Does not deserve the title: 'Disney Classic'

Rating: 3/10 (29 August 2017)

I don't care much if they reproduce the same story. If someone did care, than he would not watch new movies after watching 10 with identical story lines, but this film is far from good and here are the reasons..
For example: there is way too much comedy: The jokes were most of the times okay. A lot of them fall flat, but let's say that 70% of the jokes were effective and therefore I mean: 'Comedy without much competition on the rest of the story'. Other kinds of comedy however have little effect or they do not have effect at all. The pirates for example are walking coconut-things. They were just added to be cute I guess(just like that little pig that somehow stays young). The giant crab later on in the film turned out to be a comedian and suddenly he started singing.. yeah, not really a 'demon from the deep' now is he? Maui's tattoo's and the chicken could be fun, if they did not overuse those so badly. All in all the comedy seems to get the main priority instead of story and it won´t stop there...
The songs are in general just bad and only ment as fillers, same problem with 'Frozen': bad written, uninspiring and barely plot-related unlike the songs in 'Mulan' or 'The Lion King'(just to give some examples that did it right). In the second half of the film they really got disturbing. The last song in which grandma showed up happen to be the most uninspiring of them all: straight sentences in a song-form. It was also as cringing as ´Shiny´ by the "demon crab". Anyway those songs, like pretty much the rest, are totally unnecessary and also indicates what the film's formula is: 'Making it child-friendly by and adding lodes of comedy and songs in order to satisfy as many different audiences as possible'. I get that, but as a result they removed almost any possible thread and tension moments in this film and it just won't work if even the characterization is bad.
Maui is definitely the better character, but that is mainly because the comedy suits perfectly on his character; He just loves himself. Moana could be an interesting character, but they really made it hard to make her intriguing as one and that is because she tries too little to help her own people. Instead she is most of the time too busy teasing the demigod and the rest of the time she sings. You would expect that she will go straight to the point, if the survival of her people and the balance of life is at stake here, but no.. It seems that it was just not important enough for her and that is why she drastically fails as a ´Caring character´. However the character development of Maui has also downsides: How did the gods make Maui into a demigod and who are those gods and how did Maui felt when that happened, because he was only a child then and why didn't he abandoned his people after receiving those powers, because he got abandoned as well?! Emotional-involvement takes more than a brief discussion and that is why I also do not care about Maui in the end. There were other things that were too brief, for example when Moana left the village while she sang(mother does not do anything to stop her) or the history that explains why Moana's father got so ´Protective´. This is just like 'Frozen', when the parents die: It offers simply too little to get emotional invested by it, so it does not work. Personally I don´t need much to get invested, but I just want a little more done, than nothing at all.
However the worst problem in this film happen to be the very questionable plot. Why does Moana has to search for Maui in the first place, if she can restore the heart of Te Fiti herself, because that will mean that everyone can, so why not the sea, since the sea can transport things(including the heart) right away? Maui even asked himself during the screentime and he does have a point that still hasn't been answered. This makes the entire idea of a 'chosen one' invalidated, because the ocean could solve this problem herself a long time ago, not with Maui's or Moana's help, because the only thing you have to do is take that damn thing to that island and show it to that lava creature! There is no need for a demigod or a chosen one! Apparently the ocean did nothing. Was it because it would have been too easy or did the ocean not know that Te Ka was Te Fiti herself? Surprisingly the ocean was not very helpful at all along the way: Where was the ocean when the storm appeared, or when the pirates showed up, or when Te Ka attacked?! This film would have been better off without the whole concept of having a chosen one and without the sea as a sort of guardian. By the way, why does everyone in the village not hate Maui, he caused the extinction of life, so also their food, so 'hate' must be the natural response of the villagers. Instead they say: 'No, this poor fellow made a mistake, all he needs is to be convinced to put the heart back.' Mayby they thought that even 'hate' was too harmful for younger audiences.
In conclusion: Moana is simply a bad movie. The comedy overwhelms the movie like too much salt on your omelet. There is very little character development. But above all the plot is a illogical mess! I must admit that I do love the soundtracks, but it had to be ruined by the uninspiring songs. The visuals are stunning, but I just can't give that too much credit for this film.