Another beautiful, inspiring tale from the minds and hearts of Disney

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2017)

Moana is the newest addition to the Disney Princess lineup and she does not disappoint. Like the typical Disney princess, she is feisty, determined and absolutely against shelving her dreams or ignoring her ambitions. I really do adore this movie, even though it is not among my favorite Disney Princess films. The character of Moana is very strong and lovable, but I personally felt that this film could have been better and it really does pain me to say that. Thus the 8/10 rating opposed to my 10/10 rating for nearly every other Disney Princess movie.
To be fair, poor Moana had to follow Elsa and Anna which is arguably impossible. Nothing that came out right after Frozen was going to do as well and we all knew this. Still, Moana is a delightfully enchanting tale of a young girl who sets sail to save her people from an unknown evil. She certainly has the bravery of all her Disney Princess predecessors! What she does NOT have unfortunately, is a good supporting cast. Not only does Moana not have a GOOD supporting cast...the poor thing doesn't have a supporting cast at all. In fact, I don't think there has ever been a Disney Princess movie prior to this which has so few characters. Sure, she has her parents and grandmother who we see for like four minutes in the beginning and end of the movie. Not much going on there. Then we have the worst animal companions to date (yes, even worse than the useless humming bird and raccoon from Pocahontas) a little pot bellied big and a mentally challenged rooster. Yes, you read that last part right. Neither companion serves any purpose, not even much comic relief which is usually their intention.
Then we have the supporting character Maui...who I hope you really like, because it is pretty much just he and Moana on a boat for the entire movie. The Rock delivered an outstanding performance as this character but I simply just didn't care for the character itself that much. I personally would have chosen to have a love interest for Moana guiding her to where she needed to go rather than a somewhat creepy shirtless older dude who is very aggressive to her in most scenes.
Now let's talk music. The background music of the film was excellent, as well as Moana's main song "How Far I'll Go." It obviously is nowhere near "Let it Go" but it is still a truly wonderful song that makes you feel for the character and what she is about to do. But the rest? Very unmemorable...unlike in previous classics like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid where literally EVERY song was gold, these just were not. The Rock's song was actually kind of cute and catchy and he did a great job with it. But other than these two songs, I was very disappointed.
The visuals are stunning, particularly the moon which is reflecting on the water that surrounds Moana. I am telling you, she is on the raft 89% percent of the movie, so brace yourself. Auli'i did a fantastic job voicing and singing for Moana though, especially since she was only 14 years old when she first started filming this. I hope it leads to great things for her, she really deserves it.
All of the boring, blah scenes in the middle of the movie are worth the awesome twist at the end. I did not see that coming and I found it very enjoyable and poetic. Despite my critiques, this movie is still definitely a must see, another Disney treasure that you will be sure to hold in your heart forever.