Moana: Songs 9-12

Our final round of Moana songs.  Mostly short and half reprises, but all good.  Personally, I think “Know Who You Are” may pack a bigger punch than any song of its size – seeing that in the theater just about killed me dead (one major spoiler.)

“Logo Te Pate” – A rousing number by Foa’i that serves as a backdrop for a neat montage of Maui teaching Moana the ropes, sailing-wise.  I love the joyous-sounding chorus and the bounding drumbeat.

Best lyric:  “Ke manatua / Faiga iena / Te luelue / Te malohi / Ina hiva?”  (“Do you remember when we did all that, / The sway, the energy expressed in the dance?”)

“I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)” – Miranda has a real talent for weaving together different musical themes from previous parts of his show/film, and this song (co-written with Foa’i) is a beautiful demonstration of that.  After Gramma Tala’s gentle echo of her part in “Where You Are,” Moana effortlessly combines a new theme with wisps of “How Far I’ll Go,” building to a triumphant reprise of that chorus with new lyrics that just soar.  Absolutely gorgeous, and wonderfully paired with the stunning animation of the spirits of Moana’s ancestors.

Best lyric:  “And the call isn’t out there at all – it’s inside me. / It’s like the tide always falling and rising.”

“Know Who You Are” – Super short, but this Mirana/Foa’i/Mancina collaboration packs such an enormous punch.  The ethereal spirit voices in the background, the simple but gorgeous melody, Moana’s beautifully-empathetic and poignant lyrics – it all combines into one hell of a song, and it all clocks in at one minute and thirteen seconds.  Whoa!

Best lyric:  “I have crossed the horizon to find you. / I know your name. / They have stolen the heart from inside you, / But this does not define you.”

“We Know the Way (Finale)” – Another short and sweet one.  This reprise of “We Know the Way” doesn’t add anything new musically, but from a storytelling perspective, it’s great to see – especially the image of that seashell atop the moss-covered stones as the call to exploration sounds!

Best lyric:  “We tell the stories of our / Elders in a never-ending chain.”

Moana: Songs 5-8

Note:  with the Doctor Who Christmas special coming up tomorrow (sob!), I'm holding this week's Sunday Who Review until Tuesday.

The second of three Moana song posts.  Some nice variety here, including two songs showing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s collaboration with the film’s other two composers and what might be my favorite Disney “sidekick” song since “A Friend Like Me” (not that “sidekick” is quite the right word for Maui – I’m sure he’d never allow it – but I’m not sure what else to call that Genie-esque position.)

“We Know the Way” – The music, with its driving drum beats, is by Opetaia Foa’i, but he and Miranda collaborated on the lyrics, with Miranda writing (and performing) the portion of the song in English.  Miranda does a lovely job capturing that spirit of wandering and adventure – there’s a confidence, a contentment, within the idea that knowing “where [you] are” means knowing “who [you] are.”

Best lyric:  “At night we name every star. / We know where we are - / We know who we are, who we are…”

“How Far I’ll Go (Reprise)” – While the melody, and even many of the lyrics, are the same as the original number, there’s just enough shift here to nicely reflect Moana’s ongoing journey.  I love the power infused into the “every turn I take” stanza, and the crescendo building to the last chorus is a perfect accompaniment to the gorgeous shot of the giant luminous stingray swimming beneath Moana’s boat.

Best lyric:  “All that time wond’ring where I need to be / Is behind me. / I’m on my own to worlds unknown.”

“You’re Welcome” – Man, I love Maui’s song.  Miranda does terrific work here, crafting a very catchy song within Dwayne Johnson’s range while playing to Johnson’s strength:  his massive charisma.  Maui is so full of himself here in such a likeable way.  It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s hummable – works for me!

Best lyric:  “Hey, what has two thumbs and pulled up the sky / When you were waddling yea high? / This guy!”

“Shiny” – I was a little iffy on “Shiny” the first time I heard it, but it quickly grew on me.  Now, I just love this fun villain’s number (with lyrics by Miranda and music by both Miranda and Mark Mancina, the movie’s third composer.)  It has Bowie sensibility through the roof, and the clever lyrics are great – most of my favorite rhymes from the movies are in this song.  I also like the little hints of pathos we get toward the end as Tamatoa taunts Maui.

Best lyric:  “You could try, try, try, / But you can’t expect a demigod to beat a decapod.”

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.”

Favorite Characters: Moana (Moana)

I try not to rank Disney princesses outright, because honestly, a lot of them are pretty great in their own ways, but if I did, I’m betting Moana would be pretty far up there.  This girl is all kinds of awesome, and I’m thrilled to see her join the fold (premise spoilers.)

First off, this is more about how the movie positions her than Moana herself, but like with Elsa in Frozen, I love that the film recognizes a princess (or daughter of the chief, in this case) as a precursor to a queen, ie, a future ruler.  Of the Disney princesses who were born with their crowns rather than marrying into them, there isn’t much time spent on the idea that they’ll one day be a leader.  More often, those around them think of their future queen-ness only in terms of being the wife of a king – Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Merida all chafe to varying degrees under the expectations of their marriage.  With Moana, though, there’s no question about it.  Her father has been priming her for rule since her childhood, she will lead her people one day, and no one spends a single moment trying to get her to be decorative or obsessing about when/who she’ll marry.

This makes her driving conflict a lot more novel.  Because, while Moana definitely wants to lead and serve her island well, she also feels the pull of adventure, a hunger for the ocean and the unknowns it represents.  As she says, “I’m a girl who loves my island. / And the girl who loves the sea.”  She has both desires within her, and because the latter has been thwarted at every turn – her father fears the ocean for the same reasons Moana loves it – that desire has magnified to the point where she can never be who she was truly meant to unless she’s able to fulfill it.

But when she discovers the boats of her ancestors and realizes that voyagers’ blood runs in her veins, she still doesn’t go for the mere thrill of it.  That’s part of it, of course – her longing to see, to experience, to prove she can, to know what’s out there.  But it’s not only for herself.  Even when she gives herself over to this long-sublimated yearning, it’s in part to help her people.  The island is dying, and per the legends of her people, the only way to save it is to find the demigod Maui and get him to return the heart of Te Fiti.  She journeys for herself and for them.  It’s not only an adventure; it’s a quest.

And I love that she’s both excellent and inept at it.  There’s no question that Moana is a licensed badass of a Disney princess – it takes serious guts to sail into the unknown all by herself, she’s terrific rescuing Heihei from the kakamora, and her big climactic sequence is decidedly cool.  But at the same time, despite her lifelong dream of sailing the open seas, she doesn’t actually know what she’s doing and spends a lot of her time on the canoe fumbling.  She’s not always as confident as she tries to be, and Maui, recognizing that, tries to play on her fears in order to sidestep the mission.  I think it’s wonderful that she’s so flawed and flailing, that she trips as often as she soars, because it’s so much more satisfying to see her be a hero when we see how imperfect she is.  I always tend to prefer heroes who are faking it till they make it because, even though they’re in over their heads, what they’re striving for is too important, so they’re not going to give up for anything.  That’s Moana all over, and I love her for it.

A Few More Thoughts on Moana

Spoiler warning up front:  I’m talking specifically about the ending of Moana today in full detail.  Consider yourself warned.

In their quest to return the heart of Te Fiti to its rightful place, Moana and Maui come up against several baddies eager to claim the heart for themselves.  Our heroes Mad Max their way out of the clutches of the kakamora and use their wits to evade the sinister-yet-shiny Tamatoa.  But by far, their most formidable foe is the volcano demon Te Ka, who’s set up camp in the border islands around Te Fiti and is determined to take the heart from them at all costs.  I’d wager more than one little kid at the theater has wept in fear seeing Te Ka’s looming figure and terrifying destructive power.  At first, the movie sets you up to expect a titantic rematch between Te Ka and Maui in which the demigod vanquishes the demon once and for all, and then things take a different turn when it looks like the key will lie in Moana’s intelligence, bravery, and sailing prowess to slip past Te Ka and out of its reach.

But that right there is where the film flips your expectations again.  Having gotten past the monster, approaching the island she’s traveled so far to get to, Moana is gobsmacked to see that Te Fiti isn’t there.  It’s straight-up vanished from the sea, leaving only an off-color lagoon taking its shape where it formerly lay.

And Moana realizes what’s up.  As Maui fierces battles Te Ka, the demon is distracted by the glow of the heart as Moana holds it high above her head.  It locks eyes with her, and Moana speaks to the ocean that has been her ally through this adventure:  “Let her come to me.”

Because Te Ka is Te Fiti.  When Maui stole her heart all those years ago, the lush island of serenity became a fiery monster of rage, yowling as it tried to burn down the sky in order to recover the lost part of itself.

The waters part to allow Te Ka passage to Moana.  She, the demon that was once Te Fiti, doesn’t understand what’s happening yet.  It only knows that there’s nothing it won’t destroy to get its heart back, and it races and roils along the dry bed of the sea toward the chief’s daughter who waits for her, unafraid.  As the monster bears down on her, Moana sings, “I have crossed the horizon to find you. / I know your name. / They have stolen the heart from inside you, / But this does not define you.”

I love this so, so much.  Since I saw the two movies in fairly quick succession, I was struck by the similarities with the Obscurial in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Te Ka is not a villain – she’s an unbridled force of pain and fury, unable to be who she is without the heart she so desperately needs.  This is such a sophisticated idea, that darkness can be born of loss, that anger or grief can reform us into something we can no longer recognize as ourselves.  And, too, I love that the day isn’t saved by a battle, or even by outsmarting the “bad guy.”  It’s saved by compassion, by a young woman holding her ground while fire descends and saying, something awful was done to you, but don’t let it make you into something awful.  Let me help you find your way back to yourself.  Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.  Disney has been knocking it out of the park lately, and the resolution to this story ensures that it will stick with me for a long time.

Moana (2016, PG)

I was excited for Moana even before the announcement that Lin-Manuel Miranda would be one of its composers.  (After?  Epic levels of anticipation.)  Disney has another beauty on their hands with a fine new princess to add to their collection.

Moana, daughter and heir to an island chief, has always longed for the sea, but her father has warned her away from it her entire life.  But when their ever-providing island starts to fail them, Moana digs deep to harness the spirit of her voyager ancestors and goes on an incredible journey to restore the island.  Her quest takes her to Maui, a demigod trickster who’s spent the past thousand years living on his own hype, and the unlikely pair braves monsters and unsteady seas, along with their own doubts about themselves.

Okay, so I love this movie.  I love that Moana can be self-assured and yet totally faking it within the same breath, talking herself into confidence she doesn’t quite feel.  I love her adventurous spirit, her love for her people, and her deep-rooted connection to her people’s history.  She’s brave and tough, and while she’s in way over her head, she learns quickly on the fly and doesn’t give up.  As Disney princesses go, she’s an admirable one.  Maui is pretty great, too – a demigod who’s very human in his defense mechanisms.  His vibe with Moana is somewhat reminiscent of the Genie with Aladdin (albeit a lot more unwilling,) which is always a good thing in my book. 

I know that other non-European Disney musicals have been called out for how they portray other cultures (see Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Mulan to varying degrees.)  I don’t claim any knowledge of Polynesian culture, but as an admitted layperson, this film strikes me as very true.  I enjoy the details of the islanders’ way of life, the animation on the boats is gorgeous, and overall, the tone feels respectful to me.  In addition to the aforementioned Miranda, the score also features songs by Samoan/New Zealand musician Opetaia Foa’i, who writes in his native Tokelauan.

Speaking of the songs?  They’re amazing.  I bought the soundtrack before seeing the movie but held off listening to it until afterwards.  I had a three-and-a-half hour car trip shortly after watching the film, and did I follow my initial plan to alternate between the soundtrack and other music?  Nope.  Solid Moana all the way!  “How Far I’ll Go,” Moana’s “I want” song, is the big-ticket item here, but Maui’s fun “You’re Welcome” and the beautiful “An Innocent Warrior” are also fantastic.  Really, the whole score is wonderful.  Miranda’s work just bleeds heart, making him a perfect composer for Disney, and Foa’i’s music adds to the film’s steeped-in-culture feel.

The Rock clearly has a blast playing Maui (along with surprisingly-decent pipes!), but Auli’i Cravalho is an absolute revelation as Moana in her first-ever role.  She’s fierce, funny, touching, and relatable, and her singing voice is glorious.  I feel like, any time a Hollywood executive justifies whitewashing by complaining that “there are no Asian movie stars,” they should be shown Moana to learn how to rectify that problem:  find some fantastic Asian talent, give her an amazing role, and make an Asian movie star, that’s how.

Warnings

Scary moments for kids and thematic elements.