Moana review: This is Disney’s 56th animated feature, and, following in the footsteps of the acclaimed Frozen and Zootropolis, does it ride the wave of success, or sink like a dead weight.
Moana review by Paul Heath, November 2016.
Image: Disney
Moana is the 56th official Disney animated feature film, a legacy that began all of the way back in 1937 with the ground-breaking Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. Nearly eighty years on and Disney are just as strong, continuing on their run of quality, acclaimed and commercially strong tales that was really rebooted with 2010’s Tangled. So, does their latest make the grade?
Moana is largely an original story and is unique in that it is not based on fairy tale or legend, though does have its roots in Polynesian mythology. The story revolves around the title character of Moana (voice of Auli’i Cravalho), the strong-willed daughter of the chief of a Polynesian tribe who must venture past the reef of her home island of Motunui in the south Pacific to find the demi-God Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who years before stole island goddess Te Fiti’s heart, a small pounamu stone, in order to attempt to harness its power. Moana’s father, chief Tui (Temuera Morrison) is dead against it and tells his daughter to fear the ocean rather than embrace its wonder. However, Moana is the chosen one and must disobey his commands and find Maui before her home is destroyed forever.
Image: Disney
Moana comes to the screen in the very safe hands of directors Ron Clements and John Musker, two Disney legends who are responsible for the likes of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Princess and The Frog. The duo take on their first 100% CGI-animated fare with Moana, a project that has been five years in the making. While their experience is limited with the new CGI process (this is a very different filmmaking than the traditional hand-drawn ways), it doesn’t show as Moana has all the traits of a wonderful Disney movie. Whether that be the exceptional songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina, or the grand-ness in its storytelling, the film is up there with the best of them.
As the film alludes to in a very funny sequence involving Johnson’s Maui and Cravalho’s Moana meeting for the first time, there is the princess element, along with kooky sidekick HeiHei (played by Alan Tudyk, Moana’s pet rooster, his look apparently modelled on Musker) and pet pig Pua, supposedly inspired by Clements, and there’s also the mild peril which can be associated with most great Disney movies.
Johnson is perfect as Maui (it’s difficult to imagine anyone else voicing the character), but it is Cravalho who delights in her very first film role. Alongside them are characters voiced by the likes of Nicole Scherzinger and Rachel House, but it is Jemaine Clement‘s Tamatoa, a giant treasure-hoarding coconut crab from Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters, who nearly steals the show with a stand-out, almost Bowie-esque musical number called ‘Shiny’.
Following in the shadow of Disney greats such as Frozen and Zootropolis, Moana had a lot to live up, but in our eyes the film almost surpasses both of them. A funny, sometimes emotional, well-crafted beaut of a film that is an instant classic. We enjoyed it immensely.
Moana review, Paul Heath, November 2016.
Moana is released across the UK from Friday 2nd December 2016.
