"Moana" Review

Moana is an computer-animated musical fantasy adventure film from Walt Disney Pictures Animation directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. Newcomer Auli'i Cravahlo voices Moana, the daughter of the chief of an ancient Pacific Island village, who is called by the spirits of her voyager ancestors to go out into the sea and retrieve an artifact from the demigod Maui (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) in order to bring life back to the surrounding islands of the Pacific Ocean. 

What follows is a musical adventure from Disney that almost feels stuck out of time. Disney has been doing a very interesting thing with its films recently where they at once self-aware and self-referential, while also being unabashedly old-fashioned. It's a weird way that Disney creatively gets away with sticking to its winning formula while giving off the impression of awareness and progress. There's something to be said for how perhaps shallow this mentality is, and there's no mistake in asserting that the ends to Disney's means are undeniably centered on profit, but if the formula they're getting away with returning to is as good as the one Disney invented so long ago, I'm willing to give them the pass. Disney has sprinkled these full-scale returns to its popular roots (either in spirit or in the way of straight-up remakes/reboots) with surface-level changes and retoolings of the formula - the impressive use of CGI in The Jungle Book, the character-driven fistfight in lieu of a giant sky beam destroying a city for the finale of Captain America: Civil War, the use of mysticism rather than science and gadgets in Doctor Strange, and the surprisingly multi-layered exploration of racism and xenophobia in Zootopia. Now these "surface-level" changes vary in efficacy and execution, but some of these changes actually enrich the old-fashioned roots of their stories. Moana is an example of this.

Moana's primary diversions from Disney formula are in its commitment to setting and the strength of its female protagonist. Mulan, Pocahontas, The Princess and the Frog, etc., all take place in foreign cultures and do an average of a fair job representing them in a suitable way, but in terms of sheer presentation, Moana feels very much enveloped in its Pacific Island setting. Bolstered by the virtuosity of the music (I'll get to that later), and despite charges that the Maui character is offensively overweight (even though he's supposed to be huge and buff because he's a demigod but okay cool), I believe Moana presents its mythological inspirations in a charming, affectionate way. I'm white and know nothing so cannot speak to its accuracy in details; I'm simply saying that if Disney did in fact fuck up in their portrayal of Pacific Islander mythology, they fucked up accidentally and with a lot of goodwill and affection.

Indisputable, though, is the strength of the character of Moana - and I don't mean that in the cloying way most people do when they describe the female protagonist of an action/adventure movie as "strong". (Sidebar: Can we do better in describing female characters, and identifying when female characters are well-written? If you're saying they're "strong" because the character development of them is strong, then I understand, but there are plenty of compelling character traits that female characters can and do have other than being "strong". But I digress.) Moana is driven, clever, and competent. It's refreshing to see a "princess" character's primary conflict not be based around a love interest. Moana is getting ready to assume the position of chief of her village, but feels a personal urge to explore the sea. She has her own set of wants and goals to further her own personal development, and Maui has his own goals that help her in her emotional arc. I'm not saying Moana is the pinnacle of character writing, but it was nice to have a Disney adventure film where a male and female character each have their own goals beyond wanting to bone, and Moana is about as three-dimensional as "Chosen One" characters get.

Another much more obvious departure from the Disney Renaissance is the animation. The Disney animated films of the 1990s (and really, before then as well) were filled with bright, memorable, iconic images rendered in two dimensions. Moana takes the torch and brings that visual inspiration into computer imagery and 3D. Tangled and Princess and the Frog are perfectly fine Disney princess movies, but they lack the visual flare that really makes Disney films memorable - not to say that their animation is bad or even only okay, but that their art style is not as inspired as the best Disney has to offer. Moana delivers visual splendor in spades. It is a bright, colorful movie with breathtaking action sequences, water and effects animation, and a vibrant color palette that drenches its setting in beauty. This year is truly one of animated superlatives, as Kubo and the Two Strings may have been the best-looking stop-motion animated film I've ever seen, and Moana might actually be the best-looking computer animated film I've ever seen. It's quite an achievement.

The songs, primarily written by Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the score by Mark Mancina are phenomenal and feel just like old Disney, but, again, with a distinctive "now" taste. "How Far I'll Go" and "I Am Moana" are the two absolute highlight songs for me, but there are many wonderful pieces to choose from. None of them quite reach the earworm status of Frozen's "Let It Go", and for that we should really be thankful, honestly. The story is straightforward, uncompromising, and fairly predictable as Disney films go, but it's packed with so much visual beauty, genuine humor and charm, and emotion (mostly owed to the music) to earn a spot toward the top of modern Disney animated films. Other minor unrelated nitpicks I have include an overuse of a comic relief chicken character in my estimation as well as one David Bowie-inspired song being amusing but sort of out of place.

Overall, Moana is a by-the-numbers Disney movie in story and structure, but is superlative in the quality of its animation, music, and character development. That seems to be the tune Disney's singing at the moment, as all my reviews of nearly all their films this year have included this general sentiment, but I've enjoyed the movies quite a bit and Disney's laughing all the way to the bank, so I can't say many people have room to complain here. I recommend Moana to pretty much anyone of any age to see with their family. It's an imperfect but great animated Disney musical.

Grade: A-