When you have a formula that works, you don’t tinker with
it. Kentucky Fried Chicken knows this,
Mercedes-Benz knows this and Disney knows this. It would be hard to calculate
just how many billions the corporation has earned on its princess movies and
the ancillary products it sells because of them. The youngsters these films are
aimed at show no signs of stopping where watching and collecting items related
to them are concerned and to Disney’s credit, what they produce has been of
consistently high quality over the years.
It ain’t broke, so why should they worry about fixing it?
As long as the studio
is able to produce films like Moana, its best animated effort since Frozen and one that’s just as good as some of Disney’s acknowledged classics, then
they just need to keep doing what their doing.
Inspiring, funny and gorgeous, directors Ron Clements and Don Hall hit
the ground running in bringing Jared Harris’ script to life, a story in which
not only are the main character and her ally trying to come to terms with who
they are, but an entire society as well.
From the start, Moana (voice by Auli’I Cravalho) is seen as
a child of destiny, one eager to find out what lies beyond her village and who
does not shrink from danger. Her father,
Chief Tui (Temuera Morris) wishes that she would be content with the fact that
the island where they live provides her and her people all that they need.
However, Moana’s wanderlust and curiosity are too much to contain, and after
making a startling discovery about her people, she comes to understand her
purpose. She is charged with finding the
demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) who’s been in exile for centuries after having
robbed the heart of the goddess Te’ Fiti. This act has caused a blight to
slowly creep across the ocean, infecting one island at a time, a plague that’s
finally reached Moana’s home, causing crops to wither and the fishing grounds
to empty. She must find and convince
Maui to return the heart to Te’Fiti to set things right.
The bulk of the film consists of this adventure giving the
corps of animators a variety of locales to show what they’re capable of. The sights are breath-taking as the sea
provides a glistening background of greens and blues against which the fluid
motions of the many boats glide. A
massive flotilla, having taken a wrong turn from Mad Max: Fury Road, that emerges from a cloud bank is an impressive frightening sight, as is a vision
at the end of a sleeping god wrapped around an island, while Maui’s tattoos are
a show of their own, acting as the demigod’s conscience, coming to life
throughout to urge him to do the right thing.
While “Kubo and the Two Strings” may be the most innovative animated
film of the year, “Moana” is surely the most beautiful with one incredible
sight tripping on the heels of another.
The voice work at play here is top-notch with newcomer Cravalho
providing a solid foundation with her properly emotive voice and strong singing,
while Johnson brings a sense of confident derring-do to Maui as well as genuine
doubt during a key moment. He also does a fine job singing with “You’re
Welcome,” a self-serving tune delivered with just the right amount of false
modesty.
To be sure, Moana’s message of empowerment is
nothing new but here it has a much wider scope.
It isn’t just the young lady at its center who is seeking purpose and
identity but her people, the demigod at her side and even the villain they must
combat. In many ways, this is a
reflection of our confused times, as so many of us question the direction our
world and our country is headed in.
“Moana” reminds us that in seeking and finding our reason for living, we
might be able to guide others towards theirs.
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2016.
