Breathtaking.

Rating: 10/10 (30 November 2016)

Disney's string of heroic female leads just keeps going. And despite that unfortunate misstep with the Maui Halloween suit, work of the same sort of people who trashed "Up" because they didn't see it leading to any marketable toys, everyone seems to like the movie. Certainly it seems to treat Polynesian traditions with deep respect. Moana is a chief's daughter in a paradise that lives by one rule, "Don't go beyond the reef." But her sly and subversive grandmother tells her the story of how the demigod Maui stole the heart of an island, and unleashed a great danger, and someday someone was going to have to confront Maui and return the stolen heart. She finally reveals the secret of how their ancestors came to the island. When the crops are blighted and the fish disappear, Grandmother tells Moana with her dying words to go. She finally meets Maui (Dwayne Johnson), a cynical anti-hero who has been stranded for centuries on an island because his magic fishhook has been taken, stripping him of his powers. They recover the fishhook, confront the evil that Maui unleashed, and Moana returns to an island prepared to resume voyaging again. The scenes of canoe fleets racing across the waves are exhilarating, thrilling, visually stunning, emotionally moving, and left me with a taro-size lump in my throat. The confrontation with the lava monster and its final redemption are everything you want a fairy-tale ending to be. Moana is fabulous, and Dwayne Johnson (who is of Polynesian descent) just keeps getting better. Lawrence Olivier he may never be, but he's worth the price of a ticket.