Since leaving his Broadway phenomenon Hamilton in July, Lin-Manuel Miranda has hardly slowed down, and he's got the Mouse House to thank for it. He'll soon fly to London to start filming the studio's sequel Mary Poppins Returns, where he co-stars alongside Emily Blunt, but first he can celebrate the release of this month's animated Moana, which features several songs penned by Miranda. Though Miranda's work on Moana was only announced last summer, he secretly spent years on the project: Indeed, Disney chief creative officer John Lasseter and Moana directors John Musker and Ron Clements hired him before Hamilton became a hit. All involved are keen to continue the collaboration, and when Miranda sat down with Vulture yesterday, he divulged that he's now collaborating with Zootopia co-director Byron Howard on a new animated film they are building from the ground up.
I also don't particularly like his work (most of it just isn't my style), and found Moana to be just-okay at best. It was a very by-the-books hero's journey story; once you got over the novelty that the hero was a teenage girl, there really wasn't a whole lot going on. The songs were largely forgettable and didn't do much to progress the story, there was remarkably little overarching tension to hold things together, the challenges along the way posed no meaningful threat or danger, and the climax seemed to be ripped from the Firebird Suite in Fantasia 2000. It wasn't a bad film, but I doubt it will become a classic the way other princess films have.
Hi Ferret. Mancina helped a lot making the songs tolerable, I don´t understand Miranda´s success. I don´t like the movie either… so predictable and soulless, I can´t recognize the work of this two great directors anymore. The single one character I loved was the Pig… so sad. I’m sure they are already planning the sequel.
