Moana

Voices of: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Tudyk
Directed by: Ron Clements, Don Hall, John Musker, Chris Williams
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary:
To stop a terrible curse, a young girl (Auli'i Cravalho) embarks on a dangerous journey into the open sea.

Review:

Tim: There's a lot of things to like about Moana, but somehow, all of the individual pieces don't quite add up as much as we'd like. I found this to be a good movie- certainly a deliverer of the Disney magic. However, the movie isn't effective enough to really launch itself into the upper tier of Disney films. It's entertaining and thankfully promotes much-needed diversity, but the movie isn't destined to be one of the true classics. It's good, but never great.

One of the greatest aspects of this film is that it features an all-Polynesian cast of characters. This shouldn't be discounted- Disney has taken a few tentative steps towards including more diverse characters in their films, but it's still pretty white. It was wonderful to see Polynesian characters highlighted in this film. I loved that aspect and honestly, it helps differentiate this film from all the others. It gave this film a new flavor and that's a very good thing. It's also great that Disney continues to promote strong female characters. I appreciated the character of Moana and her tough, never-give-up mentality.

The story itself was okay. It didn't feel like it had quite the endless appeal that some of the true Disney classics had. The film does touch on themes of courage and overcoming fears, believing in yourself, understanding your heritage, etc. These are all good, but it felt like the film was lacking that one big punch. There's a lot of activity, but not a lot of really powerful moments that burn into the memory. The movie does do a good job of leveraging the Polynesian culture and heritage and building their family-friendly film around that. That's a big strength.

The voice cast is good, but I'm not sure there were a ton of standouts. Dwayne Johnson was a terrific choice for Maui, both due to who he is and his voice talent. It was fun to hear him in this role. Auli'i Cravalho was good as Moana. The rest of the cast was fine.

Like we've come to expect from Disney films, the animation is beautiful. It was terrific to see this world depicted via Disney's animation. The wide open ocean, the Polynesian culture, the ships, the villains- it was all vivid and incredible to look at. There were some moments that felt maybe a tad too frightening for younger viewers, but for the most part, the movie is strong visually.

It felt like the music wasn't quite as strong as some other Disney films. The songs were decent, but there wasn't really one truly great song. "How Far I'll Go" was the highlight, but even that wasn't a true classic.

Moana is certainly a good movie. It was nominated for two Academy Awards,and although it failed to win any, this is still an achievement. This is an effective, entertaining movie and while it's not as good as Disney's best, you have to feel good about the end result.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Princess and the Frog, Zootopia, Aladdin