Frozen vs. Moana
MegaSoulhero I decided to do a thing where I compare two movies and see which one is the superior film by discussing different categories. Movie with the most points wins! I'm thinking about making this a regular thing. The two movies I'll be comparing today are Frozen and Moana. Because they're both Disney princess films and I see a lot of people debate about which one is better.THE STORY
Well I can certainly tell you that both of these movies have great stories! But if I did, I would be lying. Let's talk about Frozen's story. Two sisters live in a castle, one of them has ice powers, Elsa runs away, Anna goes on an adventure with Kristoff, Olaf helps. This is honestly a very well done story. It shows us how much of a sisterly bond Anna and Elsa have. The movie constantly has stuff happening in it which doesn't make the movie dull. Practically every scene in the movie is needed! It even manages to take risks. It tries to be different from other Disney films while also having a few Disney tropes that we are used to.
As for Moana, the story isn't bad, but it's nothing that we haven't seen before. Most of it feels like they wrote down a list of Disney clichés and put them into the movie. "Main character wants to do something she's forbidden from doing. Check! Relative dies. Check! Animal sidekick. Check! Two main characters go their separate ways so that the protagonist can learn something only to have the other character show up again. Check!" Not only that, but there are certain scenes that felt out of place. The kakamora scene added absolutely nothing to the story! The Tamatoa scene had a reason to be there, but I felt like it was too long. Also, what reason did Maui have for coming back at the end? I also thought the pacing was pretty slow at times. There were some pretty dull moments. Again, it's not bad, but it's very underwhelming. Which is why Frozen has the superior story!
Point: Frozen
THE ANIMATION
It goes without saying that both of these movies have excellent animation! In Frozen, they did a stunning job at making the snow look very realistic! It's a known fact that no two snowflakes look exactly the same. So when creating this movie, they actually made sure that each snowflake had it's own design! Which is brilliant! My favorite moment in the film is when Elsa is building her ice castle. That part alone was very breathtaking! In fact, you can tell how much effort was put into this entire scene. The design of Elsa's dress as well as the way it moves! Only nitpick I have is that Elsa's ponytail goes through her shoulder. They also do this clever thing where they change the color of Elsa's ice castle to show her mood. Blue when happy, purple when sad, red when frightened, and amber when angry. This was some pretty clever detail. During the climax when there's a blizzard happening, the blizzard actually looks real!
As for Moana, the water animation looks very realistic! Considering the ocean is an actual character, they had to make sure that they put as much detail as possible to make the water look very real! But that's about. There isn't really anything special about the animation here. Even the water animation isn't really that special because we've seen it done before! Take the Good Dinosaur for example. People hate that film, but at least we can all agree that the water as well as the rest of the scenery looks so real to the point where we actually believe it is real! There is this one scene though that REALLY looked awesome! It's when Moana is confronting the lava monster and she's walking in slow motion. By the way, she's singing in normal speed at that part. So was she just walking slow on purpose or was she singing very fast? But either way, that scene looked beautiful! I also love that they combined 2D animation with 3D animation for Maui's tattoos! That looked pretty great! The animation in this movie is great, but not the best like a lot of people claim it to be. It's not very groundbreaking. Which is why Frozen has the better animation!
Point: Frozen
THE CHARACTERS
It's a no brainer that both of these movies have very likeable characters! With Frozen, we have the two main characters, Anna and Elsa. The thing we love about them is that they are shown to really care for each other. And we understand their struggles. When Elsa runs away after accidentally revealing she has ice powers, we understand her struggles. She never meant to hurt anyone. She was afraid of who she was. Anna still decided to go after her because of how much she cares. With the help of Kristoff of course! At first I thought he was just gonna be shoehorned in just so he would become Anna's boyfriend at the end, but he actually does help out quite a lot! And so does Olaf! And yeah, people hate Olaf, but I personally don't think he's annoying! I don't know why people say he didn't do anything for the plot. He actually did. He took Anna and Kristoff the the ice castle, he saved Anna from dying in a locked room, and he told her about true love. I also really like the parents of Anna and Elsa. They do their best to make sure that Elsa can keep her powers under control. And they want to keep the two girls safe. As much as I hate the troll characters, they actually had a reason to be there. Pretty much every character in this movie contributes something.
In Moana, we have the two main characters, Moana and Maui. Moana is a girl who has always wanted to go sailing beyond the reef. What I like most about her is that when she finally gets what she wants, she's not disobeying her father. She actually has a motivation! Unlike a certain Disney princess from a 1989 Disney movie! Moana is also shown to be very brave and heroic! Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson, is a demigod who stole the heart of Te Fiti and got stranded on an island after losing his magic hook. At first I thought I was going to hate this guy, but he ended being my favorite character! He's very funny and gets some pretty great development! He learns that even without his hook, he's still a hero! And then they ruin this lesson by giving him a new hook. The other characters are Moana's family members. And to be honest, they are pretty forgettable. Even Moana's parents aren't that interesting! And as for Hei Hei, I HATE HIM SO MUCH!!!! I can't stand Hei Hei! Why did he have to join Moana on her adventure!? He did literally nothing for the plot! It would've been better if they had Pua go with them! But instead, they went with the stupid chicken! That makes me so angry! I had to think very hard about which movie had the better characters, but in the end, I felt like Frozen had the better characters. Don't hate me, I felt like they did a better job at making us care about the characters. So once again, Frozen gets the point for this category!
Point: Frozen
THE VILLAINS
I had a hard time choosing between these two because both of these movies have terrible villains. So let's find out which one is the least terrible! The villain in Frozen is a villain that we didn't expect. And that villain is Hans! A prince who asks Anna to marry him so he could live in royalty. He later decides to kill Anna and Elsa so he could take the throne. Right off the bat, his motivation is terrible! His reasoning for killing Anna and Elsa doesn't make any sense! If they were to die, then another one of their relatives would take the throne! So Hans' plan wouldn't even work if he succeeded in killing the two sisters! Originally, Elsa was originally going to be the villain, but they changed that idea because of the song Let it Go. So I felt like Hans being the villain was a last minute idea. It kind of came out of nowhere.
Moana happens to have two villains. One of them being Tamatoa. I'm not sure if he counts as a villain, but he's a pretty evil character. He's completely wasted in the film though. He was only there so it would be harder for Maui to get his hook. I enjoyed this character, but at the same time, he felt out of place. The main villain of the film is Te Ka, who, unlike Hans, actually has a great motivation! We later find out that Te Ka was Te Fiti all along! Which was very predictable. So her reason for turning evil is because she wanted her heart back! The reasonI hate this villain mainly comes from predictability. I knew all along that Te Ka was Te Fiti, so throughout the movie, I was just waiting for the twist to happen! And when it did happen, I was like "duh!" So if I had to choose between Te Ka and Hans, Te Ka is the better villain because, like I said, she actually has a good motivation! So Moana finally gets a point!
Point: Moana
THE SONGS
Both of these movies are musicals, so of course they have songs. If you don't know Frozen's songs, then you've been living under a rock. The first song you hear in the movie is Frozen Heart. Some people might think it does nothing for the movie, but if you actually listen to the lyrics, it has some clever foreshadowing. Do You Wanna Build a Snowman is sung by Anna when she and Elsa are kids. It starts out happy, but then it gets emotional knowing how much Anna misses Elsa. For the First Time in Forever gives us an opportunity to get to know Anna a little more. She's happy she finally gets to leave the castle. But wait. The only reason the gates were closed was so people wouldn't find out about Elsa's powers. And since Anna got memory of Elsa's powers taken away, why couldn't she go outside? Anyway, you ALL know Let it Go! Such an amazing song! And it reminds me of Defying Gravity from Wicked. Makes sense since Idina Menzel sings it. In Summer is more of a comedic song since it's sung by Olaf. It's okay at best. And as for Fixer Upper, TERRIBLE! They could've cut this song out entirely and it wouldn't change anything! A lot of people complain that too many people sing these songs a lot, but maybe that's a good thing. It shows how memorable the songs are! They're intent is to get a lot of people to sing the songs!
Moana has a lot of memorable songs as well! There's How Far I'll Go, You're Welcome, and... others. Yeah. How Far I'll Go and You're Welcome are the only ones people seem to talk about. How Far I'll Go is a song that tells us about Moana's desire. So it's basically an "I want" song. I guess I can understand why it was nominated for an Oscar. You're Welcome I absolutely love because it is just so catchy! Another song in the movie is Shiny. Which I like but I know a lot of people hate this song. This song is basically in the style of a David Bowie song. That's great since this movie came out the same year he passed away. Honestly, I don't see why people hate that song. I guess it's because it doesn't fit with the rest of the film. Still, I enjoy listening to it. As for the rest of the songs, who cares? These three are the only ones that matter! Although, I feel like these songs only get attention because they're written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Anyway, as much as I like the song in Moana, I thought Frozen had a lot more memorable songs! You're probably tired of me saying this, but Frozen gets the point!
Point: Frozen
CONCLUSION
This was a close one. Wait, no it wasn't! Frozen is obviously the superior film! This is gonna make a lot of people angry. Frozen and Moana are both good films, but I honestly thought Frozen had a better story, better animation, more likeable characters, and very memorable songs. A lot of you won't agree with this, and that's okay. There are things to like about both of these movies and things to dislike. They are both still very enjoyable to watch. I'm thinking about doing a La La Land vs. Beauty and the Beast (2017) post. I'll probably do it eventually.
Winner: Frozen
Comments
I prefer moana - visitor
same - VideoGamefan5
same - AlphaQ
same - visitor
I prefer Moana and my reasons are literally the opposites lmao - AlphaQ
Same here hahaa - visitor
I prefer Frozen but I like Moana.
Frozen is overrated and overhated. - DaisyandRosalina
I like frozen but moana should have won in anamation becuase every thing is awesome in the movie
So overall I pick moana - visitor
Moana is way better - THEmEmes
I prefer Moana, but would give Frozen a 7/10. - iliekpiez
Correction: Frozen is a 9/10 movie - iliekpiez
I found Frozen better as well, Moana is good, and colourful, but the songs were unbearable, at least Frozen's songs are very iconic, as well as characters as well. I agree Te Ka is better than Hans though - visitor