Great story and songs

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2019)

It was my daughter that meant I watched this film - and it was her that has meant that I have watched it at least 20 times now, albeit not always sitting and focused on it as it deserves. The plot sees a non-traditional Disney princess setting out to save her island by crossing the sea to return the heart of a deity and heal the decay. On its face it had the potential to have plenty wrong with it - it could have played heavily on the social inclusion of the non-white princess; it could have been heavy with the environmental message; and it could have been generally too sentimental. Instead it gets the tone completely correct in how it produces an exciting film, with great music, focused around a really strong title character.
As a story it has plenty of incident and action, but yet carries off a personal development story just as well as anything else. The most obvious are the two leads, with Moana in particular growing and developing through the film, but I liked very much how little details and touches fill out other characters and created a bigger sense of character. The one that sticks with me the most is the father figure as even before we know anything about his experience at sea, there is an early song with the quick line "in time you'll learn, just as I did", which tells us about a certain amount of "acceptance" in his life at one point. It is a great line a in a great song and it speaks to the depth and quality in the design of the film.
The writing is very good, in dialogue, in narrative sweep, and in the songs. It all comes together with very good voicework from everyone involved, with the high quality of animation making it a very accomplished film. I'm always surprised by how it has the capacity to move me even though it is a children's film that is usually on because the daughter wanted it. Well worth a look even if you don't have children, because there is a lot to recommend about it even for adult viewers.