Moana a treat for kids and their parents
Disney’s Moana and its clever heroine sure to charm kids, parents
MOANA out of 5 Starring: Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson Director: Ron Clements, Don Hall Duration: 103 minutes
You can’t accuse Disney director Ron Clements of not keeping up with the times. He oversaw the classic hand-animated love stories The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, helped craft a far more self-sufficient heroine in 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, and now co-directs (with Don Hall) a true example of Disney third-wave feminism.
Emphasis on “wave.” In Moana, a rollicking computeranimated adventure story without a hint of a romantic subplot, the ocean itself is a central character. When future island leader Moana is a girl, she is approached by the sea — picture the living column of water in James Cameron’s The Abyss — with a mission: Sail across the waves and return a magic stone to its rightful place. The future of her people depends on it; a vague ecological disaster is suggested.
Proving that heroism skips a generation, Moana’s father is adamant she stay safely on dry land, while her grandmother urges her to heed her calling.
And truth be told, the story only really catches fire when the now-teenage Moana discovers a hidden cache of sailing ships and uses one to take to the waves. Her departure is backed by We Know the Way, one of a number of superb melodies crafted by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creative force behind the hit Broadway musical Hamilton.
Also on the soundtrack is You’re Welcome, sung by Dwayne Johnson, who provides the voice of Maui. He’s a demi-god and trickster whose old-school tattoos (i.e. hand-drawn rather than computer-generated) provide a useful counterpoint to his boastful personality.
And Moana needs his help to return the stone, given that he’s the guy who took it in the first place; there’s more than a little Prometheus in his soul.
Of course, the two don’t see eye to eye. Maui mocks the mere mortal Moana, telling her: “If you wear a dress and you have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.” But this princess proves a resourceful adventurer when the pair is beset by tiny pirates (picture a cross between Minions and coconuts) or must cross paths with a giant crab, voiced by Jemaine Clement. Moana, meanwhile, is given voice by newcomer Auli’i Cravalho of Hawaii, who is all of 16 years and one day old as the film opens. It’s a stunning, beautiful debut performance.
The story’s setting is deliberately vague.
The script, by an eight-person committee including the directors, draws from Polynesian mythology — the filmmakers travelled to Samoa, Fiji and Tonga on what must have been the sweetest research trip ever — and is set at least a couple of thousand years ago.
But all that’s necessary to know is that this is a pre-modern tale, and thus conveniently timeless.
Kids and parents alike should get a kick out of it, and the adults probably won’t even mind if this becomes one of those high-rotation titles once the DVD/download option arrives. It is, like its title character, smart, quick-witted, inventive and melodious.