REVIEW: Moana

It's no secret by now that I'm a tremendous fan of Disney Animation, especially considering their recent output. Zootopia remains one of my favorite films to come out this year and, while it's definitely over-exposed, I'd be lying if I said Frozen wasn't a rock-solid musical. The house of mouse has been on a roll as of late, which is why I was so pumped up to see their latest film, Moana. A Disney animated musical inspired by Polynesian folklore, starring The Rock as a shape-shifting demigod; it's like this movie was made for me. And while I did certainly have my share of fun at Moana, I have to say that it left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed at first. Don't get me wrong, it's a good enough time, but I feel as though this is the first instance of the more recent, modern Disney formula actively making a film feel lesser than what it could have been.

The titular character, Moana (newcomer Auli'i Cravalho), is the daughter of the Chieftain of the Island of Motonui (Temuera Morrison). While she must learn to one day lead in her father's stead, her true passion lies with the ocean. Ever since she was a baby, she felt the call of exploration and adventure on the high seas, an interest that naturally causes a fair amount of friction between herself and her hydrophobic dad. After an ancient curse begins poisoning Motonui's natural resources, Moana sets out on her own across the waves to find Maui (Dwayne Johnson), a wayward demigod whose actions brought on the curse in the first place, in order to undo his mistakes and save her people. For all its mythology and set-dressing, this is honestly a pretty straightforward story; girl needs to deliver maguffin, has a crisis of self, gets over it, and accomplishes her goal. Simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially in a children's film, but considering this is the studio that released Zootopia, a film noir crime-mystery about casual racism, it's not exactly unreasonable to expect a few more surprises than what we get.

That's not to imply that the story is bad, of course; it's an entertaining adventure with a lot of really fun, beautifully animated moments and setpieces. It's straightforward, but that's not the film's key problem. For me, my issue came with the choice of protagonist. Auli'i Cravalho does an excellent job as Moana, especially considering this is her first ever film role and especially considering she provides the character's singing voice as well. She's a fifteen year old newcomer and manages to match the energy of Dwayne Johnson, a professional wrestler. That's no small feat. Despite how much I enjoyed her performance, I just felt that Moana wasn't that interesting a protagonist. Right from when the film begins, we see that she's basically just great at everything. She has a good rapport with her people and is shaping up to be a great Chief. Despite being self-taught, she's reasonably adept at sailing and is able to handle herself in a fight, both physically and intellectually. She makes exactly one mistake over the course of the film and it ends up having literally no consequences. Sure, she's forced to choose between her responsibilities and doing what she loves, but it turns out in the end that she's able to just choose both. Moana is a likeable, capable protagonist, but she doesn't have a real arc; in the end, it is everyone else who develops and changes, while she remains more or less the same. At the end of the day, I would have much preferred the movie to focus more on Maui, since he's infinitely more interesting.

Maui's entire motivation boils down to reclaiming his magic fish hook so that he can go back to being a hero of legend again. It allows him to perform all manner of supernatural feats of wonder, in addition to granting him the ability to shapeshift. Basically, the hook represents his ego; in Maui's eyes, he is worth exactly what he can do for others, and no more. His boastful, larger-than-life nature is a front, hiding his myriad insecurities and fear of abandonment and rejection; the only reason he agrees to accompany Moana on her journey is so that mortals will love him again. I'll try to stay light on spoilers, but there is a moment in this film where Maui is faced with the possibility of losing his fish hook. Rather than continue on and risk losing the only thing that, in his eyes, makes him Maui, he simply decides to give up and run away. As one would expect, he of course has a change of heart and returns to help during the climax; the problem is, we don't get to see this change of heart take place. He's out of the film until he comes back out of the blue. 

The film takes its most interesting character and turns him into a deus ex machina while instead choosing to focus on the protagonist who only began to feel insecure at that exact moment. Granted, the Song of the Ancestors sequence was utterly gorgeous and one of the highlights of the film; I am in no way saying it should have been cut or replaced with another Maui song. But I see no reason why we had to completely ignore one protagonist over another, considering they're both on the same journey for very similar reasons. A good comparison would be if Flynn Rider was absent from I See the Light, or if Anna disappeared entirely after Fixer-Upper, only to return when she saves Elsa from Hans. This may seem like a nitpick, but the absence of this kind of character development and growth only serves to make Moana feel somewhat dumbed-down when compared to every other recent film from Disney Animation.

I also felt as though it relied just a bit too heavily on the new Disney formula. Since the studio has had its resurgence, it seems to have become almost too comfortable in its ability to produce hits; these films are all made around the same time by the same production studio, so some overlap in terms of characterization and story threads is to be expected, but it's beginning to get a bit distracting. Primarily in the princess/fairy tale stories, we always have a spunky young girl (Rapunzel/Anna/Moana) team up with a gruff, smart-alecky guy (Flynn/Kristoff/Maui) to go on some sort of physical journey. Along the way they're accompanied by a comedic relief who acts as a sort of moral center for the guy (Maximus/Sven/Maui's Tattoo) and a comedic relief who is definitely there to appeal more to kids (Pascal/Olaf/Heihei the Chicken). Sometime in the third act, there's a moment where the color goes flat to indicate a serious dramatic turn. These trends are less evident in the non-princess films, but are still there in some way, shape, or form (the dynamic between Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, when Wreck-It Ralph smashes Vanellope's car, and so on). Don't get me wrong, all of these films are enjoyable (Moana included), but Disney definitely has to be wary of this in the future (in terms of their animated, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises).

Now that I've got my griping out of the way, I'm free to say that I absolutely loved everything else about this movie. Disney continues to be a house of bonafine pioneers when it comes to making something as commonplace as CG animation look astoundingly gorgeous. There are more than a few "oh wow" moments in this movie, mostly involving the ocean. This is a film bursting with color; the cool, vibrant palette of greens and blues gives everything a lively, organic feel, despite how obviously animated it is. The cast is also a delight, as small as it is. I already mentioned what a good job Auli'i Cravalho does as Moana, but I also naturally found Dwayne Johnson to be beyond enjoyable as Maui (though I almost feel inclined to like him no matter what he does). The Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement appears as Tamatoa, a glam-rock crab that was clearly inspired by David Bowie; he's given the closest thing the film has to a villain song and it definitely doesn't disappoint. The best performance, however, I feel came care of Rachel House, who voiced Moana's Gramma Tala. This is a role that requires inspiring the majority of the film's emotional and spiritual weight, and House completely nails it with aplomb. This is one of those casts where there is no weakest link, just a few that are especially strong.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Moana. It's gorgeously animated and the songs (care of Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda) stayed consistently strong and memorable throughout. The cast is immediately endearing and the visuals are mind-blowing for anyone remotely into animation, but I still felt as though the story was somewhat lacking. Had this had stronger character growth, I could easily see this becoming the new gold standard of this Disney Revival period; unfortunately, like so many Disney Princesses before me, I'm left wanting more. Moana is a perfectly inoffensive film, just don't expect anything especially groundbreaking beyond its visuals. It honestly feels like a film straight out of the 90's Renaissance, for better and for worse. If you enjoy Disney's animated musicals, then this should be right in your wheelhouse; it doesn't exactly have the complexity or ingenuity of the more modern Disney films, but it's sure to make you smile.