MARK MANCINA

After seeing Moana and listening to the album several times, my conclusions were:

#1) Moana's score as a standalone score is bland and mediocre

#2) Moana's score as a series of bridges between the utterly fantastic songs is phenomenal, one of the best musical works I've heard all year, and the best follow-up to The Lion King that we could've received without Zimmer's involvement.

There's a ton of elements (motifs, instrumentations, short choral phrases, etc) in Moana's score that only really make sense or cohere together in the context of the songs. Mancina really made the most of his involvement with the songwriting, in the best Silvestri-Ballard tradition.

I really think Disney ought to have released the album with the song and score set in film order instead of split apart, or at least provided an alternate playlist order that would do the trick. I might do it myself once I get around to seeing the film a few more times. Which I will at some point, because it's a fantastic film.