Another Strong Contender for Best Animated Film of 2016

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2016)

Moana is a story about learning. Not Romance, not Adventure, not stopping evil people from doing evil things because they are evil. Just Learning. And that in a lot of ways is a fantastic message to put in a film aimed at children because children are always learning and often times they really don't like doing so, but Moana makes the concept of learning seem fun and important.
For example Moana in the beginning of the film learns a secret of her people that gives her confidence to go forth with her plans to save her people from the main problem she faces in the story (which I will not be spoiling). But that discovery makes her eager to sail but she doesn't know how to sail, so she learns the basics on her own and later has no problem asking for help when needed to get even better at the sailing. This desire to learn and impliment that learned knowledge in the world and situations Moana finds herself in is a great message for the youth and adults in the audience.
Another fantastic thing that Moana has to boast about is the voice acting that it boasts. Really there are not as many characters in this movie as there have been in other Disney movies so the voice acting that Moana does have had to be good to carry the weight of the film and boy do they. Each voice is distinct and fantastic, there is so much charisma and charm to these characters that you don't even think of them as actors in a studio somewhere.And when they sing. Oh My God!
Lastly the visuals, of course they are beautiful, its a Disney flick after all. But the water is absolutely incredible, it may be something strange to say but it absolutely made my jaw drop seeing a 3D film with this kind of environment.
Overall I do not think this will be the best animated movies of the year, not even the best Disney animated movie of the year, but that is not a knock to Moana its just the year that we have had. Moana is a great movie and can stand with the best of them. It's great, go watch it, everyone, everywhere, any age. It's worth it.