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DAY 362

This year, Disney went 2 for 2 releasing 2 animated feature films this year a opposed to the usual one: Zootopia released March 4th (DAY 74 ) and Moana released November 23rd (DAY 328 )
I don't recall hearing development news of Zootopia until its' teaser trailer came out. The overall concept of anthropomorphic animals had been done so many times in animation, either as normal citizens alongside humans or if the entire world is populated by them. Disney's done that a couple times in general as well. Not counting the shorts ('cause there's too many to list off), this was done pretty nice in Robin Hood but also terrible in Chicken Little. And Zootopia coming out 10 years since CL was even more worrisome (they started their CG venture with this idea, would they suck at it again?). As for the characters, I was worried about how the fox would end up. I wasn't totally knowledged of Jason Bateman at the time (before I bingewatched Arrested Development this summer I'd only seen maybe 2 episodes and I hated how he was written/portrayed in ABC's the Muppets) and I was worried that his character would end up being the same sort of irredeemable jerk to the bunny like he was to Kermit. Then with the first "trailer", it was funny at first even if it was really just a full scene and not an actual trailer, but the sloths became really overused in all the advertisements. Speaking of ads, each of the promotional material that followed made the story look much different than I ever thought it'd be (mostly with the focus of the story actually focusing on the bunny instead of the fox). Even if it looked a little bit better than where we started out, I was still thinking it'd end up the "eh, passable but not much substance" category whereas Moana I believe would become the Frozen-levels of excellent movie. My family saw the movie first without me, but they told me just how amazing it really is and I was just "Huh... really?". So then I checked it out myself with my brothers who's seen it and... wow. I mean... wow. I never could've imagined such a familiar concept would tell such an inspiring and... overall different animated movie. The story is essentially a buddy-buddy comedy mixed in with a missing persons cop case our main character trying to fit into such a gigantic city and... overall sprinkled with themes of racism and prejudices? Yeah, we'll get to that. The buddy-buddy aspect I'm gonna save for characters but it's actually pretty funny. The missing persons cop case is really engaging and it's fascinating at just how high it escalates from a simple ordinary case into an huge plot centered around "prey vs predator". This leads us to the use of racism and prejudices. THAT is what makes this movie stand out in places I didn't think it'd go in. There's discrimination, hatred, bigotry, feeding into fear, animals being identified as "predator" or "prey", judging books by their cover, all of this is such a touchy subject to do with animation, but it does it such a genius manner! It would've felt sort of preachy if this was an ordinary human society, but doing it with animals puts a really impressive turn. In a way, it was also at a perfect point of this year's election (although WE ended up for the worst). But it's not just a drama, because there are a lot of laughs here. Not just with character chemistry, but also visual gags, wordplay, stabs at Disney, even the sloths scene actually ended up as one of the biggest laughs when I thought it would be one of the biggest groaners with how much it was used! The animation is really astounding. The designs of all the animals seems to be akin to the 70s sort of design, or maybe it's just the Robin Hood vibes affecting me in a good way. The animation on all the animals is impressive as well, from their movements to the many different textures and all of the different sorts of clothing. The depiction of the titular Zootopia itself is really incredible. They didn't just make it look like a run-of-the-mill New York inspired city. It's humongously packed with different climates/preservations, overloaded with gorgeous architecture/scenic design and it overloading with creativity from all angles. This is also a perfect time to talk about the movie's atmosphere. They really have thought everything through with how these animals live their lives, no matter what size, species, climate, whatever and it all makes total sense with such loving care! On a side note, I didn't even notice this was a mammals-only world until after finally seeing it. That was also an interesting take (no birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, etc.)! The characters are all identifiable and layered, even with those who are familiar archetypes. Judy is a hard-working optimistic passionate officer working as hard as she can despite her "cute" discrimination, trying to make the city a better place. Nick starts off as a smart allec con artist able to slide his way through anything, but he goes deeply into why he believes he has to stay with that label. Both of them together have the same sort of goal and their friendship is full of heart as it is snarks. Chief Bogo is the hardpressed chief of police with a deep temper, Clawhauser a lovable current-trend, Bellwether is a kind of weak villain (it makes sense with her reasonings, but the reveal and overall twist villain schtick is getting old), Mayor Lionheart is a standard politician, Mr. Big is a classic Godfather mob boss joke, Gazelle is the big-named pop star, Yax is the burnt out-esque hippie, Flash the so-called fasted DMV critter but obvious not (at least when not distracted) and Judy's parents are supportive and also funny in how they are more grounded (like by telling their daughter she should surpress her dreams instead of living them). The voice-cast is another of those pitch-perfect voice choices, right up there with Emperor's New Groove and Wreck-It Ralph. The music by Michael Giacchino is really well-conducted, giving us an action-packed score as well as having a nice jungley-tropical sound in areas and the main song "Try Everything" is really inspirational. This really was a fantastic movie that took what's been done for decades and spun it on it's mammalian head like nothing we've seen "be-fur". I can only imagine the creative minds behind the Disney Park's Imagineering division are kicking theirselves right now, thinking they should've scrapped the Avatarland which has nothing to do with Animal Kingdom's theme AND ISN'T EVEN A DISNEY PROPERTY and held of to actually make a Zootopia section because, well, it writes itself! Tell me you'd rather have that! And because it was such a surprise hit...
... I got worried that Moana would end up as the "OK" movie Disney would make this year. I remember seeing a bit of the 2D concept art somewhere around 2013 and more news came about as the years followed. It being a movie with Polynesian culture? Sounds like a canvas waiting to be painted beautifully, animation-wise. Songs by the Hamilton guy, Lin Manual-Miranda? Well, that'll be a big hit to Broadway lovers and might give him the Oscar for his awards collection (not in a sarcastic way). A contest/audition for a new-comer to voice the lead heroine? Sounds like something to get good publicity and a good way to find fresh acting meat (similar to what NBC did to find Dorothy or Tracy for their live telecasts of the Wiz and Hairspray). But the main selling point for me as to why I was excited for this movie was the directing duo of John Musker and Ron Clements would be at the helm. Need I explain more? I hope not. First I heard of it being a 2D animated movie again (similar to P&TF), but then it turned into a normal 3D movie, but that was still exciting since this would be their first 3D movie ever! How's that for exciting? I've been dodging any clips and listening to demos (aside from commercials popping up on TV 'cause those are unavoidable) and not bothering to believe any of the "controversies" (nothing more than petty complaining). Taking Zootopia's status out of the picture, I was still excited for this. I saw it just this week and it was just as great as I thought it'd be. It's not as grand or spectacular as Zootopia, but this was still a really enjoyable movie. KEEP IN MIND TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET, SOME SPOILERS WILL BE GIVEN. The story is a pretty simple hero's journey narrative. The soon-to-be-ruler of a Polynesian tribe sails to find the Demigod Maui to help save her kingdom from utter destruction. Yeah, been there, done that. The story isn't horribly done, but you can sort of tell what storybeats are gonna happen at what moment. But even with that, the stories of Ron and John's movies usually are the weakest aspect. Not enough that they're terrible or ruin the film, they usually seem more character-driven and adventure-driven, and Moana succeeds on both those marks. You really get caught up in the village tribe's legacy, there's a real sense of dread, the different adventures are action-packed, there's a few laughs and there's really good development between the 2 leads (since this is pretty much a 2-person movie most of the time). The animation is really gorgeous. The pacific islands are beautiful and you get a true sense of Polynesian culture. The colors really pop from the more natural forest-like colors to the more lavish out-there tropical tones. The character animation is really expressive and can get really fast-paced. Even though this is Ron and John's first CG movie, they still found a way to bring in hand-drawn animation with Maui's tattoos (sort of a reversal of their past movies where it's all 2D with small stand-out 3D elements)! The stand-out moments in particular for me are the lighting, the hair and the water. The lighting is handled in a lot of different ways, from fiery torches, moonlight evenings, even glow-in-the-dark type with Tamatoa and the way they reflect off characters and establish moods are perfectly utilized. The hair I know would be a strange thing to bring-up, but they used a lot of different types of long hairstyles and they all look so realistic. Just look carefully at Maui's "dreads" and how Moana's locks are when soaked or just tossled. The water is the most spectacular of the 3; all the little molecules, drips, how it flows and moves, they really made a free-spirited character out of this ocean! And speaking of characters, the ones we got are really fun. Moana is a really likable princess type of character. She's tenatous but also a bit clumsy and wacky. She has the ability to control the ocean but she still needs work at it. She's also going through all this not for herself but for the good of her tribe, most noble especially since she's to be the future ruler. Maui is really enjoyable at how much of a self-centered egotist he is. He loves himself, his god status and how important it is, but he's also given some depth showing why he is such a Gaston. Hei-Hei is a silent pet rooster and quite literally a dumb cluck mostly there to do sight gags or be a prop, but it's a shame they couldn't include Pua the piglet since he looked pretty cute and was in just as much of the advertisements. Each of the obstacles we come across are, well, obstacles but each are really threatening in their own ways; from the Kakamora being savage warriors, Tamatoa the giant with a shiny fetish (but deadly enough to kill) and Te'Ka... well, LAVA MONSTER, with an interesting twist at the end. Speaking of twists, there's no twist villains to be shown. Isn't THAT refreshing after it was getting stale with Zootopia? The other characters like Moana's parents and her grandmother are sort of average, even though you can see where they're coming from and aren't totally strict (grandma's pretty fun as "the village loony"). The music is fantastic. Lin Manuel Miranda isn't the only one who's a part of this, as there's also the collective works of Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina. They all did a great job in making another hit Disney soundtrack. The musical score has a really great importance to it as well as spectacular a Hawaiian-sound to it (I know it's not Hawaiian, but it has the same kind of feel). The songs are also great, sounding and giving us a real experience. "Where You Are" as a quick set-up to the island and kingdom, "Shiny" mostly serves as part of the Tamatoa obstacle, "You're Welcome" as a self-congratulatory number to, for and by Maui establishing the great deeds he's done, "How Far I'll Go" a touching song with Moana questioning her purpose and her true adventurous desires and "We Know the Way" perhaps my favorite highlighting the tribe's past lives and the true spirit of adventure. This seemed like a big love-letter to all of Ron and John's past Disney works all rolled into one: the big-scaled steaks of Great Mouse Detective, the tropical island feeling of Little Mermaid (and one direct joke), the adventure and comedy of Aladdin, use of a god like Hercules, the sailing like Treasure Planet and use of a non-white, darker-skinned princess like Princess and the Frog (maybe that's just me, being a Ron and John junkie). You're bound to get a lot of sailing thrills with this movie; the perfect movie for Disney to end the year on.

DAY 364

Comment & enjoy!

Description
DAY 362

This year, Disney went 2 for 2 releasing 2 animated feature films this year a opposed to the usual one: Zootopia released March 4th (DAY 74 ) and Moana released November 23rd (DAY 328 )
I don't recall hearing development news of Zootopia until its' teaser trailer came out. The overall concept of anthropomorphic animals had been done so many times in animation, either as normal citizens alongside humans or if the entire world is populated by them. Disney's done that a couple times in general as well. Not counting the shorts ('cause there's too many to list off), this was done pretty nice in Robin Hood but also terrible in Chicken Little. And Zootopia coming out 10 years since CL was even more worrisome (they started their CG venture with this idea, would they suck at it again?). As for the characters, I was worried about how the fox would end up. I wasn't totally knowledged of Jason Bateman at the time (before I bingewatched Arrested Development this summer I'd only seen maybe 2 episodes and I hated how he was written/portrayed in ABC's the Muppets) and I was worried that his character would end up being the same sort of irredeemable jerk to the bunny like he was to Kermit. Then with the first "trailer", it was funny at first even if it was really just a full scene and not an actual trailer, but the sloths became really overused in all the advertisements. Speaking of ads, each of the promotional material that followed made the story look much different than I ever thought it'd be (mostly with the focus of the story actually focusing on the bunny instead of the fox). Even if it looked a little bit better than where we started out, I was still thinking it'd end up the "eh, passable but not much substance" category whereas Moana I believe would become the Frozen-levels of excellent movie. My family saw the movie first without me, but they told me just how amazing it really is and I was just "Huh... really?". So then I checked it out myself with my brothers who's seen it and... wow. I mean... wow. I never could've imagined such a familiar concept would tell such an inspiring and... overall different animated movie. The story is essentially a buddy-buddy comedy mixed in with a missing persons cop case our main character trying to fit into such a gigantic city and... overall sprinkled with themes of racism and prejudices? Yeah, we'll get to that. The buddy-buddy aspect I'm gonna save for characters but it's actually pretty funny. The missing persons cop case is really engaging and it's fascinating at just how high it escalates from a simple ordinary case into an huge plot centered around "prey vs predator". This leads us to the use of racism and prejudices. THAT is what makes this movie stand out in places I didn't think it'd go in. There's discrimination, hatred, bigotry, feeding into fear, animals being identified as "predator" or "prey", judging books by their cover, all of this is such a touchy subject to do with animation, but it does it such a genius manner! It would've felt sort of preachy if this was an ordinary human society, but doing it with animals puts a really impressive turn. In a way, it was also at a perfect point of this year's election (although WE ended up for the worst). But it's not just a drama, because there are a lot of laughs here. Not just with character chemistry, but also visual gags, wordplay, stabs at Disney, even the sloths scene actually ended up as one of the biggest laughs when I thought it would be one of the biggest groaners with how much it was used! The animation is really astounding. The designs of all the animals seems to be akin to the 70s sort of design, or maybe it's just the Robin Hood vibes affecting me in a good way. The animation on all the animals is impressive as well, from their movements to the many different textures and all of the different sorts of clothing. The depiction of the titular Zootopia itself is really incredible. They didn't just make it look like a run-of-the-mill New York inspired city. It's humongously packed with different climates/preservations, overloaded with gorgeous architecture/scenic design and it overloading with creativity from all angles. This is also a perfect time to talk about the movie's atmosphere. They really have thought everything through with how these animals live their lives, no matter what size, species, climate, whatever and it all makes total sense with such loving care! On a side note, I didn't even notice this was a mammals-only world until after finally seeing it. That was also an interesting take (no birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, etc.)! The characters are all identifiable and layered, even with those who are familiar archetypes. Judy is a hard-working optimistic passionate officer working as hard as she can despite her "cute" discrimination, trying to make the city a better place. Nick starts off as a smart allec con artist able to slide his way through anything, but he goes deeply into why he believes he has to stay with that label. Both of them together have the same sort of goal and their friendship is full of heart as it is snarks. Chief Bogo is the hardpressed chief of police with a deep temper, Clawhauser a lovable current-trend, Bellwether is a kind of weak villain (it makes sense with her reasonings, but the reveal and overall twist villain schtick is getting old), Mayor Lionheart is a standard politician, Mr. Big is a classic Godfather mob boss joke, Gazelle is the big-named pop star, Yax is the burnt out-esque hippie, Flash the so-called fasted DMV critter but obvious not (at least when not distracted) and Judy's parents are supportive and also funny in how they are more grounded (like by telling their daughter she should surpress her dreams instead of living them). The voice-cast is another of those pitch-perfect voice choices, right up there with Emperor's New Groove and Wreck-It Ralph. The music by Michael Giacchino is really well-conducted, giving us an action-packed score as well as having a nice jungley-tropical sound in areas and the main song "Try Everything" is really inspirational. This really was a fantastic movie that took what's been done for decades and spun it on it's mammalian head like nothing we've seen "be-fur". I can only imagine the creative minds behind the Disney Park's Imagineering division are kicking theirselves right now, thinking they should've scrapped the Avatarland which has nothing to do with Animal Kingdom's theme AND ISN'T EVEN A DISNEY PROPERTY and held of to actually make a Zootopia section because, well, it writes itself! Tell me you'd rather have that! And because it was such a surprise hit...
... I got worried that Moana would end up as the "OK" movie Disney would make this year. I remember seeing a bit of the 2D concept art somewhere around 2013 and more news came about as the years followed. It being a movie with Polynesian culture? Sounds like a canvas waiting to be painted beautifully, animation-wise. Songs by the Hamilton guy, Lin Manual-Miranda? Well, that'll be a big hit to Broadway lovers and might give him the Oscar for his awards collection (not in a sarcastic way). A contest/audition for a new-comer to voice the lead heroine? Sounds like something to get good publicity and a good way to find fresh acting meat (similar to what NBC did to find Dorothy or Tracy for their live telecasts of the Wiz and Hairspray). But the main selling point for me as to why I was excited for this movie was the directing duo of John Musker and Ron Clements would be at the helm. Need I explain more? I hope not. First I heard of it being a 2D animated movie again (similar to P&TF), but then it turned into a normal 3D movie, but that was still exciting since this would be their first 3D movie ever! How's that for exciting? I've been dodging any clips and listening to demos (aside from commercials popping up on TV 'cause those are unavoidable) and not bothering to believe any of the "controversies" (nothing more than petty complaining). Taking Zootopia's status out of the picture, I was still excited for this. I saw it just this week and it was just as great as I thought it'd be. It's not as grand or spectacular as Zootopia, but this was still a really enjoyable movie. KEEP IN MIND TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET, SOME SPOILERS WILL BE GIVEN. The story is a pretty simple hero's journey narrative. The soon-to-be-ruler of a Polynesian tribe sails to find the Demigod Maui to help save her kingdom from utter destruction. Yeah, been there, done that. The story isn't horribly done, but you can sort of tell what storybeats are gonna happen at what moment. But even with that, the stories of Ron and John's movies usually are the weakest aspect. Not enough that they're terrible or ruin the film, they usually seem more character-driven and adventure-driven, and Moana succeeds on both those marks. You really get caught up in the village tribe's legacy, there's a real sense of dread, the different adventures are action-packed, there's a few laughs and there's really good development between the 2 leads (since this is pretty much a 2-person movie most of the time). The animation is really gorgeous. The pacific islands are beautiful and you get a true sense of Polynesian culture. The colors really pop from the more natural forest-like colors to the more lavish out-there tropical tones. The character animation is really expressive and can get really fast-paced. Even though this is Ron and John's first CG movie, they still found a way to bring in hand-drawn animation with Maui's tattoos (sort of a reversal of their past movies where it's all 2D with small stand-out 3D elements)! The stand-out moments in particular for me are the lighting, the hair and the water. The lighting is handled in a lot of different ways, from fiery torches, moonlight evenings, even glow-in-the-dark type with Tamatoa and the way they reflect off characters and establish moods are perfectly utilized. The hair I know would be a strange thing to bring-up, but they used a lot of different types of long hairstyles and they all look so realistic. Just look carefully at Maui's "dreads" and how Moana's locks are when soaked or just tossled. The water is the most spectacular of the 3; all the little molecules, drips, how it flows and moves, they really made a free-spirited character out of this ocean! And speaking of characters, the ones we got are really fun. Moana is a really likable princess type of character. She's tenatous but also a bit clumsy and wacky. She has the ability to control the ocean but she still needs work at it. She's also going through all this not for herself but for the good of her tribe, most noble especially since she's to be the future ruler. Maui is really enjoyable at how much of a self-centered egotist he is. He loves himself, his god status and how important it is, but he's also given some depth showing why he is such a Gaston. Hei-Hei is a silent pet rooster and quite literally a dumb cluck mostly there to do sight gags or be a prop, but it's a shame they couldn't include Pua the piglet since he looked pretty cute and was in just as much of the advertisements. Each of the obstacles we come across are, well, obstacles but each are really threatening in their own ways; from the Kakamora being savage warriors, Tamatoa the giant with a shiny fetish (but deadly enough to kill) and Te'Ka... well, LAVA MONSTER, with an interesting twist at the end. Speaking of twists, there's no twist villains to be shown. Isn't THAT refreshing after it was getting stale with Zootopia? The other characters like Moana's parents and her grandmother are sort of average, even though you can see where they're coming from and aren't totally strict (grandma's pretty fun as "the village loony"). The music is fantastic. Lin Manuel Miranda isn't the only one who's a part of this, as there's also the collective works of Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina. They all did a great job in making another hit Disney soundtrack. The musical score has a really great importance to it as well as spectacular a Hawaiian-sound to it (I know it's not Hawaiian, but it has the same kind of feel). The songs are also great, sounding and giving us a real experience. "Where You Are" as a quick set-up to the island and kingdom, "Shiny" mostly serves as part of the Tamatoa obstacle, "You're Welcome" as a self-congratulatory number to, for and by Maui establishing the great deeds he's done, "How Far I'll Go" a touching song with Moana questioning her purpose and her true adventurous desires and "We Know the Way" perhaps my favorite highlighting the tribe's past lives and the true spirit of adventure. This seemed like a big love-letter to all of Ron and John's past Disney works all rolled into one: the big-scaled steaks of Great Mouse Detective, the tropical island feeling of Little Mermaid (and one direct joke), the adventure and comedy of Aladdin, use of a god like Hercules, the sailing like Treasure Planet and use of a non-white, darker-skinned princess like Princess and the Frog (maybe that's just me, being a Ron and John junkie). You're bound to get a lot of sailing thrills with this movie; the perfect movie for Disney to end the year on.

DAY 364

Comment & enjoy!