Catchy songs and culture with surprises from voice talent

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2016)

Moana features catchy songs and fantastic animation in addition to a well crafted story that feels both ancient and modern at the same time. Moana and Maui have excellent chemistry on screen and both Cravalho and Johnson surprised us with their ability to convey humor, emotion and song with their voices. We were glad to see a female protagonist introduced into the Disney universe who wasn't part of a love interest or even have a love interest at all – unless you count a love for her people and the ocean. The movie also does a nice job of conveying Polynesian/Samoan culture and even has a couple of catchy songs sung in Traditional Tokelauan.
Overall, Moana is enjoyable and fun to watch – if there was a negative side about the movie it would be that much time is spent with the two characters on a raft and reminded us a bit of the Kevin Costner movie Waterworld. We would have liked to have seen a secondary plot that may have kept us involved for the roller-coaster ride and maybe even some explanation as to the significance of some of the cultural elements germane to the story.