Past review:
What? The mastermind behind this Disney princess movie is the protagonist's parents again? ——“Frozen” evaluation
This article is the thirteenth article in the Disney Princess movie series review, and the last article in the series so far (2019.03.22).
The protagonist to be evaluated today is the fourteenth princess - "Pocahontas" in which Moana was born. Personally, I have very, very deep personal feelings for this film, but because of this, I feel that it is necessary to restore the face of this film that should be presented to us in this article, and analyze the many problems of this film. In fact, my selfish evaluation of this movie is: Moana is handsome! Maui is cute! LMM's songs are so good to hear! However, after abandoning my personal feelings, my final evaluation of this film is: the quality is acceptable, it is difficult to be called a "masterpiece", and it is not an exaggeration to call it the bottom of the new generation of princess movie trilogy .
Although this film has many remarkable points - the level of hilarity of the dialogue is the highest in the history of princess movies, and "You're Welcome" is not too magical as a character song, but it is precisely because of "the depth of love" The rest of this article will focus on one of the key issues of this film : why does this film always give people a sense of inexplicable disconnection ?
The first layer of separation is mainly reflected in the change of style in the front and back parts of the film . The first half of the film gives a lot of ink to the quarrel between Moana and her father about going to sea, which makes people think of the "Crazy Primitives" who competed with "Frozen" for the Oscar - focusing on father's love and children The psychological growth process; but after the death of Moana's grandmother, the style of the whole film suddenly changed, and it became a funny ocean road film-gathering partners, fighting monsters and hunting treasures, and continuing to make jokes on the way. The "grandmother's death" incident, which was an opportunity for the transition between the "father-daughter conflict line" and the "Call of Duty line", also seemed extremely sudden. It seemed that the screenwriter really didn't know how to continue writing when he arrived at this place, so he had to be like a mechanical serenity. Usually, such a scene is arranged to cover up the conflict between father and daughter that will never end, and Moana is forced to go to sea in the name of her grandmother's last words.
Although the plot part after going to sea - the very traditional "Hero's Journey" configuration - is more or less conventional, but thanks to the wonderful character songs contributed by LMM and the funny dialogues like comic dialogue, at least it is still considered. Above is mediocre. The only thing to criticize is that the first battle, the battle of Kamura (the coconut monster pirate), used to enhance Moana and Maui's relationship and drive them to achieve their first small goal together is unclear. Why must there be a bunch of coconut monsters here? Why is there a group of pirates intercepting Moana and Maui who are about to set off when the world setting of pirates (and coconuts) is not provided anywhere in the film? ? According to my personal bold speculation, the process of its appearance is probably like this: This scene needs to set an external contradiction, so that the two protagonists can unite the front → Well, let’s set up a battle → I really can’t think of any other battle ideas Now, since it happened at sea, let's fight against pirates→Simple pirates are too uncreative, or let the coconuts become elite pirates→Got It! So, in the finished film, there is the only pee point in the whole film - the battle of Kakamura. In addition, to be honest, the "Battle of the Pirates" section has been played by "Ice Age" a few years ago. No matter how you look at this scene, it is a true Filler. For the princess series, which has been increasingly improving since the "Fantastic Fate", it is obviously not allowed at all. From this, we can see from a glimpse of the leopard: there is not much time left for the production team to polish "Marina" . Of course, this is not the only place where the "under-polished" feature of this film is reflected -
The second layer of disconnection is reflected in the fact that the film has an unprecedented situation of "servant snow" in a Disney princess movie . Friends who are familiar with Disney princess movies know that each princess is equipped with one or two chatty, resourceful and resourceful sidekicks to make up for the lack of quiet and restrained princesses in terms of camera and language expression, for example: Cinderella The Tailor Mouse, The Little Mermaid's Sebastian, Mulan's Mushu, Le Pei's Pascal and Maxim, Elsa and Anna's Snow Treasure, and more. In the opening part of this film, I am afraid that most of the audience thought that the sentimental plump pig and the silly cock will be the ones who will take the heavy responsibility in this film. Due to the difference in intelligence level between the two, Chubby is obviously more suitable as a main follower than Hanhan, while Hanhan is only responsible for providing stupid jokes. But who would have thought that after Moana went to sea, only Hanhan became the only attendant by accident because she hid in the cabin, and Chubby disappeared from then on, and was hurriedly revealed in the finale at the end of the film. Face. Apparently, the chubby figure that only appears in a small portion of the film's opening isn't a role that Disney, known for its deep-rooted supporting roles, would have plenty of room to tuck into its signature movie. Therefore, there is no other reason for this tragic situation, and I am afraid that it can only be explained if "this film has suffered an epic plot modification tragedy comparable to "Frozen" .
From this, it can be inferred that in the original plot, Fatty should have participated in the entire process of Moana's "heroic journey" from beginning to end. However, the script has undergone significant changes during the production process. It is no longer suitable to add the two attendants of "stupid chicken" and "sentimental pig" in the subsequent plot, so the fat scene was castrated. At this point, combined with the above conclusion - the film's subsequent polishing time is not enough - it is not difficult to see that it is too late for Fatty's early scenes to be deleted, which has led to the embarrassing status of this character we are seeing now.
For most entertainment productions, drastic changes to the script are the biggest source of tragedy for the quality of the finished product. Although in this film, the production team has done its best to make the film appear cohesive and unified in the plot - after all, it is Disney with a deep foundation, but it is a pity that it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. "Frozen", the sense of fragmentation reflected in the under-polished film is obviously more than the two mentioned above-
The third layer of separation is reflected in the contradiction between the extremely unified theme of the whole film and the empty theme core . I thought that "Frozen" used lyrics, metaphors and other means to emphasize the film's theme of the technology has reached the pinnacle, but "Ocean" is even better than the blue, and it is almost impossible to directly write "This film" Subject: Know Who You Are" whiteboard stuck to the audience's face. Specifically: Lyrics, related themes are repeated - the title of "Where You Are", "We Know The Way" and "Know Who You Are", "Just my way of being" in "You're Welcome" me", "Do you know who you are" in "I am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)" and so on; in the plot, metaphors are created on both sides of the positive and negative sides - positive: Tefiti knows After returning to the real self (let Tefiti's heart return to its original position), it will return to normal, but instead: the crab monster defines itself by external things, but is bound by external things. Even the abandon song "Warrior Face," the theme of which Maui taught Moana to use an imposing outward camouflage to become someone she "isn't". (Thank goodness this song was cut off, otherwise the film could have been ranked as a short composition with the title of the original soundtrack)
In the elaboration of the theme of the film, this film is as handy as the composition of the full score of the college entrance examination . Of course, for works that have experienced the pain of "script surgery", the high integration of all elements of the film into the main theme may, to a certain extent, cover up the remaining problems brought about by modifying the script. Therefore, whether it is from the efficient transmission of information In terms of sex, or functionality to cover up the lack of polishing time, the high integration of the theme is an absolute plus point for this film.
The key problem, however, is that the film's thematic consistency makes the hollowness of its core even more pronounced. Moana finally understands "Who am I" in the second half of the film and believes that she is the one chosen by the ocean, but the audience is still confused: why the ocean must choose Moana instead of the next island. The chief's daughter Zhang Ana or Li Ana ?
In fact, this reason is explained in the film, but the reason given is really unconvincing - or rather, this reason is only suitable for explaining the political metaphor that comes with the film . Among the reasons discussed by Moana and Maui, it is mentioned that Moana's ancestors discovered these islands and connected them together, and now the gods chose Moana because they hoped that she would be able to re-image the islands. Her ancestors reconnected the islands and restored the tranquility of the ocean. Combined with the release period of this film, which happened to be during the US election at the end of 2016, the setting of female protagonists, and the patriotic feelings in other works of LMM ("Hamilton") (this is a little far-fetched...), it is not difficult to think of "island". ", "Tefiti" and "Moana" refer to the real political environment ... Since I don't really accept Disney's turning the princess movie into an entertainment carrier of political ideas, I am neither willing to fully believe this movie. (after all, who wants to accept that the fourteenth Disney princess, Moana, who sits alongside the national hero Mulan, actually represents an unsuccessful president in the real political environment?) Discuss more. Leaving aside this political metaphor, the reason given in the film "why choose Moana" seems far-fetched. This creates the sense of separation between the empty thematic core of the film mentioned at the beginning and the ubiquitous point content.
Having said that, we can be roughly certain that "Pocahontas" has indeed undergone some script changes during the production process. Under the limitation of polishing time, these changes have led to the disconnection of the front and back of the film, the incomplete deletion of some characters, and the core of the theme that appears empty after being divorced from political metaphors . In addition to the above-mentioned relevant inferences, two official leaked information can also confirm our above-mentioned inferences .
First of all, Moana once had a six-year-old younger brother . In the original script, Moana and her younger brother were racing at sea when they were children. The father forbade the tribe to go to sea. The setting of this version made Moana's subsequent trips to the sea seem too heavy, so it was finally deleted, and the death of her younger brother was changed to the death of her father's friend.
Secondly, there is a song by Moana called "More" in the official OST . The song was eventually replaced by what we now know as "How far I'll go", based on the content and style of its lyrics. Lyrically, "More" puts more emphasis on Moana's exploration of the sea under the influence of her grandmother. Therefore, the reason for the replacement may be that the main line of the plot was later changed to "Know Yourself + Call of Duty", and the lyrics of "More" are no longer suitable for the new script, hence the current "How far I'll go" .
Although I didn't get the chance to make an official appearance on the big screen, "More" is my favorite of all Disney's abandoned songs, and "How far I'll go" can only be regarded as "Let It" A copy of Go" . Disney saw the influence of a soulful character song on the box office in "Frozen", so it planned to do a similar song in "Ocean". In terms of box office results, Disney's wishful thinking should be half-successful, but in terms of the quality of the track itself, "How far I'll go" is destined to be unable to compare with "Let It Go". The essence of "Let It Go" lies not in the catchy melody and popular structure, but in the fit of the track itself, the plot and the characters' emotions, especially the rapid emotional tension generated by the comparison of the track before and after. And "How far I'll go" does not generate emotional tension before and after the track, nor is it accompanied by the significant behavior of the characters. Therefore, in terms of function, this song is more like "Reflection" and "Reflection" in "Mulan". Combination of "When Will My Life Begin" from "Tangled" - at the beginning of the film ("How far I'll go" first appears in the middle of the first act) to point out the character's motivation and inner Contradiction, and serve as a primer for subsequent behavior.
In contrast, as far as Demo is concerned, the combination of "More" and "More(Reprise)" is slightly better in terms of the rhythm, layering or emotional tension of the song. In fact, if it's just because of the plot, because the lyrics still have room for modification, "More" will definitely not be cut off. So the main reason why "How far I'll go" really came to the top is: Disney is too Eager for More so that they can't wait to have a song "Let It Go 2.0" to help them make money. From this point of view, it is ironic that Disney's greed caused "More" to be cut off...
From this, we can get the final inference: the original theme of the film is not Know Who You Are, but Eager For More and the solution of family relationship problems caused by it - is it a bit like "Brave" and "Crazy" primitive"? I have to admit that such themes may be more suitable for Pixar to interpret. Maybe it's to avoid a collision with "crazy primitives" who are discussing similar issues, or to cater to a certain political appeal in line with the 2016 US election (in this case, the reason for not having time to polish it makes sense), in short, the production team gave up In order to make this work into a masterpiece similar to "Frozen", he did his best to make the finished product a decent masterpiece after making a sudden turn in the middle, and even suddenly seemed to have no "script surgery". "trace. That's my reasoning about how "Pocahontas" got what it is now.
Of course, while the film is more or less mind-blowing as it is now, Moana's portrayal in the film , if not politically metaphorical , is more or less of a concern - especially given that the script has undergone major surgery. Under the premise - not unsuccessful . Even in the breakthrough "Frozen", Anna is still confined to her status as a princess, more or less with some "true love" unique to the princesses of the past dynasties. In "Moana", Moana's exploration of the topic of "princess" has evolved to the point where gender is completely unimportant - whether Moana is male or female affects her succession as chieftain bit? Does it influence him to receive teachings from his grandmother? Influence him to lead Maui to return Tefiti's heart? No. Therefore, starting from this film, the Disney Princess series can be said to officially announce that the scope of its education has expanded from little girls to everyone - the Princess series is no longer an early education textbook used by parents to morally educate little girls, but all children with People in need seek the guiding light of their own spiritual independence and freedom . So, if you still like the Disney Princess movie series, don't be ashamed of yourself, you just have a heart that pursues freedom, independence and kindness. Disney will always open Cinderella to those people who are hard to find in mainstream movies. The gate of the castle.
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