bird, the same type of bird that eats newly hatched baby turtles. Eating babies can be considered monstrous so this was an excellent choice.

When they enter Lalotai, they are underneath the ocean. Fish and whales can be seen swimming above them. This is so clever because underworlds are usually under the ground, not under the water.

 

The two main beyond-human entities are Te Fiti the nature goddess and Te Ka the volcano demon. A lot of thought went into these two.

Moana always aims her boat straight for Te Ka instead of the gap in the rocks. This seems stupid at first. However, because Te Ka is so large, it can see the boat coming from miles off. So if it saw Moana aiming for the gap in the rocks, Te Ka would go there and block the way.

When the lava demon Te Ka becomes the nature goddess Te Fiti. She breaks free from the hardened lava rock, just like how life in the Pacific readily regrows from lava wrong.

Te Fiti is completely green. However, the textures are different depending on what plant the area is. For example, her skin was made of grass and her hair was a forest of trees. The makers could have easily made her monotone but they really gave the nature goddess some life.

 

The film’s events arise from Maui stealing the Heart (Moana couldn’t restore the Heart unless it was stolen).

Maui when baby rescued by gods. He did all those things like creating coconuts (as listed in his song your welcome) so that humans, and thus his parents, would accept and love him.

We see how someone seeking approval (like Maui stealing Heart) can have bad consequences. Just be yourself (the film’s persistent message with Moana) and that is more than enough.

His ego is a front for him to hide behind. If he makes his achievements seem amazing, then maybe others will, too. His ego lets him approve of himself and his deeds are for humans to approve of him.

 

 

Humour

 

Tala, Moana’s grandmother, tells the village toddlers the story of how Te Fiti’s Heart was stolen. They all look petrified; one even cries and another faints. This is amusing, but to see Moana clapping and giggling juxtaposed with the others’ fright was top quality humour.

Tala, Moana’s grandmother, has some of the best lines. For example, when Moana asks why she’s acting weird, Tala says, “I’m the village crazy lady. That’s my job.” She also willing to keep Moana’s attempt to leave the lagoon a secret, saying, “I’m his [the chief’s] mum. I don’t have to tell him anything.”

Maui signs an oar with Hei-Hei’s beak, saying, “When you write with a bird, it’s called a tweet.’ That was an unexpected reference to the modern real world.

There are several small details that are funny in their simplicity. Moana attempts to kick the ocean so it moves away, making her miss and fall flat on her back. The kokamori draw slanted lines on their face, making it look like angry eyebrows. Maui jokes that they need a human sacrifice to open the entrance to Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters.

When Moana leaps from some rocks to land on the boat Maui stole, we expect her to land on said boat. Instead, she falls shorts and lands in the sea. Once she gets on the boat, she turns her head, making her wet hair slap her face. When she finally starts to deliver her speech, Maui calmly throws her into the sea. This quick succession of humour was well handled.

Maui jumps into Lalotai and yells, “Don’t worry, it’s deeper than it looks. I’m still falling.” Usually, reassuring things would be said in this situation but Maui goes out of his way to make Moana as uncomfortable as possible.

When they go to the giant crab Tamatoa to get the Hook, it wants Moana’s necklace. “No that’s my grandma’s!” Tamatoa mocks her by repeating the sentence in a high pitch, like a child, before declaring, “I ATE my grandma!” This dark humour is somehow right at home in this children’s film, so well done for that.