Which Moana Song Do You Think Lin-Manuel Miranda Will Win The Oscar For?
(Facebook/DisneyMoana)
Disney’s long-awaited Moana came out this weekend, and it’s so great, even if the Cars 3 trailer at the beginning will give every parent nightmares. The acting and the visuals are wonderful, the fathers-and-daughters theme will make every dad in the audience cry through the entire movie, and the music is sensational.
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is closer than anyone to finishing the EGOT–shorthand for winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. All he has left is to win the Oscar, and now that Moana is out in theaters with characters singing his original songs, he seems like a shoo-in to win the Best Original Song Oscar this year. The question isn’t will he win it, but which Moana song will he win it for? Now that one’s a tough call, because they’re all really good.
How Far I’ll Go
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UpGDU9kFho]
Miranda wrote “How Far I’ll Go,” Moana’s powerful song about needing to leave the island and sail out onto the ocean because her need to see the world is calling her away. As the heroine’s big song about her driving emotions, it’s basically the “Let it Go” or “Part of Your World” of Moana, and it’s a huge, powerful, meaningful, and beautifully sung by newcomer Auli’i Cravalho. That would seem to be the most likely contender. It’s big and beautiful and all full of emotion, and the Oscars seem to like that sort of thing.
You’re Welcome
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79DijItQXMM]
But there’s a strong argument to be made for “You’re Welcome,” a song sung by Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui about how cool and awesome he is. This one’s the “Hakuna Matata” or “Be Our Guest,” in other words: The super-catchy comic sidekick song that will be in your head for the rest of your life, but you won’t mind it because it’s awesome.
I saw Moana on Wednesday, and for the past six days, literally every time I walked in on my husband, he’s been humming this song. I’ve been doing it too, even though I don’t know the words and it just keeps coming out as, “do do do do do, you’re welcome. Doo doo doo, you’re welcome!”
Lin-Manuel Miranda covers this one during the end credits of the movie, and he raps part of it and it’s worth staying through the credits just to hear it.
Shiny
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQzAi-a9Bv8]
One of those songs is probably holding Miranda’s Oscar behind it, but there’s a dark horse candidate in the villain song: “Shiny.” Everybody loves a good villain song, and this one is wild. It’s a 70s-style glam rock song about how great it is to be covered in sparkly things. I am adopting this as my own personal anthem. I will sing it to myself every day as I look at my giant collection of giant costume jewelry from the 70s, and if someone ever tries to tell me that wearing a giant gold fox belt and a giant gold lion necklace at the same time is tacky, I will sing it out loud to them. This is my theme song, and it’s sung by Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, who I am going to marry someday, he and his wife just don’t know it yet.
If you haven’t seen Moana yet, it’s worth a trip and it’s great in 3-D. If you have, which song has been in your head since you left?
