Tangled joins Kung Fu Panda to save the environment

Rating: 7/10 (17 February 2017)

There's a theory that in this world there is only a handful of truly original stories, first told ages ago, and the rest is just a combination and a rehash of those. Well, I'm not sure about the whole entirety, but the story of Moana definitely sounds kinda familiar. "Sounds" being not just metaphorical, hehehe.
In case you want your details and explanations dry, it's a story of two persons who join forces to overcome a greater evil, discovering their true selves along the way. Sounds indeed familiar. Right, because every other story out there, from Luke Skywalker to Jason Bourne, is about fighting evil and self-discovery. But is it a curse or a blessing in disguise? After all, being familiar doesn't necessarily mean being boring. And it's the details of the particular implementation that make all the difference.
Speaking of details, it's simply impossible not to fall in love with Moana, that's how beautifully this film is drawn. The lush colors, the beautiful landscapes and the sea, the adorable characters - everything here is an eye candy. Add some decent (albeit slightly lacking variety) singing and a cute and vigorous young heroine - and you've gotten yourself another Tangled, this time without the castle and blonde hair but with tropical islands and catamarans to compensate for it.
But while this film is undoubtedly a joy to watch, it falls just a little short of becoming a real hit. Probably because, unlike his latest predecessors, it didn't bring into the genre anything fresh. Tangled was the first really successful animated musical in decades. Frozen built on that success and redeveloped the world of fairy tales into a place where girls can actually take the lead. And while Moana has all the strong points of its older sisters, giving us just that is not entirely satisfying. Which doesn't mean that you won't have fun watching it, but the chances that Moana will win a permanent spot in your heart and memory are fairly slim.