Moana Leads us on a Fun Adventure

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2017)

Earlier this year, Elizabeth posted an article looking forward to the movie Moana. Despite the aggressively mediocre trailers that Disney had put out, she was excited for the film, and her excitement proved to be well-placed. Moana delivered far more than the lack luster trailers promised.
The film follows Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), a spunky princess who leaves her island to embark on an epic quest to return the stolen heart of the Goddess Te Fiti. After forming an alliance with the Demigod Maui (Dwayne the Rock Johnson), the two set off across the seas to find the Goddess. Along they way there are many adventures including a run-in with a giant crab voiced by Jemaine Clement, a lot of laughs, and a whole lot of fantastic music.
While the story in Moana isn't revolutionary, Disney is pushing some new ground in other areas. The animation is beautiful, much of the cast and music was created by artists from Pacific Islands (although it was still directed by a couple white guys), Moana is a strong female character drawn in realistic human proportions, and most refreshingly of all there was no love story. While I love Disney's recent push towards less misogynistic films, it seems odd to applaud them for starting to break down stereotypes that they created. Don't get me wrong, Moana is an awesome heroine, but It's sad that we applaud Disney for creating a strong female character who can stand on her own. That should be the expectation, and anything else, anything that hearkens back to the early days of Disney princesses needs to be rejected.
There are many many reasons to commend Moana aside from its lack of misogyny. The beautiful animation, the killer score from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina, and Opetaia Foa'i, the consistent jokes, and the stellar voice work add up to an extremely fun movie. Moana doesn't quite stack up to the heights that Disney reached earlier this year with Zootopia, but If you're looking for a pick me up after 2016, this is the movie to grab.