Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Wonder Woman + Moana = "How Far I'll Go"

This past weekend, PC and I were able to go see Wonder Woman -- and, full disclosure: to say I am "not a fan" of the DCU movies is an epic understatement. I made it about halfway through Man of Steel before I was bored to tears and maybe about 10 minutes into Batman v. Superman before I decided life was just too short. (<-- And I wish that was hyperbole, but honestly, that's 2.5 hours of my life I would have never gotten back.)

So when the heaps of positive praise for Wonder Woman started to come in, I was skeptical. On the one hand, it wasn't directed by Zack Snyder, so point in the film's favor. On the other hand, it was still a DCU film, and dadgumit if Marvel movies hadn't set the bar pretty high.

Long story short: I loved it. Well, I loved about 95% of it, but that's for another, longer post. There were also, I think, a couple of, if not deliberate, then definitely highly coincidental nods to Disney Princess movies, which given that Wonder Woman is, technically, an Amazonian princess, is interesting. The Disney princesses are often compared to Wonder Woman as examples of...what they could be? Should be? (TBH, I'm not entirely sure why, since Wonder Woman is a demigoddess and superhero, and it's a bit of an apples to oranges thing, but...*shrug*)


ANYWAY.  I digress. Point is, while The Little Mermaid parallels are the strongest, I think, the Moana ones are kinda hard to ignore, too. Especially when Diana and Steve arrive at the boat in the middle of the night. I literally leaned over to my husband and whispered, "Moana moment!" Which then got me singing "How Far I'll Go" in my head and really, the song works for either character.


And apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so:


You check out the entire thread screen-capped at Junkee, but I mean....just look at the lyrics:
"I know, everybody on this island seems so happy on this island
Everything is by design
I know, everybody on this island has a role on this island
So maybe I can roll with mine
I can lead with pride, I can make us strong
I'll be satisfied if I play along
But the voice inside sings a different song
What is wrong with me?
See the light as it shines on the sea it's blinding
But no one knows, how deep it goes
And it seems like it's calling out to me, so come find me
And let me know, what's beyond that line, will I cross that line?"
There are a couple of YouTube videos that play the song over trailer cuts, but it doesn't capture the full effect. So the gifs will have to do for now.