Moana (2016)

Moana (2016)

7/10

Starring the voice of

Auli'i Cravalho

Dwayne Johnson

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

Disney has refused to go down with the old ways of animated musical animations. They have been working their way back up for years now and although 2016 will be a year many will love to forget due to the numerous tragic and gloomy events Disney on the other hand will not want to forget 2016.

Moana is a good adventure film for the family and it did very well in tapping from the oldies that we loved when we were younger to produce this movie. The movie is not a masterpiece in the way of Zootopia (2016), but Disney did their best and produced a movie that is worth seeing and enjoying with the family.

When it came to the animation, the characterization and the story, Disney delivered. The animation was fluid, when it came to characterization the two main characters and their supporting cast were memorable. In the case of the story although it didn’t feel new, it had a brief intro and dived straight into the adventure leaving no room for you the viewer to doze off.

The musical and the score were cool and even though you can say the movie did not need to be a musical, this time I didn’t feel like the songs were isolated from the events and Disney found a way to merge the musicals into the happenings on screen. Meaning, the musicals were a continuation of what was going on except with a beat.

A millennium ago a Demigod named Maui stole the heart of the god of nature and lost it, the repercussions of that a millennium after was a terrible curse which reached an impetuous Chieftain's daughter's island.

The daughter Moana is called by the ocean to restore order and to do so she must restore the heart with the help of the Demigod Maui, whom she must first seek out.

Like I said the story did not feel original, you can always guess where Disney tapped the ideas in the movie from. For example, it starts with the mystery of what is beyond the reef and a father forbidden his child to go find out, (Finding Nemo (2003)) and we soon must deal with a little girl finding it hard to obey rules and fit into the status quo because something beyond is calling her telling her there is more (Beauty and the Beast (1991)).

We also have the stubborn dad who does not want the daughter to seek adventure, add to that the under the sea bad guy what does that remind you of, Little Mermaid (1989).

Why would you expect any different the directors?

The directors John Musker and Ron Clements were the ones on the helms of Disney classics The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992) and Hercules (1997). They were the best for the job since Disney was borrowing ideas majorly from these three films. A magical sidekick to our hero from Aladdin (1992), the visuals and comedy remind me a lot of Hercules (1997).

The movie does not have any love interest though, a welcomed addition to Disney new style of making movies, where it does not always have to end with two people falling in love.

Nice movie to go see with the family.