Moana (2016 review)

4 outta 5

The Disney animated movie template is a sturdy framework to hang multiple flicks on.  Once in awhile Disney breaks out of it with something like Zootopia or subvert conventions such as with Frozen.  Their latest effort, Moana, works rather well inside of the Disney framework involving princesses, exploration, magic, monsters and musical numbers.   What kicks this up a notch is interesting performances, some huge laughs, propulsive action scenes, and unique characters. 

In ancient Polynesia, princess Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) wants to leave the confines of her small island despite the objections of her fearful father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison).  But when the island’s food sources dwindle, Moana jumps on a boat, takes a sacred stone and a stowaway rooster, to find the demigod Maui (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson).    Maui is a conceited, selfish, preening jerk who is more interested in finding his magic hook but she forces him to help restore life to the lifeless lands.  To do this they have to battle diminutive pirates, treasure hoarding giant crabs and a volcanic angry spirit. 

There’re a few very catchy songs in Moana, which is interesting because the full musical approach for Disney animated flicks has been tapering off.  Wreck-It-Ralph and Big Hero 6 ditched musical numbers.  Pixar’s animated efforts never really went full on musical.  But Frozen (and the huge hit “Let It Go”) nudged Disney back to musical numbers. The songs, co-written by “Hamilton” and Star Wars: The Force Awakens “Jabba Flow” scribe Lin-Manuel Miranda, have a bit of an R&B flavor, especially in Johnson’s big introductory bombastic number “You’re Welcome”.  Another great song is the epic Polynesian influenced traveling adventure song “We Know the Way” that reprises throughout.   The biggest song is the heroine theme “How Far I’ll Go” which is sort of every single Disney princess wanderlust idea distilled to a single track.  Kind of on the nose and the melody seems a rip off of “Let It Go”, but it works.  During the credits there is a pop-synth remix of “How Far I’ll Go” by Alessia Cara that is so bad it almost makes one forget how good the song is in the movie. 

The initial stuff of Moana at her small island is a bit of a drag, featuring a lot of Disney movie clichés with a princess who has to put up with a father who wants to curtail her desire to see a whole new world.   Things get considerably better when Moana meets Maui as they form a funny, antagonistic alliance but Maui repeatedly tries to abandon Moana, much to her annoyance.  Johnson is sort of playing an overblown cartoonish version of his The Rock persona as he touts how great he is.  Cravalho interjects the character of Moana with a lot of energy and funny lines.  The movie also picks up with a lot of really cool action scenes like the fight with the treasure loving crab.  Also for 10 minutes the movie basically turns into Mad Max: Fury Road as the pair battle anthropomorphic pirate coconuts, swinging from barge to barge.  A final confrontation with a lava God is riveting and features some very cool twists.

Since the majority of the film is about the interaction between Maui and Moana, the duo get a few sidekicks. One, quite literally, small supporting character, well technically a sub- character, is a lively tattoo on Maui’s body that soundlessly reacts to Maui’s actions.  It’s an interesting idea in theory however the execution is awkward because the movie has a tendency to grind to a halt for a few seconds as we watch the tattoo man freak out.  The most amazing sidekick is the incredibly stupid rooster Heihei (Alan Tudyk).  The rooster is so dumb it can’t even walk in the correct direction as it clucks frantically.  It’s an easy gag but a surprisingly, consistently awesome one.   Moana, chosen by the spirit of the sea, has a water tentacle that pops up to help her every once in a while and it does something epic in the third act. 

Moana’s Grandmother (Rachel House) inspires Moana to go on her journey beyond their island.  The old lady drops so much story information she might as well be called Grandma Exposition.  When things seem bleakest, Grandmother appears as a sting-ray / Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi to offer moral support.  The movie kind of doesn’t need this because Moana is a strong character on her own.  It seems dictated by hero’s journey movie structure that when the hero is at their lowest point they receive guidance from beyond.   

Jemaine Clement’s evildoer crab gets in a fantastic song where he proclaims his lust for treasure.  The whole sequence of Moana and Maui confronting the treasure hoarding crab is pretty great with shades of Biblo and Smaug, except with more gags and singing, which befits the fairytale feel.  There’s also a post-credits sting involving the crab that is really funny and has a great callback to another iconic Disney animated crab. 

While Moana may come in a standard Disney package that has been used and reused for decades, it does have a lot of style and a couple of interesting mythological flourishes.   This doesn’t break up the Disney animation formula but, instead, is another solid entry.