Moana Review

Where most animated kid movies rely on current pop-songs to make their films meet the definition of "musical," Moana, the latest Disney Princess flick, aces that criteria and rewrites it. From the directors of Hercules and The Princess and the Frog, among others, this fifty sixth animated tale from the house of mouse tells a rather simple story with a level of narrative cohesiveness that Frozen lost by the time they time Elsa ran off and, sign, let it go. Sometimes restraint can make things grander.

Dwayne Johnson plays Maui, a demigod shapeshifter, who is inadvertingly destroying the lovely world of Moana, played by Auli'i Cravalho, a spunky and rebellious daughter of a village chief. Her mission, to restore beauty and life to her island, takes her not only on and under water, but also across caves and mountains, but each feel distinct, whether it is echos in the former or a passive breeze on the latter. Colors change, sometimes drastically, to paint the mood, and one sharp swap to bright purple roughly halfway through the 103 minute long movie, happens during a song!

On the subject of songs, though only time will tell whether or not they are memorable, not only get kids dancing in the theater but also help move the story along. For example, Maui sings (with surprising grace from the former wrestler) a humorous theme song to boast about his achievements, with a thick layer of cocky machismo of course, to distract titular Moana while he attempts to steal her boat. Lesser films would have simply injected a song before using trite dialogue to progress the story. And it happens again, when Tamatoa, a giant crab who likes shimmering things (trust me, it makes more sense when watching the movie), moves character development along in an otherwise random tune about his shiny shell. Only the best musicals make the songs feel integral to the plot, and of Disney's own, this is an achievement.

The animation itself, predominately 3D but with some 2D work, is exceptional, crafting a lush world, often with jokes both in the foreground and in the background. Wide pans of the camera expose the peaceful village doing mundane tasks with the level of goofy charm that only the directors of Aladdin could conjure up. Late in the film the top-billed duo are pursued by a gang of coconut pirates, where seemingly thousands of animated coconuts captain a Brobdingnagian ship in a large scale portraiture of swashbuckle and slapstick.

Distinct here is the lack of a love interest, for either of the main characters, which trades our ears another sappy love song for one of the more creative compositions here. More importantly it gives our heroine more important things to think about than a man, and trust me, I am a guy and I cannot think of another reason why woman put up with us other than for procreation. But most egregious is the lack of a solid villain, perhaps the only gripe here. Half the fun of Disney films are the villains, especially when you have the makers of Jafar and Doctor Facilier helming this one.

Its Hawaiian-backdrop is a wise one; a destination pined for by many on their pipe dream of a vacation, takes liberties only to exaggerate what is wonderful about the environment. Right down to the sand, so detailed you would swear you could feel the grainy material under your bare feet. Compare that to other, less films, whether from Disney or a rival: Zootopia, a fine film in its own right, simply replaces humans in sprawling urban landscapes with animals- what world does that create? Or The Secret Life of Pets, where similar cityscapes contain both humans AND animals, albeit a highly caricatured one. Here, you want to be in this world, both the real and the cartoon versions.

One peculiar thing I noticed was that when Moana, marked the next chief of her village, goes against the tradition of her father (and his father, and so on) by placing a seashell instead of a stone slab one the top of the long aforementioned mountain top. The film ends with a seashell atop a tall tower of flat rocks, presumably signifying her love of the ocean, but what does the next chief do? Crush the shell by placing another stone? Or do they put another seashell on top? I do not think those stack too easily.