Island girl

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2018)

This was another highly enjoyable Disney CGEN feature with an exciting story, lots of laughs, good songs, fine characterisation and most of all, brilliant animation.
From the depiction of luxuriant tropical wildlife, frothy ocean spray and most of all the nuances of the "human" characters, the film is a feast for the eyes. As for the ears, they are well served too by catchy, idiomatic, singalong numbers and witty, funny dialogue not scared to run a little risquÃ© to get a laugh.
The story, of Disney necessity, touches on the tried and true, a young independent "princess", yearning for change and adventure, surmounting seemingly insurmountable odds on a quest to save the day, accompanied of course by a wise-cracking companion and just to top things off, a cute, dumb pet.
The songs even if they seem like they've fallen off the same wagon as those in "Frozen" are nonetheless mostly pleasant and memorable and are well sung by the cast, even Dwayne Johnston. My main carp would be the use of derivative minion-lite coconut pirates Moana and Maui encounter on their journey but otherwise I found myself frequently caught up by the duo's escapades and interaction arriving at a big happy ever after climax which outdid the rest of the SFX in the process.
Lovely film, first class family entertainment.