Fun follow-your-dreams-empowerment Disney adventure flick

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2017)

Disney princesses have changed a lot since the company started pumping them out. In the case of Moana, the daughter of a village chieftain is strong, brave, athletic, and determined to save the world. She also denies being a princess altogether, although in one of the film's occasional Disney in-jokes she is told that if you've got a dress and an animal sidekick, you're a princess.
The movie fits very much in the girl-empowerment ethos that has replaced Disney's original waiting-for-the-princess trope. This is very much a heroic, mythic adventure story.
It's also quite funny, with a brash demigod, a cheeky ocean, and the world's dumbest rooster all doing their shtick.
The songs are decent. There's a nice please-nominate-me-for-an-Oscar empowerment song that's kind of catchy, a rousing number involving sailing ships, and the best, a David Bowiesque thing called Shiny. It's not the best Disney soundtrack, but it's a pretty good one.
The animation is gorgeous. At least on television, a good deal of the scenery looked photo-realistic, and the island setting allowed for a lot of natural beauty. There are also notable sequences involving living tattoos that were apparently hand drawn.
Well worth watching.