document_title: Supreme Court of India

question_text: who appoints the judges of supreme court of india

question_tokens: who appoints the judges of supreme court of india

text: Supreme Court of India

text: History[edit]

text: In 1861 the Indian High Courts Act 1861 was enacted to create High Courts for various provinces and abolished Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay and also the Sadar Adalats in Presidency towns which had acted as the highest court in their respective regions. These new High Courts had the distinction of being the highest Courts for all cases till the creation of Federal Court of India under the Government of India Act 1935. The Federal Court had jurisdiction to solve disputes between provinces and federal states and hear appeal against judgements of the High Courts. The first CJI of India was H.J.Kania.[4]

text: The Supreme Court of India came into being on 28 January 1950.[5] It replaced both the Federal Court of India and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which were then at the apex of the Indian court system.

text: Supreme Court initially had its seat at Chamber of Princes in the Parliament building where the previous Federal Court of India sat from 1937 to 1950. The first Chief Justice of India was Sir H J Kania. In 1958, the Supreme Court moved to its present premises.[5] Originally, Constitution of India envisaged a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and seven Judges; leaving it to Parliament to increase this number.[6] In formative years, the Supreme Court met from 10 to 12 in the morning and then 2 to 4 in the afternoon for 28 days in a month.[7]

text: Court building architecture[edit]

text: The building is shaped to symbolize scales of justice with its centre-beam being the Central Wing of the building comprising the Chief Justice’s court, the largest of the courtrooms, with two court halls on either side. The Right Wing of the structure has the bar – room, the offices of the Attorney General of India and other law officers and the library of the court. The Left Wing has the offices of the court. In all, there are 15 courtrooms in the various wings of the building.[4][5][8]

text: The foundation stone of the supreme court's building was laid on 29 October 1954 by Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India. The main block of the building has been built on a triangular plot of 17 acres and has been designed in an Indo-British style by the chief architect Ganesh Bhikaji Deolalikar, the first Indian to head the Central Public Works Department.It has a 27.6 metre high dome and a spacious colonnaded verandah. The Court moved into the building in 1958. In 1979, two new wings – the East Wing and the West Wing – were added to the complex. 1994 saw the last extension.[5]

text: Mother and Child Sculpture[edit]

text: On 20 February 1980, a black bronze sculpture of 210-centimeter height was installed in the lawn of the Supreme Court. It portrays Mother India in the form of the figure of a lady, sheltering the young Republic of India represented by the symbol of a child, who is upholding the laws of land symbolically shown in the form of an open book. On the book, a balance beam is shown, which represents dispensation of equal justice to all. The sculpture was made by the renowned artist Chintamoni Kar. The sculpture is just behind the idol of Mahatma Gandhi.

text: Seal[edit]

text: The design of the Court's seal is reproduced from the wheel that appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion capital of Asoka with 24 spokes. The inscription in Sanskrit, यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः (IAST: Yato Dharmastato Jayaḥ, means "whence law (dharma), thence victory". It is also referred to – as the wheel of righteousness, encompassing truth, goodness and equity.[4]

text: Constitution of the court[edit]

text: Registry[edit]

text: The registry of the Supreme Court is headed by the Secretary-General who is assisted by 8 registrars, several additional and deputy registrars, etc., with 1770 employees in all (221 gazetted officers, 805 non-gazetted and 744 Class IV employees)[9] Article 146 of the Constitution deals with the appointments of officers and servants of the Supreme Court registry.[10][11]

text: Supreme Court advocates[edit]

text: Supreme Court Rules, 2013[12] entitle only those advocates who are registered with the supreme court, called 'Advocates-on-Record' to appear, act and plead for a party in the court. Those advocates who are designated as 'Senior Advocates' by the Supreme Court or any of the High Courts can appear for clients along with an Advocate-on-Record. Any other advocate can appear for a party along with or under instructions from an Advocate-on-Record.

text: Composition[edit]

text: Size of the court[edit]

text: Initially the Constitution of India provided for a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and 7 judges. In the early years, a full bench of the Supreme Court sat together to hear the cases presented before them. As the work of the Court increased and cases began to accumulate, Parliament increased the number of judges from the original 8 in 1950 to 10 in 1956, 13 in 1960, 17 in 1977, 26 in 1986 and 31 in 2008 (current strength). As the number of the judges has increased, they sit in smaller benches of two or three (referred to as a division bench) [13]— coming together in larger benches of five or more (referred to as a constitution bench) when required to settle fundamental questions of law. A bench may refer a case before it to a larger bench, should the need arise.[14]

text: Eligibility[edit]

text: A citizen of India not exceeding 65 years age per Article 124 of the constitution who has been

text:
a judge of one high court or more (continuously), for at least five years, or
an advocate there, for at least ten years, or
a distinguished jurist, in the opinion of the president,

text: is eligible to be recommended for appointment, a judge of the supreme court.[15]

text: Court demographics[edit]

text:
I am proud to be an Indian. India is the only country where a member of the minority Parsi community with a population of 1,67,000, like myself, can aspire to attain the post of the Chief Justice of India. These things do not happen in our neighbouring countries.

Distinguished former Chief Justice of India, S. H. Kapadia[16][17]

tag: div

text: In practice, judges of the supreme court have been selected so far, mostly from amongst judges of the high courts. Barely six – Justices S. M. Sikri, S. Chandra Roy, Kuldip Singh, Santosh Hegde, R. F. Nariman, U. U. Lalit and L. Nageswara Rao have been appointed to the supreme court directly from the bar (i.e. who were practising advocates).[18][19]

text: The supreme court saw its first woman judge when Justice M. Fathima Beevi was sworn into office in 1989.[20] The sixth and the most recent woman judge in the court is Justice R. Banumathi.[21][22] In 1968, Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah became the first Muslim Chief Justice of India. In 2000, Justice K. G. Balakrishnan became the first judge from the dalit community. In 2007 he also became the first dalit Chief Justice of India. In 2010, Justice S. H. Kapadia coming from a Parsi minority community became the Chief Justice of India.[16][23] In 2017, Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar became the first Sikh Chief Justice of India.

text: Judicial independence[edit]

text: The Constitution seeks to ensure the independence of Supreme Court Judges in various ways. Per Article 50 of directive principles of state policy, the state shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive. Independence of judiciary, supremacy of the constitution and rule of law are the features of the basic structure of the constitution

text: Appointments and the Collegium[edit]

text: As per the Constitution, as held by the court in the Three Judges Cases – (1982, 1993, 1998), a judge is appointed to the Supreme Court by the President of India on the recommendation of the collegium  — a closed group of the Chief Justice of India, the four most senior judges of the court and the senior-most judge hailing from the high court of a prospective appointee.[24] This has resulted in a Memorandum of Procedure being followed, for the appointments.

text: Judges used to be appointed by the President on the advice of the Union Cabinet. After 1993 (the Second Judges' Case), no minister, or even the executive collectively, can suggest any names to the President,[25][26] who ultimately decides on appointing them from a list of names recommended only by the collegium of the judiciary. Simultaneously, as held in that judgment, the executive was given the power to reject a recommended name. However, according to some,[who?] the executive has not been diligent in using this power to reject the names of bad candidates recommended by the judiciary.[27][28][29]

text: The collegium system has come under a fair amount of criticism.[26] In 2015, the Parliament passed a law to replace the collegium with a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). This was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in the Fourth Judges' Case, as the new system would undermine the independence of the judiciary.[30] Putting the old system of the collegium back, the court invited suggestions, even from the general public, on how to improve the collegium system, broadly along the lines of – setting up an eligibility criteria for appointments, a permanent secretariat to help the collegium sift through material on potential candidates, infusing more transparency into the selection process, grievance redressal and any other suggestion not in these four categories, like transfer of judges.[31] This resulted in the court asking the government and the collegium to finalize the Memorandum of Procedure incorporating the above.[32]

text: Once, in 2009, the recommendation for the appointment of a judge of a high court made by the collegium of that court, had come to be challenged in the supreme court. The court held that who could become a judge was a matter of fact, and any person had a right to question it. But who should become a judge was a matter of opinion and could not be questioned. As long as an effective consultation took place within a collegium in arriving at that opinion, the content or material placed before it to form the opinion could not be called for scrutiny in court.[33]

text: Tenure[edit]

text: Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65. However, there have been suggestions from the judges of the Supreme Court of India to provide for a fixed term for the judges including the Chief Justice of India.[34]

text: Salary[edit]

text: Article 125 of the Indian Constitution leaves it to the Indian Parliament to determine the salary, other allowances, leave of absence, pension, etc. of the Supreme Court judges. However, the Parliament cannot alter any of these privileges and rights to the judge's disadvantage after his/her appointment.[35] A judge of the Supreme Court draws a salary of ₹250,000 (US$3,800) per month, equivalent to the Cabinet Secretary of India, while the Chief Justice earns ₹280,000 (US$4,300) per month.[36]

text: Oath of affirmation[edit]

text: Per Article 124 and third Schedule of the constitution, the Chief Justice (or a Judge) of the Supreme Court of India is required to make and subscribe in the presence of the President an oath or affirmation that he/she

text: will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India, that I will duly and faithfully and to the best of my ability, knowledge and judgement perform the duties of my office without fear or favour, affection or ill-will and that I will uphold the Constitution and the laws.

text: Impeachment[edit]

text: Per Article 124(4) of the constitution, President can remove a judge on proved misbehaviour or incapacity when Parliament approves with a majority of the total membership of each house in favour of impeachment and not less than two thirds of the members of each house present. For initiating impeachment proceedings against a judge, at least 50 members of Rajya Sabha or 100 members of Lok Sabha shall issue the notice as per judges (inquiry) act,1968.[37] Then a judicial committee would be formed to frame charges against the judge, to conduct the fair trial and to submit its report to Parliament. When the judicial committee report finds the judge guilty of misbehaviour or incapacity, further impeachment proceedings would be taken up by the Parliament if the Judge is not resigning himself.[38][39]

text: The judge upon proven guilty is also liable for punishment as per applicable laws or for violating the constitution by breaching the oath under disrespecting constitution[40]

text: Post-retirement[edit]

text: A Person who has retired as a Judge of the Supreme Court is debarred from practicing in any court of law or before any other authority in India.

text: Review petition[edit]

text: Article 137 of the Constitution of India lays down provision for the power of the Supreme Court to review its own judgements. As per this Article, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament or any rules made under Article 145, the Supreme Court shall have power to review any judgment pronounced or order made by it.[41]

text: Under Order XL of the Supreme Court Rules, that have been framed under its powers under Article 145 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court may review its judgment or order but no application for review is to be entertained in a civil proceeding except on the grounds mentioned in Order XLVII, Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

text: Powers to punish for contempt[edit]

text: Under Articles 129 and 142 of the Constitution the Supreme Court has been vested with power to punish anyone for contempt of any court in India including itself. The Supreme Court performed an unprecedented action when it directed a sitting Minister of the state of Maharashtra, Swaroop Singh Naik,[42] to be jailed for 1-month on a charge of contempt of court on 12 May 2006. This was the first time that a serving Minister was ever jailed.[43][44]

text: Rules[edit]

text: The Constitution of India under Article 145 empowers the Supreme Court to frame its own rules for regulating the practice and procedure of the Court as and when required (with the approval of the President of India). Accordingly, "Supreme Court Rules, 1950" were framed. The 1950 Rules were replaced by the Supreme Court Rules, 1966.[45] In 2014, Supreme Court notified the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 replacing the 1966 Rules effective from 19 August 2014.[12]

text: Roster System[edit]

text: The Supreme Court decided to follow a new roster system from February 5, 2018 for allocation of matters to judges. Under the new roster system, the CJI will hear all special leave petitions (SLPs), and matters related to public interest, social justice, elections, arbitration, and criminal matters, among others. The other collegium/senior judges to hear matters related to labour disputes, taxation matters, compensation matters, consumer protection matters, maritime law matters, mortgage matters, personal law matters, family law matters, land acquisition matters, service matters, company matters etc.[46]

text: Reporting and citation[edit]

text: Supreme Court Reports is the official journal of Reportable Supreme Court Decisions. It is published under the authority of the Supreme Court of India by the Controller of Publications, Government of India, Delhi.[47] In addition, there are many other reputed private journals that report Supreme Court decisions. Some of these other important journals are: SCR (The Supreme Court Reports), SCC(Supreme Court Cases), AIR (All India Reporter), SCALE, etc.

text: Facilities on the campus[edit]

text: Legal-aid,[48][49][50] court-fee vendors, first-aid post, dental clinic, physiotherapy unit and pathology lab; rail-reservation counter, canteen, post office and a branch and 3 ATMs of UCO Bank, Supreme Court Museum[9] can be availed by litigants and visitors.

text: Landmark judgments[edit]

text: Land reform[edit]

text: After some of the courts overturned state laws for redistributing land from zamindar (landlord) estates on the ground that the laws violated the zamindars' fundamental rights, the Parliament passed the 1st amendment to the Constitution in 1951, followed by the 4th amendment in 1955, to uphold its authority to redistribute land. The Supreme Court countered these amendments in 1967 when it ruled in Golaknath v. State of Punjab[51] that the Parliament did not have the power to abrogate fundamental rights, including the provisions on private property. The 25th amendment to the Constitution in 1971 curtailed the right of a citizen to property as a fundamental right and gave authority to the government to infringe private property, which led to a furor amongst the zamindars.

text: Emergency (1975–1977)[edit]

text: The independence of judiciary was severely curtailed[52] during the Indian Emergency (1975–1977) of Indira Gandhi. The constitutional rights of imprisoned persons were restricted under Preventive detention laws passed by the parliament. In the case of Shiva Kant Shukla Additional District Magistrate of Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla, popularly known as the Habeas Corpus case, a bench of five seniormost judges of Supreme court ruled in favour of state's right for unrestricted powers of detention during the emergency. Justices A.N. Ray, P. N. Bhagwati, Y. V. Chandrachud, and M.H. Beg, stated in the majority decision:[53]

text: The only dissenting opinion was from Justice H. R. Khanna, who stated:

text: It is believed that before delivering his dissenting opinion, Justice Khanna had mentioned to his sister: "I have prepared my judgment, which is going to cost me the Chief Justice-ship of India."[54] In January 1977, Justice Khanna was superseded despite being the most senior judge at the time and thereby Government broke the convention of appointing only the senior most judge to the position of Chief Justice of India. Justice Khanna remains a legendary figure among the legal fraternity in India for this decision.

text: The New York Times, wrote of this opinion: "The submission of an independent judiciary to absolutist government is virtually the last step in the destruction of a democratic society; and the Indian Supreme Court's decision appears close to utter surrender."

text: During the emergency period, the government also passed the 39th amendment, which sought to limit judicial review for the election of the Prime Minister; only a body constituted by Parliament could review this election.[55] Subsequently, the parliament, with most opposition members in jail during the emergency, passed the 42nd Amendment which prevented any court from reviewing any amendment to the constitution with the exception of procedural issues concerning ratification. A few years after the emergency, however, the Supreme court rejected the absoluteness of the 42nd amendment and reaffirmed its power of judicial review in the Minerva Mills case (1980).

text: Post-1980: an assertive court[edit]

text: After Indira Gandhi lost elections in 1977, the new government of Morarji Desai, and especially law minister Shanti Bhushan (who had earlier argued for the detenues in the Habeas Corpus case), introduced a number of amendments making it more difficult to declare and sustain an emergency, and reinstated much of the power to the Supreme Court. It is said that the Basic Structure doctrine, created in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, was strengthened in Indira Gandhi's case and set in stone in Minerva Mills v. Union of India.[56]

text: The Supreme Court's creative and expansive interpretations of Article 21 (Life and Personal Liberty), primarily after the Emergency period, have given rise to a new jurisprudence of public interest litigation that has vigorously promoted many important economic and social rights (constitutionally protected but not enforceable) including, but not restricted to, the rights to free education, livelihood, a clean environment,[57] food and many others. Civil and political rights (traditionally protected in the Fundamental Rights chapter of the Indian Constitution) have also been expanded and more fiercely protected. These new interpretations have opened the avenue for litigation on a number of important issues.

text: Recent important cases[edit]

text: Among the important pronouncements of the Supreme Court post 2000 is the Coelho case I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu (Judgment of 11 January 2007). A unanimous Bench of 9 judges reaffirmed the basic structure doctrine. It held that a constitutional amendment which entails violation of any fundamental rights which the Court regards as forming part of the basic structure of the Constitution, then the same can be struck down depending upon its impact and consequences. The judgment clearly imposes further limitations on the constituent power of Parliament with respect to the principles underlying certain fundamental rights. The judgment in Coelho has in effect restored the decision in Golak Nath regarding non-amendability of the Constitution on account of infraction of fundamental rights, contrary to the judgment in the Kesavananda Bharati case.

text: Another important decision was of the five-judge Bench in Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India; where the constitutional validity of Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Admissions) Act, 2006 was upheld, subject to the "creamy layer" criteria. Importantly, the Court refused to follow the 'strict scrutiny' standards of review followed by the United States Supreme Court. At the same time, the Court has applied the strict scrutiny standards in Anuj Garg v. Hotel Association of India (2007) ([1])a

text: 2G spectrum case[edit]

text: The Supreme Court declared allotment of spectrum as "unconstitutional and arbitrary" and quashed all the 122 licenses issued in 2008 during tenure of A. Raja (then minister for communications & IT), the main official accused in the 2G case.[58]

text: Black money[edit]

text: The government refused to disclose details of about 18 Indians holding accounts in LGT Bank, Liechtenstein, evoking a sharp response from a Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar. The court ordered Special investigation team (SIT) to probe the matter.[59][60] Lack of enthusiasm made the court create a special investigative team (SIT).[61]

text: Minority reservations[edit]

text: The Supreme Court refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court judgement quashing 4.5% sub-quota for minorities under OBC reservation quota of 27%.[62]

text: Online/postal ballot for Indian citizen living abroad (NRIs)[edit]

text: Three judge bench presided by Honorable Chief Justice Altamas Kabir issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission of India (EC) on the PIL filed by a group of NRIs for online/postal ballot for the Indian citizens living abroad.[63][64]

text: T. S. R. Subramanian vs. Union of India[edit]

text: While hearing T.S.R. Subramanian vs Union of India, a division bench of the Supreme Court ruled that—

text:
Officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), officers other All India Services, and other civil servants not required to follow oral instructions, as they 'undermine credibility'.[65][66][67][68]
Civil Services Board (CSB), headed by the Cabinet Secretary at national level, and Chief Secretary at state level, be set up to recommend transfer/postings of the officers of the All India Services (IAS, IFoS and IPS).[69][70][71][72]
Transfers of Group 'B' officers to be done by Head of Department (HoDs).[73][74]
No interference of Ministers in state, other than the Chief Minister, in transfer/postings of civil servants.[73][74]

text: These rulings were received mostly positively, and were termed as a 'major reform'.[66][68][75][76][77]

text: Recognition of transgender as 'third gender' in law[edit]

text: In April 2014, Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan declared transgender to be the 'third gender' in Indian law, in the case, National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India.[78][79][80] The ruling said:[81]

text: Seldom, our society realises or cares to realise the trauma, agony and pain which the members of Transgender community undergo, nor appreciates the innate feelings of the members of the Transgender community, especially of those whose mind and body disown their biological sex. Our society often ridicules and abuses the Transgender community and in public places like railway stations, bus stands, schools, workplaces, malls, theatres, hospitals, they are sidelined and treated as untouchables, forgetting the fact that the moral failure lies in the society's unwillingness to contain or embrace different gender identities and expressions, a mindset which we have to change.

text: Justice Radhakrishnan said that transgender people should be treated consistently with other minorities under the law, enabling them to access jobs, healthcare and education.[82] He framed the issue as one of human rights, saying that, "These TGs, even though insignificant in numbers, are still human beings and therefore they have every right to enjoy their human rights", concluding by declaring that:[81]

text: (1) Hijras, eunuchs, apart from binary gender, be treated as "third gender" for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under Part III of our Constitution and the laws made by the Parliament and the State Legislature.

text: (2) Transgender persons' right to decide their self-identified gender is also upheld and the Centre and State Governments are directed to grant legal recognition of their gender identity such as male, female or as third gender.

text: Relief to over 35,000 public servants[edit]

text: In B.Prabhakara Rao vs. State of A.P. involved sudden reduction in age of superannuation from 58 years to 55 years of over 35,000 public servants of State Government, public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, educational institutions and Tirupathi-Tirumalai Devasthanams (TTD). They lost first round of litigation in the Supreme Court. Realising the mistake, fresh legislation was brought restoring the original age of superannuation of 58 years but providing that the benefit of new legislation would not extend to those whose reduction of age of superannuation had been upheld. In challenge to this law, Subodh Markandeya argued that all that was required was to strike down naughty “not” – which found favour with the Supreme Court bringing relief to over 35,000 public servants.

text: Criticism[edit]

text: Corruption[edit]

text: 2008 saw the Supreme Court embroiled in several controversies, from serious allegations of corruption at the highest level of the judiciary,[83] expensive private holidays at the tax payers expense,[84] refusal to divulge details of judges' assets to the public,[85] secrecy in the appointments of judges',[86] to refusal to make information public under the Right to Information Act.[87] The Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan invited a lot of criticism for his comments on his post not being that of a public servant, but that of a constitutional authority.[88] He later went back on this stand.[89] The judiciary has come in for serious criticisms from former Presidents of India Pratibha Patil and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam for failure in handling its duties.[90] Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has stated that corruption is one of the major challenges facing the judiciary, and suggested that there is an urgent need to eradicate this menace.[91]

text: The Cabinet Secretary of the Indian government introduced the Judges Inquiry (Amendment) Bill 2008 in Parliament for setting up of a panel called the National Judicial Council, headed by the Chief Justice of India, that will probe into allegations of corruption and misconduct by High Court and Supreme Court judges.[92][93]

text: Pending cases[edit]

text: According to Supreme Court newsletter, there are 58,519 cases pending in the Supreme Court, out of which 37,385 are pending for more than a year, at the end of 2011. Excluding connected cases, there are still 33,892 pending cases.[94] As per the latest pendency data made available by the Supreme Court, the total number of pending cases in the Supreme Court as on 1 November 2017 is 55,259 which includes 32,160 admission matters (miscellaneous) and 23,099 regular hearing matters.[95] In May, 2014, former Chief Justice of India, Justice R.M. Lodha, proposed to make Indian judiciary work throughout the year (instead of the present system of having long vacations, specially in the higher courts) in order to reduce pendency of cases in Indian courts; however, as per this proposal there is not going to be any increase in the number of working days or working hours of any of the judges and it only meant that different judges would be going on vacation during different periods of the year as per their choice; but, the Bar Council of India rejected this proposal mainly because it would have inconvenienced the advocates who would have to work throughout the year.[96]

text: Rule of law[edit]

text: Supreme Court has not taken up the trail of many pending cases, since April 2014 (more than three years), challenging the validity of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 which was enacted by the Parliament without following the stipulated procedure in the constitution and is claimed detrimental to the basic foundation of the constitution on which the basic structure of the constitution is resting.[97] The basic foundation of the constitution is the dignity and the freedom of its citizens which is of supreme importance and can not be destroyed by any legislation of the parliament.[98] Whereas the fair trial to examine the validity of the ninety-ninth constitutional amendment dated 31 December 2014, to form National Judicial Appointments Commission for the purpose of appointing the Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, was conducted on utmost priority and Supreme Court delivered its judgement on 16 October 2015 (within a year) quashing the constitutional amendment as unconstitutional and ultra virus stating the said amendment is interfering with the independence of the judiciary.[99] Disposal of the various petitions filed against Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 is also equally important as it has alienated the basic rights of a vast section of Indian citizens and also against federal character of the constitution which is part of the basic structure of the constitution. The Supreme Court is also wasting its valuable time by not taking up the case in toto but conducted a piecemeal trail by delivering its judgement to dispose the petitions related with apportionment of assets between the newly formed states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.[100] Supreme Court is also conducting piecemeal trail of the petitions filed by the states regarding water sharing of rivers and bifurcation of the common high court without considering the earlier pending petitions challenging the validity of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 which is the basic cause of all these disputes.[101][102] Under checks and balances as provided in the constitution, it is the duty of the judiciary/Supreme Court to establish the rule of law at the earliest by rectifying any misuse of the constitution by the parliament and the executive without colluding with them and to remove perceptions of people that rule of law is side lined and a section of its citizens are subjected to discrimination.

text: Database in public domain[edit]

text: Though Supreme Court has started placing all data/records of the cases/petitions in its web site few years back, the system is not yet satisfactory and lacking commitment as the information/data is selectively uploaded or deleted arbitrarily.[103]

text: Four judges vs Chief Justice of India[edit]

text: On 12 January 2018, four senior most Supreme Court judges (excluding CJI) conducted a press meeting in an unprecedented event to express their anguish against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for acting arbitrarily and not in a transparent and rational manner in allocation of cases to the benches or the judges.[104] They informed that they had no other way, after exhausting all the internal procedures including a joint letter addressed to CJI, other than informing the citizens of India the sad situation prevailing in the apex court of India by conducting a press conference.[105] This is a glaring misuse of an independent institution / organ of the Indian constitution like Supreme Court whose responsibility is to strive and animate in rendering social, economic and political justice as stated in the Preamble to the Constitution of India and Article 38(1) of Directive Principles.[106][107]


document_title: Final Fantasy XV

question_text: when does final fantasy 15 royal edition come out

root

text: Final Fantasy XV

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: Final Fantasy XV is an open world action role-playing game where players take control of main protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum during his journey across the world of Eos. While accompanied by his three companions Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto, Noctis is the only character directly controlled by the player: he can navigate through simple movement, jump over small obstacles, sprint for a limited time, and perform context-based actions such as taking cover behind objects.[1][2] The kingdom of Lucis is a large connected landmass that can be explored on foot, by using the party's car "Regalia", or chocobos, recurring galliform birds in the Final Fantasy series.[3][4] Both the Regalia and chosen Chocobos can be customised by the player, and Chocobos can join in battles if their connection to the characters is strong enough. While Chocobos are controlled manually, the Regalia can be either manually or automatically controlled. The party can also fast-travel to areas unlocked on the world map. The Regalia must be refueled periodically at petrol stations.[5][6][7] In towns the party can visit, there are inns and hotels where they can stay, shops where items and equipment can be purchased with the in-game currency gil, and local tipsters, non-playable characters (NPCs) who provide information on quests, from main story missions to side quests. Side quests are also available from individual NPCs found in towns.[1][7] During some story sequences, dialogue choices appear for Noctis, with the selected option altering the response from NPCs.[7] The game also contains two difficulty modes, with players being able to switch between the two.[1]

tag: p

text: Battle system[edit]

text: The game uses an action-based real-time battle system, called the Active Cross Battle system. Instead of using a menu interface, the player selects commands directly mapped to buttons on the controller, such as "Attack", "Defend", and "Item".[2] Battles take place within the current environment rather than transitioning to a separate arena, and can range from open plains to enclosed building interiors.[1][8] When approaching enemies, a threat meter appears on the top of the screen, growing in intensity the closer the party gets to the enemy. When the party gets close and attacks or is detected, the battle begins. Running away from enemies and out of the combat zone in normal battles ends combat. During battle, each character has health points (HP), and Noctis also has magic points (MP). HP is depleted whenever a character is attacked, while Noctis's MP recovers over time when not in combat or when not using associated abilities such as warping or special weapon skills. If a character's current HP reaches zero, they enter Danger Mode, during which the maximum HP cap steadily decreases; the character is defeated when all of their maximum HP is lost. Some enemies, such as Daemons, are able to lower the HP cap with their attacks. If Noctis is defeated, there is a brief period where a revival item must be used. Should the player fail to do so, the game ends.[1]

text: Noctis can perform four actions in battle: the standard attack; defending, which blocks and parries attacks; warping, which takes Noctis to a targeted area such as another enemy or an out-of-the-way warp point, and using items. There is a "Wait Mode" option available, where if all player input stops the battle pauses, and players are able to select new enemies to attack or actions to take within a time limit.[1][8] An option available for both Noctis and Ignis in Wait Mode is Libra, an ability which displays an enemy's health, strengths and weaknesses.[1] Noctis can find and equip a wide range of weapons, including single and double-handed swords, polearms, axes, shields, firearms, daggers and Royal Arms. The weapons manifest from thin air as Noctis fights, and can be manually shifted by the player. The type of weapon equipped determines the attack speed and the amount of damage on normal attacks. In addition to normal attacks, there are attacks that deal more damage based on Noctis' position such as "Side Strike" or "Blindside", in addition to the Warp Strike attack. Attacks from enemies can be parried, and depending on the quality of the parry Noctis can counterattack. If wielding a shield-type weapon, a successful block staggers an enemy, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Noctis can launch a special attack with the Royal Arms dubbed "Armiger", when the meter fills during combat: while more powerful than standard weapons, Royal Arms consume HP with each use.[1][5][6] Noctis can also use two classes of firearms—Guns, which range from handguns like pistols to rifles; and Machinery, powerful weapons that have varying effects depending on the type used, from generating a powerful shockwave to dealing high melee damage.[9]

text: Noctis's companions, controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI), can perform contextual commands. When Noctis successfully parries an enemy attack, or performs a Side Strike or Blindside, cooperative attacks between him and his companions called Link-strikes can be triggered. During battle, a meter called the Tech Bar fills. When full, Noctis can command his companions to perform special moves called Techniques: Gladiolus performs a sweeping attack with his sword, Ignis uses his daggers to mark enemies so Noctis can perform a warp strike attack, and Prompto uses his firearm to fire a powerful shot that pierces through tough opponents. After each of these, Noctis can initiate a follow-up attack. Noctis can also trigger an Armiger Chain, where he splits his Royal Arms between his companions before launching a single attack.[5][10]

text: Magic is separated into two types: Elemancy and Arcana.[10] Elemancy is separated into three types: Fire, Ice and Lightning. Elemental energy is drawn from points across the world map, being absorbed into special flasks and used to craft magical bombs that can be used on enemies. Elemancy can also be combined with specific items to add new effects, such as healing party members while damaging enemies. Both Noctis and his companions are able to use Elemancy.[1][10] Arcana, accessed when Noctis has acquired and equipped a story-related item called the Ring of the Lucii, has access to more powerful magical abilities such as "Death", which drains an enemy's health.[10] After a certain point in the game, Noctis can call upon summoned monsters called Astrals, which aid the party by launching a devastating attack. The summons featured are series regulars including Titan, Ramuh, Leviathan and Shiva. Their types of attack, and even whether they assist at all, is dependent on the environment: for instance, Leviathan can only be summoned in the open when there is a body of water nearby.[6][10][11] At certain points in the story, Noctis is joined by guest characters who have their own Link-strikes and Techniques.[12]

text: Character progression[edit]

text: After each battle, characters earn experience points (EXP), but they do not automatically level up when a certain amount of EXP has been gathered. Instead, the party must go to safe zones called "Havens", namely rest sites like inns or campsites. When the party rests at night, each character gains levels depending on the amount of EXP earned. If defeated in battle, all EXP gained up to that point since the last level up is permanently lost. Activities in the overworld earn the party Ability Points (AP). AP is spent on the Ascension Grid, the game's leveling system, which is divided into skill trees called "Astralspheres". Each Astralsphere is sorted by type, being associated with magic, combat or passive abilities. Spending AP opens up nodes within the Astralsphere, which in turn grants access to further nodes which require higher amounts of AP to unlock.[1][6]

text: Noctis' companions each have their own skills which themselves level up based on usage, and affect equipment. Noctis' fishing ability improves the more times he fishes and the better items he uses, which in turn spreads to his equipment. Gladiolus' Survival skills increase based on the distance the party has travelled in a day, which improves the quality of their equipment and items. Ignis' cooking can be improved based on ingredients either purchased at shops or found in the wild, and his meals grant stat boosts to the party. Prompto takes photos during the party's journey, and the quality of his own skills increase over time.[1][6] A post-release update enables control of all four characters during battle after unlocking a dedicated node in the Ascension Grid; each character uses specific weapon types and abilities tied to them.[13]

text: Multiplayer[edit]

text: A multiplayer mode called Comrades was released as an expansion, with gameplay and combat lifted from the main game and tailored for multiplayer; rather than a pre-set character, players take the role of a customizable avatar who takes part in a portion of the story skipped over by the main narrative. The game begins with players choosing their gender, hairstyle, clothing and other aspects. Using the in-game city of Lestallum as their base, the player is assigned missions with three other characters—either other players or AI-controlled. During missions, the player fights monsters either on sorties or to defend transports; at the end of each mission, the player is awarded Gil, materials used for crafting and enhancing weapons, and "Meteorshards" which can power up settlements around Lestallum and open up new quests. Some areas unlock Royal Tombs which grant the player a Royal Sigil; these Sigils both increase specific statistics and grant new themed abilities such as healing or increasing combat moves. The player has access to a variety of weapon types from normal swords to maces and shurikens, which are enhanced using materials to increase passive abilities such as their damage capacity.[14]

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: Setting[edit]

text: Final Fantasy XV takes place on the Earth-like world of Eos,[15] which is divided between four nations: Lucis, Accordo, Tenebrae and Niflheim. Lucis, occupying a whole landmass, possesses a magical artifact known as the Crystal, gifted to the reigning Caelum dynasty by the world's deities in antiquity and accessed through the hereditary Ring of the Lucii. Accordo, located in the southern part of Eos, is an island nation formed through a union of free trading cities. The western continent is home to the technologically-advanced empire of Niflheim and the nation of Tenebrae, which is ruled by the Oracle—a priestess who can commune with the gods. The Oracle's main task is curing the Starscourge, a plague that absorbs all natural light and allows nocturnal monsters known as Daemons to roam the world.[16][17][18]:318–319

text: Central to the lore of Eos are the Astrals, six divine beings who serve as the guardians of the natural world and are based on summoned monsters from the Final Fantasy series;[6][19][20] and the True King, a legendary figure prophesied to appear when the Starscourge threatens to plunge Eos into eternal night.[21] A key part of Eos's backstory is the Great War of Old, a conflict born when the ancient human civilization of Solheim turned on the Astrals and their patron Ifrit; Ifrit's attempt to destroy humanity defied the Astrals' duty to protect Eos, forcing them to kill Ifrit. The Great War of Old is implied to have caused the spread of the Starscourge across the planet, hastening the fall of Solheim.[18]:318–319[21]

text: For centuries, Lucis has been at war with the militaristic Niflheim, who seek to emulate Solheim's glory. To that end Niflheim has subjugated most of Eos, including Accordo and Tenebrae; Tenebrae retains limited political autonomy due to the Oracle's influence. Only Lucis's capital city of Insomnia remains unconquered due to the use of the Crystal's power, which is slowly draining the king of his life force. At the game's beginning an armistice is declared between the two nations due to the king's failing health; as part of the peace agreements, Niflheim will gain control of all Lucian territories outside Insomnia, and a marriage is arranged between the heirs apparent of the royal families of Lucis and Tenebrae.[16][17][21]

text: Characters[edit]

text: The two main characters are Noctis Lucis Caelum, the crown prince of Lucis and the sole playable character who loses his father in the Niflheim invasion; and his fiancée Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, the current Oracle and former princess of Tenebrae. Noctis is accompanied on his journey by three others: Gladiolus Amicitia, the scion of a family sworn to protect Noctis's family; Ignis Scientia, a prodigy military tactician and Noctis's advisor; and Prompto Argentum, a friend of Noctis from a lower social class. Guest characters include Cor Leonis, a legendary warrior of Lucis who acts as an early guide to Noctis's party; and Iris Amicitia, Gladiolus's sister. Other key characters are Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, king of Lucis and Noctis's father; Gentiana, Lunafreya's attendant; and Cid Sophiar and his granddaughter Cindy Aurum, mechanics who maintain the party's car. The empire of Niflheim is ruled by Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt. Aldercapt's allies include Ardyn Izunia, the imperial chancellor and the game's main antagonist; Ravus Nox Fleuret, Lunafreya's brother and the high commander of Niflheim's army; Verstael Besithia, the empire's head researcher; and Aranea Highwind, a mercenary dragoon in service to Niflheim.

text: Plot[edit]

text: Noctis and his three friends begin their journey to Altissia, the capital of Accordo, where Noctis's wedding to Lunafreya will take place. Finding the local boat services stopped, they receive news of Niflheim's attack on the city of Insomnia and theft of the Crystal; the Lucian King Regis has been assassinated, and both Noctis and Lunafreya are declared dead.[22] Meeting up with Cor, Noctis is tasked with retrieving the Royal Arms—the magical weapons of past Lucian kings—to rescue the Crystal and reclaim his throne.[23] While staying in the city of Lestallum with Iris, Noctis is contacted by the Astral Titan; encouraged by Ardyn, Noctis endures Titan's trial and earns his power, learning that Lunafreya is traveling ahead of Noctis to awaken the Astrals from their slumber.[24][25] The group continues to travel across Lucis, retrieving the Royal Arms and meeting the Astral Ramuh with assistance from Gentiana. He is also confronted by a hostile Ravus, spars with the mercenary Aranea, and receives further aid from Ardyn.[26][27][28] The group eventually recover parts to repair Regis's old yacht, using it to travel to Altissia.[29]

text: The party arrives in Altissia, where Lunafreya has taken sanctuary. Lunafreya awakens the Astral Leviathan so Noctis can obtain her power, only for Leviathan to go on a rampage when Niflheim attacks. Ardyn appears and mortally wounds Lunafreya, disrupting the ritual; however, she succeeds in awakening Noctis's powers, allowing him to defeat Leviathan. While unconscious, he is visited in a dream by Lunafreya's spirit, who gives him the Ring of the Lucii. Noctis wakes to find Altissia in chaos, and that Ignis was blinded during the battle.[30] The party continues towards Niflheim's capital of Gralea by train, while Ignis' blindness and Noctis's mourning of Lunafreya cause friction with Gladiolus until Ignis forces a reconciliation. It is also revealed that the nights are growing longer, causing more Daemons to appear.[31] Ardyn then tricks Noctis into throwing Prompto from the train, and holds Prompto and the Crystal captive in Gralea's military fortress Zegnautus Keep, revealing the Crystal's power can destroy the Daemons.[32][33] Noctis continues to Tenebrae, where Aranea is aiding refugees from across Eos. While in Tenebrae, Noctis learns that Lunafreya was dying from waking the Astrals, and that Ravus now supports him. On the final journey to Gralea, the train is ambushed by Daemons; after defeating them, Noctis receives the Astral Shiva's blessing from Gentiana, who reveals herself to be Shiva's human form.[33]

text: Arriving to find Gralea overrun by Daemons, Noctis is separated from his friends and forced to use the Ring of the Lucii to survive Zegnautus Keep. After reuniting with and rescuing Prompto, the party continues through Zegnautus Keep, defeating Ravus and Emperor Aldercapt, who have been transformed into Daemons. Forced to leave his friends behind, Noctis finally reaches the Crystal, only to be pulled into it. Ardyn appears and reveals himself to be Ardyn Lucis Caelum, a former healer whose infection by the Starscourge led to the Astrals and Crystal rejecting him; rendered immortal by the Starscourge, Ardyn has since sought revenge on the royal bloodline and the Crystal, hastening the onset of the Starscourge while waiting for the True King to appear so he could destroy them both.[34] Within the Crystal, Noctis encounters the Astral Bahamut; he learns that he is the True King of prophecy, who will cleanse the Starscourge and restore light to Eos at the cost of his life. Noctis returns to Eos after ten years, finding the world engulfed in darkness. Reuniting with his friends, Noctis heads for Insomnia, fighting Ifrit—revived and corrupted by the Starscourge—before facing Ardyn. After killing Ardyn in single combat, Noctis ascends the throne and sacrifices himself, using the Crystal and Ring of the Lucii to purge the Starscourge from Eos. In the afterlife, with help from Lunafreya, Noctis destroys Ardyn's spirit. In mid-credits and post-credits scenes, Noctis opens up to his companions before the final battle, and finds rest with Lunafreya in the afterlife.[35]

text: The narrative is expanded with later downloadable content (DLC). In Episode Gladiolus, Gladiolus leaves the group to test his strength against recurring Final Fantasy character Gilgamesh following their first confrontation with Ravus.[36] Episode Prompto takes place after Ardyn tricks Noctis into throwing Prompto from the train to Tenebrae, and focuses on his origins as Verstael's cloned son, designed as one of Niflheim's Magitek soldiers. With help from Aranea, Prompto defeats Verstael—who transfers his soul to the Magitek creation Immortalis to conquer Eos—before heading for Gralea.[37] In Episode Ignis, Ignis allies with a disillusioned Ravus in the wake of Leviathan's rampage. After finding Lunafreya dead and Noctis unconscious, they are ambushed by Ardyn; Ignis uses the Ring of the Lucii to save Noctis, which costs him his sight. There is also an alternate ending to the main story where Ignis surrenders to Ardyn instead of confronting him, triggering a chain of events that lead to both Ravus and Noctis alive after the final battle at Insomnia ten years later.[38] In the story mode for the multiplayer expansion Comrades, the player controls a survivor of the Kingsglaive, Regis's bodyguard who betrayed him during Niflheim's attack. Despite the people's mistrust, the Kingsglaive help defend humanity's last stronghold of Lestallum while experiencing visions of Noctis's resting place on the island of Angelgard. Drawn to Angelgard, the Kingsglaive face Bahamut in combat and are absolved of their treachery, dedicating themselves to protecting Angelgard from Daemons during Noctis's slumber.[39]

text: Development[edit]

text: Final Fantasy XV was primarily developed by Business Division 2 of Square Enix, creators and developers of the Final Fantasy franchise.[40] Additional studios that helped with development included HexaDrive, XPEC Entertainment, Plusmile, Umbra, and Streamline Studios.[41][42][43][44] Staff included director Hajime Tabata; producer Shinji Hashimoto; main writer Saori Itamuro, who wrote the scenario based on the original draft by Kazushige Nojima; and art directors Tomohiro Hasegawa, Yusuke Naora and Isamu Kamikokuryo.[45][46] Character designs were by Tetsuya Nomura and Roberto Ferrari, with later revisions by Naora.[45][47][48][49] The main characters' clothing was designed by Hiromu Takahara, lead designer for Japanese fashion house Roen.[47] The soundtrack for Final Fantasy XV was composed primarily by Yoko Shimomura, while both real-time and CGI cutscenes were directed by Takeshi Nozue of Visual Works, Square Enix's in-house CGI production studio.[45][50] Logo illustration was by regular series artist Yoshitaka Amano.[17]

text: Development began in 2006 as a spin-off title for the PlayStation 3 called Final Fantasy Versus XIII. It was announced as part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy, a subseries of games linked by a common mythos, and ran in Square Enix's proprietary Crystal Tools engine. Developed by the team behind the Kingdom Hearts series, it was intended to be a darker entry in the Final Fantasy series than allowed in the main series.[51][52][53] Nomura was the original director, designer, and created the initial concept and scenario.[45][47] The project suffered from a prolonged and troubled development, only making fragmentary appearances over the following six years.[54][55] As early as 2007, the project's scale prompted talks of rebranding it as the next mainline entry. With the internal unveiling of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, it was decided to change it into a mainline entry, with a proposed PS3 version being scrapped due to technical troubles. The game's engine also changed, shifting to the company's new proprietary game engine Luminous Studio.[2][56][57] At the time of its rebranding and shift to next-generation consoles in 2012, Versus XIII was described as being on 20-25% complete, with Tabata saying it never took shape.[58][59]

text: When Tabata took over from Nomura, the entire development team was reshuffled and development started over again, although he worked as a co-director with Nomura until late 2013 to ensure the project remained as true as possible to its original vision.[2][54][60] Among the changes were the removal of the original story's opening, and the replacement of the original heroine Stella Nox Fleuret with the similarly named Lunafreya.[61][62] The connection to Fabula Nova Crystallis was also reduced, with branding and mythos-specific terminology removed to aid in the game's marketing. Thematic, aesthetic and design elements were retained due to their core place in the world and backstory.[17][21]:592–597[58][63] The main concept behind Final Fantasy XV was "a fantasy based on reality", with the world being very similar to Earth and having fantasy elements gradually intruding into an otherwise normal setting. In pursuit of this, locations in Eos were based on real-world locations such as Tokyo, Venice and the Bahamas.[4][17][41]

text: Final Fantasy XV Universe[edit]

text: Due to the scale of the game's narrative and Tabata's wish to release a single game rather than a series of games similar to Final Fantasy XIII, aspects of the planned narrative were refashioned into supplementary media projects.[64] Known as the "Final Fantasy XV Universe", the projects were split into two parts; media designed to reach a wider audience than the game might manage alone, and additional game-related content such as ports to other hardware and DLC.[65] The project was first revealed at a March 2016 press event called "Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV".[66] Tabata later stated that those who just played the game would miss context for story events shown in other related media.[65]

text: The two central parts of the "Final Fantasy XV Universe" are the feature film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV and the original net animation Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV.[64] Brotherhood was produced by anime studio A-1 Pictures under supervision from Square Enix;[67] the narrative focused on the backstories of Noctis and his companions.[68] The series was released online between March and September 2016.[69][70] Kingsglaive, which received a limited theatrical release in 2016, was a collaboration between Visual Works and Western studios including Digic Pictures and Image Engine;[71][72] the story, which mainly focused on original characters, recycled story elements cut from the opening narrative of Final Fantasy XV.[73]

text: Also forming part of the project were Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV, a game demo detailing an incident in Noctis's childhood which tied into the events of Brotherhood;[64][74] Justice Monsters Five, a mobile game based on a minigame from Final Fantasy XV which was active from August 2016 to March 2017;[66][75][76] A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV, a promotional beat 'em up featuring Regis as the playable character;[77] Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV, a virtual reality simulation game released in 2017 for PlayStation VR;[78] and Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, a massively multiplayer online strategy game published by Machine Zone in 2017 and developed by their Epic Action subsidiary.[79][80]

text: Release[edit]

text: Initially announced in 2006 alongside XIII and Type-0, the game was publicly rebranded at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo, with regular updates on the title beginning the following year.[55] A demo titled Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae was released in March 2015 as a limited addition to Final Fantasy Type-0 HD.[81][82][83] The game's localization was handled by Dan Inoue, who used different accents for characters to denote their origins on different parts of Eos.[84] In addition to English, Japanese and European languages, the game was localized for Latin America with Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese text: this was the first time a Final Fantasy title was localized into these languages.[85]

text: Its initial worldwide release, September 30, was announced at the "Uncovered" event.[66] Despite this intended date, further polishing work resulted in the date being pushed back to November 29.[86][87] Further fixes were applied to the game through a Day One patch released concurrent with the game.[88] The game was published in multiple editions, called "Day One", "Deluxe", and "Ultimate Collector's Edition".[89] The "Deluxe" edition included a Blu-ray edition of Kingsglaive, while the "Ultimate Collector's Edition" included both Kingsglaive and a version of Brotherhood with additional footage related to Luna.[67][89][90] In 2018, a version of the game called Royal Edition was released, which contained both all DLC published to that point in addition to further story and gameplay additions alongside technical improvements.[91]

text: A version for Microsoft Windows was released on March 6, 2018. Square Enix developed the port with Nvidia using an upgraded version of the Luminous Studio engine, featuring graphical enhancements and all DLC.[91][92][93] These improvements and additions were also released as part of the console-exclusive Royal Edition.[91] Another version, titled Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition, was released in February 2018 for iOS and Android.[94] The game was co-developed by Square Enix, SummerTimeStudio, and XPEC Entertainment.[95][96] Development began in 2015 following the release of Episode Duscae; the game was produced by Kosei Ito, who was producer on Tabata's first major Square Enix title Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII.[96][97]

text: Multiple pieces of DLC have been created for the game by a smaller development team from the core Final Fantasy XV staff. The team is supervised by Tabata and headed by new producer Haruyoshi Sawatari.[98][11] Both free and paid DLC were announced, with paid DLC being a necessity due to overall production costs.[99] Among the DLC were additional story elements intended to address player criticisms of the game's narrative structure and missing details.[91][100] The main DLC episodes focusing on filling in narrative gaps related to Noctis's friends—Episode Gladiolus, Episode Prompto and Episode Ignis—were released respectively in March, June and December 2017.[101][102][103] A multiplayer mode called Comrades was released in November 2017, with Final Fantasy XV becoming the first mainline single-player Final Fantasy to include multiplayer content.[104][105] Episode Ignis was intended to be the last story-based DLC, but positive player feedback resulted in Square Enix developing further content focusing on other characters including Ardyn.[106] Other DLC included temporary events including the "Moogle Chocobo Carnival" event and a collaboration with Assassin's Creed Origins.[107][108]

text: Reception[edit]

text:
Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator
Score

Metacritic
PS4: 81/100[109]
XONE: 83/100[110]
PC: 85/100[111]

Review scores

Publication
Score

Destructoid
9/10[112]

EGM
7.5/10[113]

Famitsu
38/40[114]

Game Informer
8.5/10[115]

Game Revolution
[116]

GameSpot
8/10[117]

GamesRadar+
[118]

IGN
8.2/10[119]

Polygon
9/10[120]

Digital Spy
[121]

Hardcore Gamer
3.5/5[122]

tag: table

text: Final Fantasy XV has received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for all versions, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[109][110][111] Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave both versions of the game a score of 38 points out of 40.[114] Various game designers stated Final Fantasy XV was their favorite game of 2016, including Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Atlus' Shigeo Komori, Koei Tecmo's Takashi Morinaka, and Sony Interactive Entertainment's Teruyuki Toriyama and Shuhei Yoshida.[123]

text: Opinions on the story of Final Fantasy XV were mixed, although the main cast was praised for its chemistry.[112][115][119][118][121] Game Informer's Andrew Reiner praised the change to a simple straightforward plot after the complex lore of Final Fantasy XIII.[115] Peter Brown of GameSpot and Philip Kollar of Polygon praised the mundane activities and character interactions, with Kollar calling Noctis's companions the game's "beating heart",[117][120] In contrast, Jonathan Leack of Game Revolution found the characters lacked interest during the early parts of the campaign,[116] and Hardcore Gamer's Adam Beck called the main story and characters a "monumental disappointment".[122] The minimal representation of supporting characters was also frequently faulted.[112][113][117][118] David Roberts of GamesRadar, Electronic Gaming Monthly's Mollie L. Patterson and Destructoid's Chris Carter also noted the crucial part played by the game's expanded media in grounding or fleshing out the main story.[112][113][118]

text: The visuals and realistic style were positively received, with IGN's Vince Ingenito enjoying the unusual use of realistic aesthetic details for the towns and environment.[119] Roberts, Brown, Leack, Beck and Kollar praised the open world design and depth of detail, in addition to its scale and similarity to open worlds from recent Western games.[116][117][118][120][122] Beck also noted the setpiece moments as beautiful in appearance despite weak narrative elements and confusing or convoluted gameplay.[122] Leack positively noted the main cast's eye-catching design, which he felt helped maintain a connection during the early sections of the game.[116] Shimomura's score was also positively received by critics.[113][115][122]

text: The gameplay was praised for its fast pace and engaging mechanics despite a lack of depth compared with other action games, with several reviewers comparing it to Kingdom Hearts;[112][115][117][119][120] Patterson positively compared normal battles to the CGI cutscene-exclusive battles of earlier Square Enix titles,[113] while Leack called the combat system "Kingdom Hearts meets Dissidia" and praised its depth and accessibility.[116] Digital Spy's Kirk McKeand praised the behaviour of Noctis's companions in battle, saying they were effective supporting units.[121] The linear second half drew criticism, with Roberts predicting that it would be one of the game's most divisive elements.[118][120][122] The summons were seen as spectacular, but either lacking meaning in gameplay or being too difficult to activate.[112][113][117][119] Several reviewers noted the in-game camera's occasionally erratic behaviour.[115][116][120]

text: Sales[edit]

text: In Japan, the PS4 version topped Japanese gaming charts, selling 690,471 units. The Xbox One version sold nearly 3,800 units. Total sales of both versions came to 694,262 units, with the game's release boosting console sales for the PS4 over the previous week by over 42,000 units.[124] Second week sales in the region were 79,792 units, down 88% from launch week and causing the game to drop to fifth place.[125] Different rankings in January the following year placed the Japanese sales of Final Fantasy XV as between 900,000 and one million copies.[126][127] In the United Kingdom's all-format gaming charts ending December 3, Final Fantasy XV was the second biggest launch for the series after Final Fantasy XIII.[128] According to the December data released by the NPD Group, Final Fantasy XV was the second best-selling title of the month behind Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The game also became the month's best-selling PS4 title, and saw the best console launch month in the franchise's history.[129]

text: Within the first twenty-four hours, Square Enix reported that Final Fantasy XV had shipped five million units worldwide in both physical shipments and digital sales—a figure which allowed the game to "break even" on development costs.[130] This gave Final Fantasy XV the biggest launch in the franchise to date, the most first day digital sales in Japan for a game up to that point, and set records for physical shipments and downloads in mainland Asia.[131] Commenting on the large numbers, Tabata revealed that the strong sales saved the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole, which had seen declining commercial success in recent years.[132] According to Square Enix, shipments had reached over six million worldwide by January 2017.[133] In May of the same year, Square announced the game and Rise of the Tomb Raider helped to increase sales and profits for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.[134] In a later interview, Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura stated that the game had sold seven million copies worldwide by January 2018, ranking it as a "huge success".[135]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: Final Fantasy XV won numerous awards from various gaming publications, including "Game of the Year" from RPG Site and RPGFan,[136][137] and "Best RPG (People's Choice)" from IGN,[138] PlayStation Blog awarded Final Fanasy XV awards in the categories of "Best PS4 Game", "Best Use of Pro", "Best Soundtrack", and "Best Visuals";[139] and in Game Informer's 2017 RPG of the Year Awards awarded the game for "Best Post-Launch Support".[140] At the 2017 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards the game won Game, Franchise Role Playing and Song, Original or Adapted.[141] It was also nominated for "Best Original Soundtrack Album" and for "Best Original Instrumental" ("Valse di Fantastica") at the 15th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards.[142] In 2017, the game was nominated for "Best Visual Design" at the Golden Joystick Awards,[143] and for "Best Role-Playing Game" at The Game Awards 2017, but lost to Cuphead and Persona 5, respectively.[144] The Comrades DLC was nominated for "Best Add-on" at the Gamescom 2017 Awards.[145] The game was also nominated for "Evolving Game" at the 14th British Academy Games Awards.[146][147]


document_title: Moana (2016 film)

question_text: where did the story of moana come from

question_tokens: where did the story of moana come from

text: Moana (2016 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: On the Polynesian island of Motonui, the inhabitants worship the goddess Te Fiti, who brought life to the ocean, using a pounamu stone as her heart and the source of her power. Maui, the shapeshifting demigod and master of sailing, steals the heart to give humanity the power of creation. However, Te Fiti disintegrates, and Maui is attacked by Te Kā, a volcanic demon, losing both his magical giant fishhook and the heart to the depths.

text: A millennium later, Moana, daughter of Motonui’s chief Tui, is chosen by the ocean to return the heart to Te Fiti. However, Tui arrives and takes Moana away, causing her to lose the heart. Tui and Moana’s mother Sina try to keep her away from the ocean to prepare for her ascension as the island’s chief. Years later, after Moana has grown older, a blight strikes the island, rotting the coconuts and dwindling the number of fish caught. Moana suggests going beyond the island’s reef to find more fish, but Tui forbids it. Sina explains to Moana that Tui and his best friend tried going beyond the reef, but the latter perished. Moana and her pet pig Pua try conquering the reef but are overpowered by the ocean's tides and end up shipwrecked back on Motonui.

text: Moana’s grandmother Tala shows her a secret cave, where a number of ships are hidden, revealing to Moana that their people used to be voyagers. Tala explains they stopped when Maui stole Te Fiti’s heart and that Te Kā’s darkness is poisoning the island, but it can be cured if Moana and Maui return the heart to Te Fiti, which she gives to Moana. Tala falls ill shortly after and dies, but not before encouraging Moana to go and fulfil her destiny.

text: Moana sets sail on one of the hidden camakau, accidentally accompanied by her dim-witted rooster Heihei. Moana is caught in a typhoon and shipwrecked on an island where she finds the stranded Maui, who traps her and steals the camakau, but Moana catches up to him with help from the ocean. She demands that Maui return the heart but he refuses. Maui is accompanied by a sentient “Mini-Maui” tattoo, acting as his conscience.

text: They are attacked by Kakamora—coconut-armored pirates—who seek to steal the heart, but Moana and Maui outwit them. Moana realises Maui is no longer a hero, and convinces him to redeem himself by returning the heart. Maui first needs to obtain his fishhook, which is located in Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters, and is in the possession of Tamatoa, a giant, greedy coconut crab. Moana enters Tamatoa's lair, using herself as live bait to distract him and allowing Maui to climb atop the crab and retrieve his fish hook. However, Maui discovers he cannot control his shapeshifting and loses self-confidence, revealing that his first tattoo was earned when his mortal parents rejected him. After reassurance from Moana, Maui teaches her the art of sailing and regains control of his powers.

text: The two arrive at Te Fiti’s island, only to be attacked by Te Kā, who damages Maui’s fishhook. Fearful he will lose his power, Maui abandons Moana, who tearfully asks the ocean to find someone else to restore the heart. The ocean obliges and takes the heart from Moana. Tala’s spirit appears, inspiring Moana to find her true calling. Moana decides to fulfill her destiny, retrieves the heart, and sails back to confront Te Kā. Maui returns, convinced by his tattoo to change his mind, but his fishhook is destroyed by Te Kā. Moana discovers Te Fiti is missing, but realises Te Kā is the goddess. Moana restores Te Fiti’s heart, transforming her back to normal; Te Fiti then heals the ocean and islands of Te Kā's poison. Maui apologizes to Te Fiti, who forgivingly restores his fishhook and goes into a deep sleep. Moana bids farewell to Maui, returning home where she reunites with her parents and takes up the role of chief, setting sail on a voyage, accompanied from afar by Maui (in a form of a giant hawk) and Tala (in the form of a manta ray).

text: In a post-credits scene, Tamatoa, stuck on his back, addresses the audience, knowing they would help if he was named Sebastian and sang in a Jamaican accent (making reference to The Little Mermaid).

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Auli'i Cravalho as Moana, the 16-year-old daughter of village chief Tui and Sina, who is chosen by the ocean to restore the heart of Te Fiti

Louise Bush as a younger Moana

Dwayne Johnson as Maui, a legendary shapeshifting demigod who sets off with Moana on her journey
Rachel House as Tala, Moana's grandmother. Like Moana, Tala shares a passion for the ocean
Temuera Morrison as Tui, Moana's overprotective father, who is Tala's son, chief of Motunui Island

Christopher Jackson as Tui's singing voice

Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa, a giant treasure-hoarding coconut crab from Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters
Nicole Scherzinger as Sina, Moana's mother and Tui's wife
Alan Tudyk as Heihei, Moana's pet rooster

Tudyk also voices Villager No. 3, who suggests cooking Heihei

Oscar Kightley as a fisherman
Troy Polamalu as Villager No. 1
Puanani Cravalho (Auli'i's mother) as Villager No. 2

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: After directing The Princess and the Frog (2009), Clements and Musker started working on an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Mort,[6] but problems with acquiring the necessary film rights prevented them from continuing with that project. To avoid a recurrence of that issue, they pitched three original ideas.[7] The genesis of one of those ideas (the one that was ultimately green-lighted) occurred in 2011, when Musker began reading up on Polynesian mythology, and learned of the heroic exploits of the demigod Māui. Intrigued with the rich culture of Polynesia, he felt it would be a suitable subject for an animated film. Shortly thereafter, Musker and Clements wrote a treatment and pitched it to John Lasseter, who recommended that both of them should go on research trips.[8][9] Accordingly, in 2012, Clements and Musker went on research trips to Fiji, Samoa, and Tahiti to meet the people of the South Pacific Ocean and learn about their culture.[10] At first, they had planned to make the film entirely about Maui, but their initial research trips inspired Clements to pitch a new idea focused on the young daughter of a chief.[11] They were fascinated to learn during their research that the people of Polynesia abruptly stopped making long-distance voyages about three thousand years ago, then resumed voyaging again a thousand years later, and no one really knows why. They set the film at the end of that era, about two thousand years ago, on a fictional island in the central Pacific Ocean, which drew inspiration from elements of the real-life island nations of Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.[12]

text: Over the five years it took to develop and produce the film, Clements and Musker recruited experts from across the South Pacific to form an Oceanic Story Trust, who consulted on the film's cultural accuracy and sensitivity as the story evolved through nine versions.[13] The Trust responded negatively, for example, to a depiction of Maui as bald, and to a proposed scene in which Moana threw a tantrum by throwing coconuts. In response, Maui was reworked with long hair and the coconut scene was scrapped.[11]

text: Te Kā was referred to in early drafts of the film as Te Pō,[14] a reference to the Māori goddess Hine-nui-te-pō, who was originally the life-giving goddess Hine-tītama, but became the goddess of death upon discovering that her husband the god Tāne was also her father.[15] Māui set out to defeat her in order to bring immortality to humans, but failed and was himself killed.[16]

text: During the 2015 D23 Expo's panel for Disney's slate of upcoming animated films, Moana's last name was given as "Waialiki", but that name was not retained in the final film.[17]

text: Writing[edit]

text: Taika Waititi wrote the initial screenplay.[18] The first draft focused on Moana as the sole daughter in a family with "five or six brothers",[19] in which gender played into the story. However, the brothers and gender-based theme were deleted from the story, as the directors thought Moana's journey should be about finding herself.[9] A subsequent draft presented Moana's father as the one who wanted to resume navigation, but it was rewritten to have him oppose navigation so he would not overshadow Moana.[9] Instead, Pamela Ribon came up with the idea of a grandmother character for the film,[20] who would serve as a mentor linking Moana to ancient traditions.[19] Another version focused on Moana rescuing her father, who had been lost at sea.[21] The film's story changed drastically during the development phase (which happens with most Disney films), and that idea ultimately survived only as a subtle element of the father's backstory.[21] Aaron and Jordan Kandell joined the project during a critical period to help deepen the emotional story architecture of the film. They are credited with developing the core relationship between Moana and Maui, the prologue, the Cave of the Wayfinders, the Kakamora, and the collector crab Tamatoa (played by Jemaine Clement).[22] Jared Bush received sole credit as the writer of the final version of the screenplay.

text: Like most Disney and Pixar animated films, several major story problems were identified in 2015 only after the film had already transitioned from development into production, but computer-generated films tend to have much shorter production schedules and much larger animation teams (in this case, about 90 animators) than traditionally animated films.[21] Since Clements and Musker were already working 12-hour days (and Saturdays) directing such a large team of animators, Don Hall and Chris Williams (who had just finished directing Big Hero 6) came on board as co-directors to help fix the film's story issues.[21] The scene in which Maui and Moana encounter the Kakamora is an intentional homage to Mad Max: Fury Road.[21]

text: Casting[edit]

text: After the filmmakers sat through auditions of hundreds of candidates from across the Pacific,[10] 14-year-old high school freshman Auli'i Cravalho was cast as the lead character Moana.[23][24] At that point in time, the design of Moana's face and personality was already complete, and Cravalho's obvious physical resemblance to her character was simply a coincidence.[25] During animation production, Disney animators were able to integrate some of Cravalho's mannerisms into Moana's behavior as depicted onscreen.[25]

text: The majority of the film's cast members are of Polynesian descent: Auli'i Cravalho (Moana) and Nicole Scherzinger (Sina, Moana's mother) were born in Hawaii and are of Native Hawaiian heritage; Dwayne Johnson (Maui), Oscar Kightley (Fisherman), and Troy Polamalu (Villager No. 1) are of Samoan heritage; and New Zealand–born Rachel House (Tala, Moana's grandmother), Temuera Morrison (Tui, Moana's father), and Jemaine Clement (Tamatoa) are of Māori heritage.

text: Animation[edit]

text: Moana is Clements and Musker's first fully computer-animated film.[10][26] One of the reasons for using computer animation was that the environment, including the ocean, benefited much more from the use of CGI as opposed to traditional animation.[27] The filmmakers have also suggested that three-dimensional computer animation is well-suited to the "beautiful sculpturing" of the faces of the people of the South Pacific.[28] Eric Goldberg worked on the hand-drawn animation used to depict Maui's sentient tattoos.[29][30] During early development, the filmmakers considered the possibility of making the film with hand-drawn traditional animation, but only a few early animation tests were made in that style. In the final cut, only Maui's tattoos are hand-drawn.[31]

text: Moana was produced in makeshift quarters in a giant warehouse in North Hollywood (together with Zootopia), while Disney Animation's headquarters building in Burbank was being renovated. Musker observed that Moana was similar in that respect to The Little Mermaid, which was produced in a warehouse in Glendale. Production wrapped on October 20, 2016.[32]

text: Music and soundtrack[edit]

text: The film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on November 18, 2016. The songs were written by Opetaia Foa'i, Mark Mancina, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, while the score was written by Mancina.[33][34] The lyrics are in English, Samoan and the Tokelauan language.[35] The soundtrack peaked at number two on the Billboard 200.[36]

text: Release[edit]

text: On October 20, 2014, Walt Disney Pictures announced that it would be releasing the film in late 2016,[37] and hinted that it might be the November 23, 2016 release window previously announced by the studio in March 2014 for a then-untitled film.[38] In November 2014, Disney confirmed that it would be releasing the film on November 23, 2016.[39] The film is accompanied by the short film, Inner Workings.[40] The film's world premiere was held at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on November 14, 2016.[41]

text: In many European countries, the name of the titular character, Moana, was changed to Vaiana due to a trademark conflict. The film was released in those countries to bear the alternative name in the title.[42] In Italy, Vaiana's film was released with the title Oceania.[43]

text: On October 25, 2016, at a press conference in Papeete, it was announced that the film will be the first motion picture to be fully dubbed in the Tahitian language.[44] This marks the third time Disney has released a special dubbing dedicated to the culture which inspired the film: the first case was The Lion King (1994), for which the directors travelled to South Africa to cast voice actors for a Zulu-dubbed version;[45] and the second case was Mulan (1998), which was the first Disney film to have a Mandarin Chinese dubbing made in China, separate from and independent of the version released in Taiwan.[46] In June 2017, a Māori-language dubbing of the movie was announced.[47] Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Temuera Morrison and Oscar Kightley will reprise their respective roles in this version, which will be directed by Rachel House herself.[48][49]

text: In India, popular music composer Bappi Lahiri (who is known to be India's "gold-man") voiced the character of Tamatoa in the Hindi-dubbed version of the film; mostly because in reality, he too, similar to Tamatoa, has an immense love and fondness for gold.[50][51] In Russia, Tamatoa was voiced by a popular singer Ilya Lagutenko, who performed Tamatoa's song with his distinctive soft "meowing" intonations.[52]

text: On January 27, 2017, a sing-along version of Moana was released in more than 2,000 theaters in the United States, featuring on-screen lyrics.[53]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: On October 15, 2016, Hawaiian Airlines unveiled their Moana-themed livery for three of their Airbus A330-200 fleet.[54]

text: There are currently meet-and-greets with Moana at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris, and at Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa. At Hong Kong Disneyland, there will be a stage show called Moana's Village Festival, which is scheduled to open in 2018.

text: Home media[edit]

text: Moana was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray (2D and 3D) and DVD in the United States on March 7, 2017, with a digital release on February 21, 2017. The releases include the short film, Inner Workings. The Blu-ray release also introduces a short film featuring Maui and Moana, titled Gone Fishing.[55] The film is also available for streaming on Netflix.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Moana grossed $248.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $394.2 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $643 million.[4] On January 22 and March 16, 2017, respectively, the film reached the $500 million and $600 million marks, becoming the fourth consecutive Walt Disney Animation Studios film to reach both milestones after Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), and Zootopia (2016).[56][57] Although Disney has not disclosed the film's production budget, most of its animated films cost around $150 million.[58][59] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $121.3 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film, making it the 12th most profitable release of 2016.[2]

text: North America[edit]

text: In the United States, Moana was released during the Thanksgiving weekend. The film played in 3,875 theaters of which a majority of them (80%) screened it in 3D. It also played in 50 premium large format screens and more than 400 D-Box screens. It was projected to take in around $50 million in three days, with $75–85 million in five days (some estimates going as high as $90 million).[60][61][62] Deadline.com said the numbers were good for the original Disney film and marked a great rebound for the company in the wake of Pixar's The Good Dinosaur the previous year, which had made $55 million over five days off a production budget of $175–200 million.[63]

text: The film made $2.6 million from Tuesday paid previews which began at 7 pm, the highest ever for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film and for a non-Pixar Disney animated film.[64] On its opening day, it made $15.5 million, a new record for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film opening on Wednesday (breaking Frozen's record) and the biggest opening day ever for a film released on pre-Thanksgiving Day.[65] On Thanksgiving Day, it earned $9.9 million, a decrease of 36% from its previous day. On Black Friday—the highest-grossing day of the Thanksgiving stretch—it made $21.8 million, a 127% increase from the day before.[66] Through Sunday, the film posted a three-day opening weekend worth $56.6 million over its Friday-to-Sunday debut and $82.1 million from Wednesday to Sunday, the third biggest three-day Thanksgiving opening[67] (behind Frozen and Toy Story 2) and the second biggest five-day Thanksgiving opening[68] (behind Frozen), dethroning Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them off the top spot. Among all films that did not necessarily open in this weekend but may have played, Moana ranks sixth among three-day[69] weekends and fifth among five-day weekends.[70]

text: The film's opening was considered to be another animated success for the studio after Zootopia and Pixar's Finding Dory posted huge openings, respectively, the same year in March and June.[71]

text: In its second weekend, the film dropped by about 50% for a total of $28.3 million, a smaller drop than Toy Story 2, Frozen, Tangled, and The Good Dinosaur.[72][73] The film managed to top the box office for its third weekend, despite competition from newcomers and holdovers, earning $18.5 million while falling by 34%. It became the sixth film of 2016 to top the box office three times, following Deadpool, Zootopia, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory, and Suicide Squad.[74] The film was overtaken by Disney's own Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in its fourth weekend, despite only a marginal decline.[75]

text: It fell to number six in its fifth weekend, due to competition from four new releases—Sing, Passengers, Why Him?, and Assassin's Creed—despite a small drop again; it grossed $2.9 million on Christmas Day.[76] On the holiday week of December 23–29, the film finished at number four with a gross of $26 million, which was 14% up from the previous week, despite losing over 300 theaters.[77] It finished at number four in its sixth weekend, going up 42% and 97%, respectively, during the three-day[78] and four-day weekends;[79] it grossed $3.6 million on New Year's Day.

text: It fell outside the top ten in its eighth weekend (which included Martin Luther King Jr. Day), dropping 33% and 4% respectively, during the three-day[80] and four-day weekends.[81]

text: Outside North America[edit]

text: Internationally, the film earned $17.2 million in its first weekend from 12 markets, the bulk of which came from China. In its second weekend, the film expanded to a total of 30 markets, adding an additional $33.7 million.[82]

text: In China, the film had a November 25 opening day[83] with $1.9 million from 38,000 screenings. However, it enjoyed a big weekend bump on Saturday—even though its screens dipped—and Sunday.[84] In total, it scored an opening weekend of $17.2 million, the second best for a Disney animated title, behind only Zootopia. It was No. 2 behind Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Strong social media numbers showed among the highest the studio has seen there. Similar to how Zootopia started off slow and later became a blockbuster phenomenon.[85] The film slipped 55% in its second weekend, earning $5.8 million, and $21.8 in total in China.[86] It would eventually earn a total of $32.7 million in China.[83]

text: It had similar successful number-one debuts in France, Russia, Mexico and Spain. The film also saw success in Belgium, the Netherlands and French-speaking Switzerland.[82] In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the film faced competition from Fantastic Beasts—which was playing in its third weekend—and as a result, it posted a low opening of only £2.2 million ($2.8 million).[87]

text: The biggest earning markets to date have been Japan ($45.9 million), followed by France ($35.5 million), China ($32.8 million), the UK ($25.3 million), Brazil ($22.9 million), Australia ($19 million), Germany ($17 million), Italy ($15.9 million), and South Korea ($15.5 million).[88]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: The film has received universal acclaim from critics and fans alike. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 229 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With a title character as three-dimensional as its lush animation and a story that adds fresh depth to Disney's time-tested formula, Moana is truly a family-friendly adventure for the ages."[89] On Metacritic, the film holds a normalized score of 81 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[90] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.[91]

text: Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that "Moana is beautiful in more ways than I can tell, thanks to the brilliance of more animators than I could count."[92] Animator Eric Goldberg received praise from critics and audiences for his hand-drawn animation of Maui's tattoos, which they claimed "stole the show" from the actual CGI-animated motion picture.[93][94][95] Wai Chee Dimock, writing in the Los Angeles Review of Books, compared the ocean in Moana to the one in "The Water Baby," a short story by Jack London, saying that both are animated: one, by the tension between digital and analog animation, and the other, by the tension between an encroaching future and a past in retreat still capable of pushing back.[96]

text: Criticism[edit]

text: Colin Philp, an educator on Polynesian history, noted that the sailing canoe used by the film's protagonists is believed to be a Fijian camakau, and that the film's concept artists based it on one of the canoes they saw when they visited the Korova settlement in Laucala. Philp said that using that design without permission of the Korova community, could be viewed as a violation of the intellectual property rights of their elders.[97]

text: Brigham Young University–Hawaii sociocultural anthropologist Tēvita 'Ō. Ka'ili stated that "despite its important girl-power message, the film had a major flaw. It lacked symmetry by its omission of a heroic goddess. Disney resorted to reducing the mighty god Maui to a one-dimensional, selfish, borderline abusive, buffoon to foreground the strength of the movie's protagonist Moana." He went on to explain that, "the omission of a goddess-heroine is significant because Polynesia is a culture with a vast pantheon of powerful heroic goddesses. Hina, a companion goddess to the god Maui, was nowhere to be found in Disney's imagineering of Moana."[98]

text: Merchandise produced alongside the film has also been criticized. A Maui "skin suit" costume made to tie in with the film was pulled by Disney from its online store following complaints about it being culturally insensitive[99] and for appearing to promote brownface.[100]

text: Accolades[edit]