Film Preview: Moana (2016)

Page Revisions:

(June 19, 2016) Original
(September 18, 2016) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#3-#9)
(November 20, 2016) New Posters (#10-#12)

Release Date:

November 23, 2016

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A young woman uses her navigational talents to set sail for a fabled island. Joining her on the adventure is her hero, the legendary demi-god Maui.”

Poster Rating: D / C+ / C / C+ / C / C / C / C+ / C / B- / C (2)

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) It’s a teaser, but an ineffective one. Sure Disneyphiles won’t need this poster to run out and buy a ticket, but the lack of creativity is dispiriting. (#2) A more creative temperament is at play in this design. It’s still unnecessarily simplistic, but the tribal symbolism is most fascinating.

(#3-#9) While each of these new designs have merits and flaws, I’m going to combine my review of them together as they all suffer in the same ways. They aren’t fun. They aren’t exciting. They have too much wasted space, even in the designs that feel a bit cluttered. Disney seems to be suffering late in terms of designing compelling posters. Either that or they created the definition of design style for animated films that their work feels antiquated and generic.

(#10) Lots of details, which will please youngsters, but there’s a surprising amount of unused space, which keeps everyone at arms’ length. (#11 & #12) More character posters, but still nothing particularly engaging.

Trailer Rating: C+ / C-

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) Long gone are the days of majestic teaser trailers that establish a film easily and evocatively. The Lion King did this very well. This trailer isn’t even a pale imitation.

(#2) After a string of successes, it’s difficult to witness a trailer as cheap, corny, and unimpressive as this. One hopes that the film is better considering the studio’s recent track record both with quality and expectation vs. reality. This could be another such case, but the dominance of Dwayne Johnson’s Maui in the trailer with the film named for its hero Moana suggests a lack of interest in sparking inspiration.

Oscar Prospects:

Disney’s third Best Animated Feature entry is here. One of them may not make the cut, but which one I’m not sure. I’m leaning towards the film going into the Good Dinosaur slot…that’s this one.