Make way, make way.
This!
Also looking for an excuse to share this:
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There’s a fine line there that you’re treading.
On one hand you have someone like David Byrne, who was inspired by African polyrhythms and incorporated them into his music with new technology along with found tapes and sounds; he wasn’t presenting his music as “African music by David Byrne”, he was creating something new and original.
On the other you have musicians whom I won’t name who have traveled to Africa, done field recordings of local uncredited musicians, overdubbed them with their own playing, and released them as “world music” they’ve created.
One of those is very much plundering a culture. The other is creating something entirely unique.
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I haven’t mentioned it because i don’t know enough about Polynesian cultures. Though Moana was a pretty great movie 
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I wouldn’t want to talk over our local Hawaiian, but I was in Maui right before the movie came out, and all of the locals I talked to were really excited about having “their movie” coming out. The music and cast is a mix of Hawaiian, Fijian, Samoan and New Zealanders (it’s set in a mythical South Pacific area, not Hawai’i specifically). I feel like it’s a good example of how to capture a culture respectfully and successfully.
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Hey, you lookin’ at me?? Haha
Quick take on Moana: never made me cringe, sometimes made me teary-eyed.
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Wo, sneaky brah…
Kelly Boy really rips on that ‘ukulele! And did you know that the rest of the group are his kids? So cool. To be honest, I don’t listen to Island Reggae (aka “Jawaiian”) that much… I’m down with the traditional stuff… but this really is fun.
Fun fact: there have been red-haired Hawaiians around for long enough that there is a word to describe them.
ʻehu
5. nvs. Reddish tinge in hair, of Polynesians and not of Caucasians; one with ʻehu hair; reddish-brown complexion said to be characteristic of some ʻehu people; ruddy.
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I had similar thoughts to @nungesser without the Hawaiian local input, I just thought it was an appropriate time to bring it up. I mean you have a lot of cultures influencing the music and visuals and humor, but I feel it remains respectful and elevates the culture the story is most influenced by. Having just re-watched Aladdin, it’s a stark contrast.
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An interesting movie to compare it to is, of all things, Lilo & Stitch. Moana’s obviously a big love letter to the South Pacific, but for a weird little movie about an alien, Lilo & Stitch is intensely small-town Hawaiian without making a big deal about it. It’s even got local folk casually speaking pidgin.
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I can’t think of another (mainstream) movie that was willing to show modern Hawai’i without primarily talking about rich white people’s problems but set in Hawai’i. Then again, I can only think of The Descendants and 50 First Dates at the moment.
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Yeah, my friends and I liked Lilo and Stitch too. Good attention to detail; the hula sequences were animated over footage of authentic hula, and one of the characters was wearing a mākau (fishhook pendant) that even had the correct little bone toggle fastener on the back.
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Since you asked, I want to be clear that I have no skin in the hypotheticals game. It oversimplifies an incredibly complex subject. Culture isn’t a 1:1 deal - especially in the US where white is the dominant skin color and culture. There are power dynamics and hierarchies at play that both influence and bypass individual interactions. For those interested, I recommend reading Singer & Kimbles The Cultural Complex.
The Cultural Complex: Contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society https://www.amazon.com/dp/1583919147/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_MgFfzb53NCQWZ
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Let’s not forget Song of the South! They’ve come a long way on this sort of representation for sure.
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Aladdin absolutely uses stereotypes as window dressing and is a very western story despite the actual story being terrific, but in the era of Trump the Sultan and Jafar are far less cartoonish… I will say my thoughts about Jasmine are actually significantly more positive than I previously thought going by memories alone (the same cannot be said for someone like Ariel or probably more appropriate Nala).
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Well, except being cases of arab stereotypes. In that case, it wasn’t far removed from the happy slave stereotype from Song of the South.
They’ve gotten better about the stories they tell about women. It’s not just all about find a man now. They’ve had some good films about young women wanting to defy their parents expectations for themselves, not because they’re following some guy.
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Kay den… since it’s video example time, here are a couple of really well done pieces from Great Big Story:
This is hula:
And this is hula:
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Aladdin is an interesting case because from what i understand the source material is Chinese, but set in a Muslim region. I don’t know the source material to give an educated opinion… just mentioning that the provenance of the story is interesting in itself. I would like to see the story redone though, looking back i don’t find the Disney take on it to be all that good anymore.
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[quote=“anon61221983, post:224, topic:100784”]Well, except being cases of arab stereotypes. In that case, it wasn’t far removed from the happy slave stereotype from Song of the South.
[/quote]I don’t disagree at all. I was making a joke about the verisimilitude of an incompetent ruler with sinister rival has a much lower bar than when I was 8 or 9 - when I saw the movie last.
[quote=“anon61221983, post:224, topic:100784”]
They’ve gotten better about the stories they tell about women. It’s not just all about find a man now. They’ve had some good films about young women wanting to defy their parents expectations for themselves, not because they’re following some guy.
[/quote]Absolutely, the recent Disney movies worked harder to build a relationship between any couple in the film when they have relationships at all - and explores other female relationships outside romantic ones. And I think that’s what I was surprised about in Aladdin. I didn’t remember Jasmine being the actual threat to the villain who had taken control of the kingdom from her father, that her and Aladdin did more than just him rescuing her when they meet, that she is the character that figures out everything going on, and that when she does use the feminine wiles trope-y behavior she is still in complete control of the situation and all the other characters in the scene are being useless. Aladdin’s trick to trap Jafar is much more like Fry’s victory over the brains in Futurama than I remembered. And saying I have a better impression doesn’t mean it was a good impression, she’s still an oversexualized racial stereotype with an anglicized face and despite the other background women having a wider range of body types hers is particularly extreme. She just had more to her than my child-self remembered.
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