The Singles Jukebox

…Maybe we should stick to Disney…

[Video][Website]
[6.20]

Alfred Soto: My nieces love Moana; I’ve had the screener on my desk for two months. The most indelible Disney anthems combine melody, well-placed zingers, and a core of showbiz feeling that’s accessible to any child interested in self-dramatization. “How Far I’ll Go” has the blank universality of a Diane Warren ballad.
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Mark Sinker: I assume by now there are classes taught in the conventions of the modern Disney musical — the shapes the melodies take, which notes to hold, the forms, the means of the build. Practical classes taught composing them; maybe theory classes taught recognising and interpreting them. It’s not a bad thing, this web of rules — in fact it’s what’s allowed the genre to combine maintain popularity while deepening its emotional range and subtlety from picture to picture. But it does tend to mean that songs are generally stronger within the musical they’re from, and only now and then break free as stand-alones. “How Far I’ll Go” is no “Let It Go” — to detail the tricks that make this so, you’d probably have to attend some of the classes.
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Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Ah, the classic Disney “I Want” song. “How Far I’ll Go” does a very good job defining Moana’s inner struggle — and pretty much establishing everything you need to know about her character at that point — but the track itself is a bit underwhelming. A bigger production and a bit more vocal intensity could have prevented it from sounding like one of those Eurovision ballads that miss the final by one point.
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Dorian Sinclair: This ticks all the boxes for a musical theatre “I Want” song: it tells you who the character is, what she wants, and what’s standing in her way. It does so in a distinct and memorable way, though — I’m particularly fond of the rocking melody, which feels perfect for a song about the ocean, and of the way the first chorus runs into the second verse, pulling you forward. Cravalho’s performance, as well, shows a really keen awareness of how best to pull out the text. But points are lost for the chorus being generically belty and for the ridiculously abrupt ending.
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Katie Gill: It wouldn’t surprise me if Lin Manuel Miranda became the next Alan Menken. Both are formidable Broadway(ish) composers with a talent for mimicking different styles and making songs that sound a bit like other songs. Just as “Part of Your World” reminds you a bit too much of “Somewhere That’s Green,” “How Far I’ll Go” reminds me a bit too much of the last minute of “Waiting For Life.” It’s not one of the better songs from Moana — I still have absolutely no idea why “You’re Welcome” wasn’t nominated for the Oscar instead. Still, I’ve had SEE THE LIGHT WHERE THE SKY MEETS THE SEA IT CAAAAAAAALLS ME stuck in my head since I saw the film in November, so that’s gotta count for something.
[7]

Jonathan Bradley: I haven’t seen Moana, so when I listen to “How Far I’ll Go,” I hear a well-crafted centerpiece showtune: stirring, melodically lovely, yet with its themes drawn in unforgivingly bold lines. And these are very familiar themes for American children’s entertainment, an explication of cultural ideologies of self-determination, of forging one’s own path and striking out from an established social milieu. Musicals, though, are supposed to be broadly drawn, and even as I first watched this song in video form, I understood better its emotional beats, the narrative context in which its protagonist’s frustrations became specific and more relatable. There were a number of very stupid thinkpieces that tried to reduce Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton to pop song and not theater, and “How Far I’ll Go,” which he wrote, is better appreciated as the latter, as evidenced by Cravalho’s superior performance to that of Alessia Cara in her radio-ready version (c.f Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel with “Let It Go”). A comparison between Usher’s remake of Hamilton‘s “Wait For It” and Leslie Odom Jr.’s demonstrates too how the actor’s and the pop singer’s task requires different talents of musical interpretation, with one filling out the emotions unwritten and the other living the ones that are, and Cravalho’s best recommendation is how well she performs the actor’s role. All the more incentive to head to the box office, then.
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Jessica Doyle: Moana is my new favorite Disney princess (“But I’m not–“) but Moana is not great; it feels hemmed in. You can imagine that, with so few examples of Pacific Islander protagonists to choose from, the pressure was on to make these characters relatable but still good, capable. So the writers didn’t want to make Moana’s father a misogynist, and thus the father-daughter conflict feels forced; they didn’t want to insult Moana by giving her a love interest, so her conflict with Maui hits the same beats over and over again. Moana even gets a redefinition of the idea of “princess,” with an emphasis on power instead of tiaras–but she has to recognize her responsibility from the start, rather than start out self-centered and grow into it like Ariel (or Elsa and Anna, for that matter). In other words: it’s not easy to plot around a central figure whose tragic flaw isn’t tragic, or even off-putting. The lack of tension shows in “How Far I’ll Go,” where the writers end up repeating “island” in the second verse for a cute-cute-and-cute effect. But given the constraints, I’m not sure Howard Ashman himself would’ve done much better. In short: #WeNeedDiverseFilms so we can have better songs.
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Katherine St Asaph: The quality of Disney musical themes is chosen purely by consensus; critics mean nothing. “Let It Go” sounded like a lesser “Defying Gravity” ripoff back then too.
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Cassy Gress: In general, I thought the best songs in Moana were the ones that Opetaia Foa’i wrote or co-wrote, and not so much the Lin-Manuel solo ones, but as big Disney songs go, this is a keeper mostly due to that soaring, longing chorus. You can take or leave the pre-choruses, which feel somewhat rushed and/or underwritten, and you can definitely leave the groanworthy “I know everybody on this island / has a role on this island / so maybe I can roll with mine.” But the warm brass in those choruses, resolving from Vsus4 to V, and the flute(?) arpeggiating like the sun as it shines on the sea, and just the pure heart-squeezing joy in Auli’i’s voice on “it calls me.” I identified a bit too strongly with Moana’s desire to see the world beyond her island when I saw this movie, and months later, it’s still hard for me to listen too intently to this without getting a little choked up.
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Lauren Gilbert: I probably should not admit in public how many times I’ve sung along to this in my car. It’s a Disney song, full of the usual cliches about finding your path and listening to your heart; it fits neatly with “Reflection” from Mulan and “Let It Go”, but I can’t bring myself to care. I’m 26 years old, and this song brought me to tears; and maybe it’s the quarter-life crisis speaking, but Auli’i Cravalho’s voice is perfect and pure and piercing and I’m crying again. I’ve spent too many nights awake wondering what’s wrong with me, wishing I could be the perfect daughter, and Moana’s fulfillment makes me hope for my own. I haven’t found my wind and sail yet, but maybe I still will.
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