Pocahontas: an overkilled history of romantic demise

Stanford 2021-10-20 17:42:31

Since 2008's "Lightning Dog", Disney Animation Studios has been digging and embarking on the road to success at an astonishing speed visible to the naked eye, and the iconic princess animation is also guided by a set of proven formulas to win again. It won the favor of mainstream audiences. And this reborn old formula is very simple: modern princess + lively rhythm + comic-style happy partner + self-discovery journey + latest animation effects + colorful villains + popular tunes + ultimate happy ending. Everyone is happy to watch, okay?
Of course not. An animated film that has taken several years and thousands of manpower is a thing that makes people unhappy if it can only stay at the level of enjoyment.
Any aspiring movie shouldn't just be content to watch a cheerful level. Just like any film and television review, it shouldn't just stop at the stinky, long, thousands-word retelling plot and fancy retelling plot.
As Disney’s latest princess animation, "Moana" provides audiences with content that is largely the same as its predecessors: stunning visual effects, fully predictable but exciting stories, good songs and soundtracks, And a heroine. Of course, you can win victory by applying the formula. If it ain't broke don't fix it. But compared to "Tangled" and "Frozen", both in terms of creativity and richness of content, "Ocean Wonder" "Fate" makes people feel tired.
And one of the sources of this feeling of burnout is another character portrayal direction that princess animation has emerged in recent years with the development of the feminist movement. The main male characters in the film are all cowardly, ignorant and/or irresponsible, and they appear to be particularly prominent in "Moana". The princesses who don't care about the world each fight all over the world, and the male characters in the opposing scene are full of small abacus and sneaky tricks. We can understand the motivation behind this way of expression. After all, active participation in social issues is one of the characteristics of Disney and even Hollywood as a whole, but we must know that our era is able to shoot "Edge of Tomorrow". A strong heroine does not necessarily have to be accompanied by a wretched male protagonist to be able to show it, which in itself is a kind of implicit discrimination in creation.
If you are an extreme feminist, you might think "what happened to women once the master, men have been the protagonists and heroes for decades". Yes, it’s okay to be the master, but if this setting destroys the structure of the whole story in terms of rationality and expressiveness, it is very debatable-and this is the case in "Tangled" and "Frozen". There are no new issues that have appeared in the previous section.
Compared with the previous two "Pocahontas", "Pocahontas" is a typical representative of Disney in the new era, or Hollywood itself. A powerful, independent, and capable "princess" who does not need a male/female romance, is unwilling to assume excessive family responsibilities and pursues her own liberation-in the broad sense, "Pocahontas" and Pixar's "Brave" It can be said that it is exactly the same, and it is not too much to say that the former is a remake of the latter's ocean version-but from any angle, Moana is not comparable to the red-haired Scottish princess Merida.
It is undeniable that Pocahontas still managed to try a fresh Polynesian cultural style, and it is still a carefully crafted high-quality project. The picture has reached unprecedented new heights and has also been widely welcomed. But the high degree of predictability actually weakens the essence of a movie-that is, a good story that it should have. The amazing visual effects and artistic style cannot conceal the simple yet familiar narrative. A large amount of the visual sense of "been there done that" permeates every aspect of the film and ultimately affects its overall performance.
You know, in 2016, there were outstanding works such as "Kubo and Two Strings" and "Crazy Zoo" from different angles. What's more, the latter is also a Disney studio's own work. Why can't you ask for and hope for " Is Moana becoming another jewel of the princess animation and princess story?
Compared with live-action movies, animated movies need more bold innovations to gain sustained vitality-DreamWorks has developed original themes from the 12-year-old "Guardian League" to the unboosted "Magic Hair Fairy" However, after taking a few steps, he was almost marginalized by the market; after 13 years of "Forest Warrior", Blue Sky Studio lost control of even the leading IP. Of course there are risks in innovation, and of course there are risks in being conservative. But this is Disney, which can afford it, and it should try this kind of risk and find truly challenging content. That is the animation feature film, especially the inherent attributes that accompany the CG animation feature film when it was born. .


In "Moana", what Pixar could not do, Disney did it-this kind of "doing" naturally has its merits and improprieties.
Disney is always willing to spend time, money and talented people to support its animation creation. Like most Disney animated feature films, "Moana" spent many years of time and energy in the pre-production, and gained enough experience to deal with various challenges, such as water, hair, and even Maui's interesting tattoos. In ships, villages, and navigation technology, these details that most viewers never question or notice have also been carefully considered, and bit by bit accumulation has created an immersive world. But the most worthy of encouragement is that under the highly realistic environmental painting style, the cartoon shape and design are still harmoniously retained. Pixar tried this blending and intersecting style in "Home Alone", but it did not succeed. The open sea water design of "Pocahontas", from sand to wood to the different textures on the lush vegetation, alleviated this conflict to a great extent and achieved quite an ideal visual effect.
The ocean is a vital part of Polynesian culture, and it is also the most experiential experience of Moana. However, the deviation and paradox in the story and character design of "Pocahontas" are difficult and should not be obscured by this visual experience. Most of the main creators have turned to the development of this project since "The Princess and the Frog", but the 4-person director group and the 8-person screenwriter group did not enrich the movie, and there was only one female screenwriter. As a princess animation that lacks a female perspective, the whole story of "Pocahontas" exposes very big problems in coherence and logic.
The first is role setting. Moana is tough on the outside and weak on the inside. She doubts her abilities and destiny. But as the protagonist doing her part, her role and position in the whole story are not commensurate with it. First of all, the agility that was shown in the battle against the Coconut Pirates had no background, and this skill did not come into play in the final battle to return the Heart of Tefity. Compared with the other two "Romania", this fighting skill is not only inexplicable, but also inexplicable. Look at Melida in "Brave" again. She is also a female man with amazing physical skills, but her design is supported by the background and story, and it has played an important role in promoting the development of the whole story.
Secondly, on the path of choosing one's own destiny, there is no essential difference between inheriting status and returning Tefity's heart-it seems that the former is patriarchal pressure, the latter is an independent choice, but through Moana questioning herself We should clearly realize that this is not her own choice, but is based on the mission given by the goddess and the ocean of the incarnation of the goddess-the difference between the two, in terms of performance It was just what Moana, who didn't yearn for the ocean but had no sailing ability and experience, wanted, and the other was just for her. Therefore, Moana is not fundamentally choosing her own destiny, but her own preferences, which greatly reduces the legitimacy of her entire adventure-in other words, if you want to leave home and devote yourself to the sea, you can leave. When the family ran away and dedicated themselves to the sea, why bother to put on the skin of returning the heart of Trifiti.
Similarly, we analogy to "Brave". The starting point of Merida's adventure is to correct the mistakes she made. With this heavy original reason, the collision between the princess and the magic seems logical, not just talking about sex. Just go. Conversely, the various frictions and conflicts between Merida's adventures and herself have also enabled her to grow and change better, realizing that blindly willfulness and unruly are not the solution, and what courage is. The true meaning of it.
Third, following the above two points, under the setting of favoritism, the secondary roles are reduced to swords and cannon fodder, almost all of them are in the shadow of imbalance in the film. "Pocahontas" is full of scattered but lack of holistic comedy points, and these lack of relevance are almost completed by the four characters of pig chicken water and pectoralis major, which are so thin that they don't even need lines. It is undeniable that these four characters each have a good comedy performance, and the tattoos have retrieved the novelty of the era of "Hercules", but besides being cute, these four characters have not promoted the story of the whole movie. In any role, it can't produce enough interaction with the main character.
The most typical one is sea water. Considering that Moana’s "going to sea away from home" already has two sufficient reasons for her ancestors and grandmother, besides the seawater forcing the heart of Tefity, besides throwing Moana back to the boat, there is almost nothing. Demonstrating any strength it deserves is simply useless as a pig-this is undoubtedly a huge waste.
Compared with these trash fish, it is the demigod Maui who really promotes the development of the story. However, under Moana's overly strong and tough protagonist aura, Maui, who undertook most of the narrative tasks, turned into a "slave" under the control of Whip & Honey. Want to run? no. Want to resist? no. Maui is indeed a refusal to take responsibility, but the development of Moana's relationship with her is not so much a friendship as a manipulation. Moana has the entire ocean as a backer, but it is Maui who has to deal with the dirty work, and it is Maui who has challenged her scars and trauma over and over again. In the end, her weapons were almost destroyed. As a result, with epiphany's inspiration (rather than learning it gradually during the adventure), holding the heart of Tefity turned the big boss back into a goddess, and became a hero in everyone's eyes, but Moana.
This unbalance undermines the rationality of the entire movie. Even in "The Return of the Great Sage," Jiang Liuer was only a supporting role, and he did not exceed his abilities, nor did he kill Chaos suddenly by opening the game. The relationship between Jiang Liuer and the Great Sage was at least reasonable and reasonable from establishment to development, not because Jiang Liuer was chanting the Tight Banding Mantra.
When these three are combined, we can see such a strange situation: Maui, a demigod, has almost no useful "innate power" except for navigational knowledge and brute force, and even weapons must be his own. Looking for; and the rebellious girl Moana, her father was forbidden to protect her because of the old trauma. Grandma encouraged her to resist in order for her to find herself. The ocean prevents her from drowning because of falling into the water, not to mention a special feature. The heart of Fiti. But in the end, it was Maui who was criticized everywhere for taking on the hard work, and almost did nothing, because if someone disobeyed, he would have to rely on his grandmother to come out and sing "I am Moana" in order to be resurrected with blood. , It's Moana.
The flaws in this setting can cause discomfort whenever noticed. Along with the romantic relationship that disappeared in the Disney princess animation, Moana and her "pseudo self-liberation" were replaced by the golden spoonful but nothing.


"Pocahontas" does bring a good visual experience, with a good combination of CG generation and hand-drawn animation. But can a good visual experience equate to a good movie? Can a movie that pleases unwholesome and unthinking audiences be equal to a movie that has no shortcomings? The answer is obvious.
However, even viewers who are not good at evaluating comedies and animations will find the musical performance of "Pocahontas" regressive. Since "The Princess and the Frog" and "Frozen" became highly Broadway, "Sea Moana" even found the hottest "Hamilton" arranger/director/actress/composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. But the songs in the whole movie are not well integrated, and they lack sufficient representation and vocalization. Compared with the lasting vitality of "Let it go", most of the original tracks in "Let it go" have faded out of mainstream vision in a few days.
To sum up, there is no doubt that "Pocahontas" is a pure entertainment movie for all ages, and it also has a very regional and affectionate opening part, but it only occupies a very small part of the movie. . If you are not going to look for anything other than the visual experience, of course there is no problem. But for any audience with sufficient movie-watching experience and movie-watching needs, "Pocahontas" is far from being impeccable.
Decent, but lacks greatness. Despite its potential, Pocahontas cannot be another "Frozen" or even "Big Hero 6".

View more about Moana reviews

Extended Reading
  • Mireya 2022-04-24 07:01:03

    The first time I took Tumei to see a movie, everyone was very happy; the two protagonists are really heroic; the coconut pirate is so cute; the sea, the sky, the sea, the sky~

  • Lia 2022-03-21 09:01:22

    There are Maui tattoos and nice songs

Moana quotes

  • Maui: If the current's warm you're going the right way.

    Moana: [sticks her hand into the water] It's cold. Wait, it's getting warmer...

    [looks up and sees Maui grinning slyly]

    Moana: Argh! That is *disgusting*! What is wrong with you?

  • Moana: Not seeing an entrance.

    Maui: Yes, because it only appears after a human sacrifice.

    [Moana gasps]

    Maui: Kidding! So serious.