Moana: Songs 1-4

It’s been right around a year since Moana came out, and I’m feeling nostalgic.  Even though, lately, I’ve been all about the Falsettos, there’s room for numerous musicals in my heart, and I thought it’d be nice to go through all the songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda scores, like I did with Hamilton a while back.  I’ll start with Moana, since it’s the newest, then circle back to In the Heights, Bring It On (both of which I’ve already done a Top Five Songs for, but that’s okay,) and 21 Chump Street.  Today we’re looking at the first four numbers of the soundtrack.

“Tulou Tagaloa” – Miranda didn’t write all the songs in the film; this is the first by Opetaia Foa’i.  The short track is our induction into the movie’s world, beginning over the Disney logo with a soloist and building to a call and response.

Best lyric:  “Sei e va’ai maia / Manala a le tatou olaga.”  (“Look down / At how beautiful our lives are.”

“An Innocent Warrior” – Another short number by Foa’i, just gorgeous and otherworldly.  It beautifully captures the spirit of what’s happening, blending the simplicity of Moana’s act (protecting a baby sea turtle from the gulls) with the enormity of the implications (the sea choosing her for its mission.)  Reading the translation of the Tokelauan lyrics makes it even better – gentle and lovely.

Best lyric:  “Ou mata e matagi / Ou loto mamaina toa / Manatu atu / Taku pelepele” (“Your eyes so full of wonder, / Your heart, an innocent warrior, / My dearest one, / There’s a task for you.”)

“Where You Are” – I can’t believe I didn’t recognize Christopher Jackson’s vocals as the singing voice of Moana’s dad in the theater; it jumped out at me the first time I listened to the soundtrack.  Jackson does a great job with this upbeat number, the first in-story song in the film.  This story really captures how the unchanging traditions of the island are both beautiful and stifling.  There’s an exquisite harmony woven over the island, but at the same time, Moana is slightly trapped within its sameness – though it’s such a simple lyric, the melody in her dad’s line, “That’s right, we stay,” perfectly expresses both sides of that coin.

Best lyric:  “If the voice starts to whisper / To follow the farthest star, / Moana, that voice inside is who you are.”

“How Far I’ll Go” – The classic I-want song.  Miranda’s delicately rising and falling melody, building to the soaring vistas of the chorus, are jaw-drop gorgeous, and the lyrics are understated but beautiful.  The standout number in a film with a lot of great songs, and Auli’i Cravalho’s pure vocals bubble over with the number’s plaintive emotions.

Best lyric:  “See the line where the sky meets the sea - / It calls me. / And no one knows how far it goes.”

Relationship Spotlight: Valkyrie & Thor (The Avengers)

I don’t really want to use this post to be hard on Jane, but the pairing between her and Thor always fell just short of working for me.  While I do think she was dropped rather unceremoniously in Ragnarok, I can’t deny feeling the instant spark – not overtly romantic at this point, but still electric – between Thor and Valkyrie (Thor-Valykrie-related spoilers.)

After spending two movies on the things that come with a human-Asgardian romance – the fascination/misunderstandings involved in being from different worlds, the awe of a human meeting a “god,” the mortal/immortal issue – it’s nice to see Valkyrie and Thor on more equal footing from the get-go (and I swear that’s the last time I’ll reference Jane.)  As a fellow Asgardian, albeit one who’s been away from Asgard for a long time, Valkyrie’s strength and battle skills are comparable to Thor’s, and they were both raised in the same culture.  They also both have experience traveling to other planets (although not necessarily the same planets – by the time Thor arrives on Sekarr, Valkyrie already knows the lay of the land quite well.)  This allows them to skip a lot of the steps that go on between Thor and humans with no knowledge of Asgard.

And so, they can get right on with it.  We learn that Valkyrie’s past service as one of Odin’s warriors, and her rough experiences therein, have made her wary of the royal famil.  When Thor tries to enlist her help in fighting for Asgard, she balks at the idea of giving any more of herself for the sake of the monarchs’ conflicts.  This means Thor needs to find a different way to reach her, appealing to the part of her that wants vengeance for her sisters slain in battle so many years ago, to again confront Hela (the reason she left Asgard in the first place.)  It provides a good means of getting to know Valkyrie a little better, and it also forces Thor to think beyond “I’m the son of Odin” being a good enough reason to get someone to do what he says.

Because this is Ragnarok, these two also bring the comedy together (given what Ragnarok actually is in Norse mythology, that makes this a really weird statement to make, but it’s true all the same.)  Thor’s often-misplaced cockiness goes well with Valkyrie’s dry self-assurance, and they spar verbally with one another almost as well as they trade physical blows.  Because Valkyrie captures Thor on Sekarr and gives him to the Grandmaster, she has the upper hand in a lot of their early interactions, a position that Thor doesn’t often find himself in.  So, it’s fun to watch him brashly try to assert control and her blithely shut him down.  At the same time, though, the power differential isn’t completely one-sided.  Valkyrie may be a badass warrior who gets the jump on Thor early on, but she has her own issues, too, and while they’re rooted in the trauma of war, stuff like her tendency to drown her memories in booze lead to some amusing moments where she gets a swing and a miss on the “badass warrior” front.

While I imagine the plan is to go for some sort of Thor-Valkyrie romance down the line (during the Infinity War(!!!) stuff?  Will there even be time?  Beats me,) and you can see tiny hints of it in their interactions, I really like the comrades-in-arms way they ultimately fight together.  Both are strong and skilled in combat, and in the major fight scenes, they’re equally able to go off and do their own thing, addressing separate parts of the issue, and come together to face a foe in tandem.  It’s just a really refreshing, kind of egalitarian dynamic.  I like that Valkyrie doesn’t need Thor coming to her “rescue,” and by the same turn, he doesn’t need to be emasculated for her to be strong.  I think I’d really enjoy a romance between them that maintains that dynamic of them having each other’s backs as equals.

Many Waters (1986)

I know that An Acceptable Time fits somewhere into Madeleine L’Engle’s time series, but I was raised on just the four that focus on the immediate Murry family.  While I suppose I’ll get around to An Acceptable Time at some point, as of now, I’m still used to thinking of Many Waters as the end of the line.

A bit of a companion novel to the other three, Many Waters follows, not Meg or Charles Wallace, but the other two Murray kids, twins Sandy and Dennys.  It’s set between A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and it sees the 15-year-old twins accidentally wandering into one of their dad’s experiments and being flung through time and space into Earth’s antediluvian days.  In the time before the flood, Dennys and Sandy of course meet Noah and his family, and as they try to find a way home/not do anything to interfere with history, they catch the attention of the otherworldly Seraphim and Nephilim.

In the biblical story of Noah, I don’t think there’s more than one or two verses that mention the Seraphim and Nephilim, but L’Engle mines a great deal of plot from those scant lines.  She paints an intriguing picture of the pre-flood world, populated by humans, now-extinct animals (household mammoths,) more fantastical creatures (griffins and “virtual” unicorns,) and beings with celestial origins, including those who’ve since fallen (Seraphim and Nephilim.)  Much is made of the Nephilim’s practice of taking a liking to human women and fathering children by them, and I like how members of both races can take either their natural shape or that of a specific animal.  It all comes together to make a story that’s part sci-fi, part fantasy, and part Bible story.

And in the middle of it are Sandy and Dennys.  Neither boy is as interesting as Meg or Charles Wallace, but that in itself adds a new wrinkle to the plot.  The twins aren’t as apt as their siblings to believe in being thrown backwards through time, let alone the fantastical things they see once they get there, so it’s neat to see them grapple with what’s happened and try to reconcile it with their experience of the world thus far.  The plot also takes the smart step of separating them for a good chunk of the earlier action.  In addition to increasing the storyline space, this helps us get to know both boys better, which is important.  The twins are relatively minor characters in the first three books, known more for their contrast with Meg and Charles Wallace than for themselves, and to the extent that we do know them, it’s definitely as a matched set.  Putting them in different situations with different characters helps differentiate them and gives us a crash course in understanding them as individuals before they’re brought back together as the bigger stuff kicks off.

Although it’s my least favorite of the four books, there’s plenty to like here, especially for readers who are well-acquainted with the story of Noah.  I appreciate the time L’Engle takes to offer a specific view of everyone in Noah’s household, and I give her credit for doing something different here – really, even though it’s a series, all four books take remarkably different approaches to their fantastical/sci-fi elements, which is rare.  In L’Engle’s world, there are many varied wonders to be seen.

Warnings

Implied sexual references, violence, drinking, and thematic elements.

Countdown to Thirteen: Broadchurch: Series 1, Episode 4 (2013)

The web’s getting more tangled, both in the investigation and in the lives of Danny’s family, the detectives, and the villagers.  You wouldn’t have thought every single person in a sleepy seaside town would be hiding a dark secret of some kind, but that’s sort of what’s going on.

A new piece of important evidence is discovered, and the police begin taking a stronger interest in several subjects.  Meanwhile, Ellie tries to connect more with Hardy.  Danny’s family, concerned that the lackluster media attention on the case is preventing the word getting out and potential witnesses coming forward, debate over whether or not to open the media floodgates themselves.

Just generally, I’d like to say this:  when you live in a small village where a boy has been murdered, don’t act super shifty if you weren’t the person who murdered him!  This show has kind of the opposite problem as The Assets.  Whereas, on that show, the mole is twitchy as hell from the get-go, this one features basically everybody hiding something and lying to the police about stuff that doesn’t ultimately connect to the investigation.  There’s a point where it stops being suspenseful TV and starts being, “Just tell the police what’s up so they can stop wasting their time on you!”  It’s not really a spoiler to bring that up here, since a) like I said, everyone’s acting shady, and b) clearly, they didn’t all kill Danny.

Hardy’s backstory has been coming out in drips and drabs, and we get a little more forward momentum here.  While the full circumstances behind his dour outlook and the failed case that brought him to Broadchurch under something of a cloud still haven’t been revealed (naturally,) we’re getting a bit closer to understanding him.

And as for Beth?  She doesn’t have a ton going on in this episode, at least not much that’s seen onscreen.  In the discussion over media attention, decisions are made that change things for the family quite a bit going forward, but at this point, we don’t see a lot of that happening.  As such, there isn’t too much for Jodie Whittaker to do.

But on the subject of Beth, I do want to mention one scene she isn’t in that still involves her, where an out-of-town reporter is pitching the story to her boss, who asks, “How photogenic is the mother?”  So gross, but I’m sure it’s sadly true to life.

Favorite Characters: Ben Jackson (Doctor Who)

Ben and Polly were the first companions to experience a regeneration, which also means they were the first to interact with two different Doctors.  That alone sets them apart somewhat in the companion catalogue, but even though their tenure on the show wasn’t terribly long (and seems shorter due to some their serials being missing,) each stands out as a companion in their own right as well.  I know that was about both Ben and Polly, and this post is just about Ben, but they’re so entwined as companions that I have to talk about them together at least a little bit.  But okay – onto Ben.

A sailor in the Navy, we meet Ben when he’s away from the sea and itching to be back.  Our first shot of him is at a club, sulking in the corner with a drink because he’d rather be aboard ship.  Right away, this establishes him as someone who’s not content to lie fallow.  Ben would always rather be doing something, in the middle of the action.  As such, it’s no surprise that, despite a slightly combative meeting with Polly and Dodo, he falls in pretty quickly with them and the Doctor when things start going highwire in London.

From the start, Ben proves himself brave and capable, fitting for a Navy man.  During his time on the TARDIS, he (along with Jamie later on) supplies much of the “action hero” necessaries, such as fights and daring escapes.  He has an eye for strategy and is good at enlisting help from those around him, whatever time or place he’s in. 

But while Ben is definitely one for adventure and not one to shy away from danger, he’s not fully in his element with the Doctor.  Because he and Polly are sort of accidental stowaways on the TARDIS, they’re not prepared for their first trip to the past, and Ben spends much of the first episode of “The Smugglers” insisting they’ve wound up in 20^th-century Cornwall, looking around for a train station to get him back to his ship.  He’s more than a bit of a skeptic, and when it comes to the incredible, even the evidence of his own eyes can feel untrustworthy to him.  This is never more evident than when One regenerates into Two.  While Polly begins to adjust to the new Doctor a little more readily, Ben is wary for at least half of Two’s first serial, trying to make him prove that he’s really the same Doctor that Ben knew.

So yeah – he can be cynical, as well as contrary and sarcastic.  I like that, that he’s got a bit of bite to him.  Sometimes he employs his snarkier side bemusedly, like his penchant for calling Polly “Duchess,” but at other times, he just loses patience.  He doesn’t suffer fools, and he can reach his breaking point at times, especially when it comes to Two’s enigmatic antics or Jamie’s behind-the-times befuddlement.  His irritable tendencies, though, make his excitement and wonder more enjoyable whenever they come along.

Oh, and apart from Dodo using a Northern accent for about a hot second, Ben is the first companion with a regional accent, which I like.  It’s good to see a Cockney being a hero, especially on the BBC in the ‘60s.  Granted, he’s quickly followed by the Scottish Jamie, but since Jamie is also from a different century, he’s a bit more removed than Ben is as a modern-day guy in the TARDIS.  I’m sure there were plenty of kids in London who were thrilled at the thought of someone who talks like them traveling with the Doctor.