"Moana"- A solid and entertaining new animated fantasy adventure that's filled to burst with charm.

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2016)

The advent of high-quality computer animation has brought about a modern wave of fantastic new Disney adventures. From the delightfully quirky "Tangled" to the incredibly popular and captivating "Frozen", Disney has been hard at work delivering consistently strong and captivating films. 2016's "Moana" is Disney's latest installment in their ever-growing filmography, and while it might never quite live up to the highest of standards set by their classics both new and old, it's still very much a thoroughly engaging and entertaining feature.
Inspired by Polynesian mythology and culture, we follow Moana (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho), the young daughter of her island's chief, who yearns for something more despite being forbidden from ever going beyond the reef surrounding her home. However, when the plants begin to with and die, leaving her people without a viable source of food, Moana sets out on a grand adventure. She must brave the seas to find the legendary demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and get his help to restore order and save her people by returning the mystical stone heart of the ancient goddess Te Fiti to its original resting place- a stone Maui had stolen hundreds of years ago. Together, the two will brave vile monsters and devious pirate-like creatures along with the deadly wrath of the ocean in order to try and save Moana's home.
It's a very simple tale, and that's where much of its charm comes from. A great portion of the film takes place on a raft with only Moana and Maui (along with a hilariously dim-witted chicken that stowed aboard), and thus the film goes through a lot of creative means to develop and endear the characters for the audience. It's bold because the film is so sort-of isolated in it's second and third acts, but it's always consistently amusing and there's plenty of great character-beats to keep the audience giggling at a near- constant pace. I was honestly shocked that Disney was able to make what was essentially over an hour of characters just talking and occasionally stumbling upon a new obstacle so much fun to watch.
No doubt another large part of the film's success lies in the delightful cast. Cravalho is an absolute joy as our heroine and will melt your heart in nearly every scene. She also has a nice spunk and drive so she never once becomes the archetypal damsel in distress. This is Disney doing strong female characters just right. Johnson steals the show in just about every scene and is a ton of fun as a sort-of braggart with just enough humanity to keep you rooting for him. Great comedic role that lets Johnson- a pretty talented actor- stretch his chops. Rachel House, Temuera Morrison and Nicole Scherzinger round out the cast in supporting roles that are all lovely and very well- played.
The animation and direction is just awe inspiring as well. Even though everything is given that nice, over-stylized Disney look, you still feel very much like everything you're seeing is real. It was stunning just how detailed and true to life the water and sand animation was, and characters are all very well realized with fun designs and great movement. Directors Ron Clements and John Musker, previously responsible for other Disney films like the now-classic "Aladdin" and "Little Mermaid" have a wonderful dramatic sense of scope and composition, which really hits home with the story being told.
While I could bemoan the fact that the film is a slave to formula and has some issues with the pacing in its first act, the fact of the matter is that this is another good, strong effort and continues Disney's winning streak. So I don't mind the issues that are there... it's too much fun to care. It just goes to show that perhaps we are now in the middle of a second renaissance for the company's animation department and that we'll have many more quality films like this to look forward to. I give "Moana" a very good 8 out of 10.