Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker, Chris Williams, Don Hall
Release Date: 2nd December 2016
Rating: PG (UK and US)
Disney's new animated presentation from the creator's of Frozen had a great deal to live up to - and surpassed every expectation.
Many of Disney's past animated films with musical aspects have always often irritated me in different ways - I never thought Tangled was great, and Frozen was simply obnoxious to watch. I'm very much aware that my opinion is much against the tide of the rest of the world, particularly with Frozen and its ridiculously famous Let it Go leading track, which I didn't even consider enjoyable either.
Considering the opinion that I hold on animated Disney (except Pixar, they are exceptional 80% of the time) I thought that Moana would sit as a 5/10 at best, considering Disney are very talented at sticking to a formula that makes money: but I couldn't have been more wrong. Naturally, Moana certainly does fit into this same formula, and it certainly will have made a very sizeable profit, but despite this the film was incredibly enjoyable regardless.
The overall plot is quite typical of any animated kid's movie as a whole, Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) is a girl who lives on an ancient island which is becoming affected by a curse - fish begin to die, villagers start worrying about food etc - and Moana believes that the solution to her problems lies beyond the reef, away from her island, where no one has allegedly been before. Her father is the chief of the tribe that reside on the island, and wants Moana to take his place when she is of age, so he is very much opposed to the idea of her travelling away from the island.
This all lines up to the generic overbearing-parent/adventurous-child dynamic, where Moana longs to travel, and her father is desperate to keep her restricted to the island during the entirety of her childhood. This isn't exactly pushing the boat out (I'm funny) when it comes to an original plot, and when Moana eventually leaves the island with the encouragement of her Grandmother, the real adventure begins.
What is absolutely worth mentioning is the music, since How Far I'll Go was nominated for a Golden Globe (and likely will be for an Oscar) for best original song. While La La Land took the award, this track deserved its spot on the nominees list at least, as this is a Disney song which is not only listenable, but enjoyable and - and this is important - leagues above Let it Go. It's clear the creators of Moana understood that this song would really be a hit, since they reprise the song two or three times more during the film, which does make it a bit stale by the end - but Cravalho's voice seems perfect for not only voice acting as Moana, but also in performing How Far I'll Go.
There are other original tracks in the film, Maui (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) does perform as well, but none of them resonated as much as the main track. However, other than the song that he performs, Maui was absolutely my favourite character in the film. This is far and away Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's best presentation in any film, playing a demi-god who has caused the curse that Moana's island is affected by, mainly through his own ignorance. And that's what Maui is during the time you meet the character; an ignorant, self-absorbed moron who is too focused on his own image to actually help anyone using the status he possesses as a demi-god. Moana attempts to find him to try and fix the curse, and Maui is our reluctant hero in this adventure.
What I really loved about Maui is that there is absolutely no reason for him to be so full of himself, he is stripped of his shapeshifting abilities when Moana discovers him, and he has essentially caused all of the problems that he and Moana face during the film, yet his ego is still huge, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's execution makes this somewhat charming. The relationship that Moana has with him is naturally quite rocky (I'm very funny) to begin with; Moana tries to command Maui to fix the curse and Maui tries to leave Moana to rot on an island and steals her boat. Despite this, they do work together during the film and their relationship grows to a point of admiration and empathy of one another - without spoiling anything. The actors clearly work in conjunction very well, and Maui was one of the main reasons I really enjoyed this movie.
Overall, Moana is incredibly enjoyable, even if it follows the typical Disney formula. The plot may have been particularly generic, but every performance in the film really hit a high note and the animation style, while Disney's usual, still had moments of spectacle. Even for a children's movie, I would wholeheartedly recommend this film to any child or adult, because either demographic will likely find this film really entertaining.
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