Jaw dropping music, surprisingly uplifting, lush animation!

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2017)

This movie restored my tolerance of the Disney formula. I'm more of a Lynch and Kubrick type. Perhaps I was just at a point in my life where the skeptic in me softened. Yes, that animation of baby Moana is pure emotional blackmail. Yes, there is the rebellion against the patriarchal figure that I get tired of seeing in just about every modern American film. But Moana is undeniable. The music is so uplifting, so different, and one of very few soundtracks to which I can listen and marvel a bit. Unlike other animation films featuring princesses of color, this one didn't feel politically compulsory. It wasn't "corporate has decided that we need to make a movie with a brown princess to be politically correct" it was, "look at these interesting people in this interesting place and see how different yet how beautiful they are and in no way need to be like us"...maybe we don't all need to have skinny noses and bodies with big butts (or whatever the trend is). Visually stunning, emotionally touching in unexpected ways, with each character adding soul, light, or comedic relief as needed. The grandma reminded me of my mom who died last year and this movie gave me a way of explaining her passing to my son in a way that helped him. I will say the pop artists covering the original songs is a bit annoying, but that comes at the credits. I perceive Duane Johnson as a fairly respectable actor now, not just a pretty muscle man who scowls. There is so much about this film to look forward to that has not been done before, nor quite like this. I have seen it at least 3 times.