Lost & Found

Rating: 9/10 (22 April 2017)

Great film! Excellent weaving of story & song, physical & spiritual, individual & community.
Favorite song: "We Know the Way." Catchy tune with powerful imagery and profound message.
Spoiler Alert: Moana is lost and in a place of personal tension. She is prompted by her grandmother to enter into a cave to find. something. Who knows what?
Moana is not geographically lost. She is lost in knowing who she is. Moana is trying to reconcile what she feels inside (passion for the ocean) with the expectations of her father and extended village family (to stay put on the island).
Who of us isn't lost, just a little bit? From the high school kid who is asked, "What are you going to study?" to the retired person who is asked, "What are you going to do now?"
Aren't these two critical questions: who are we and what are we meant to do?
The personal realization that Moana comes to at the end of the song is awesome, innocent and profound. At song's end, Moana shouts out, "We are Voyagers!"
She discovers who she is. She discovers who her people are. And she discovers that her passion and longing for the sea are aligned with her ancestral roots. Moana discovers that her own personal story is interwoven into a much richer communal and spiritual story.
Moana finds herself.
How cool if we could all find ourselves and what we were meant for!
Overall Film: 9 out of 10.