K-SCORE: 65
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Writer: Jared Bush
Starring: Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Alan Tudyk
Spoiler Level: Moderate
Two good songs, a brave protagonist, and a humorously moronic chicken - is that enough to make a good movie? Yeah, kind of. Moana is close to being really lovable and adventurous, but tries a little too hard with its comedy some of the time, makes too many random choices with its fantasy elements other times, and suffers through some poorly written, poorly conceived sections almost as often as it swims smoothly and freely through its ocean. Thankfully, the creators seemed to understand what about their film worked well, and repeated their best gags and How Far I’ll Go song over and over again.
“too many fantastical functions trying to coexist”
Moana makes me want to rewatch the Disney films of my childhood to see whether, under my adult objective eye, they can withstand my scrutiny better. Mostly I saw the mistakes this movie was making and didn’t care about them. I knew when the jokes about peeing and tattoo arguments and practicing declarations weren’t landing, but I shrugged it off. And I recognized quickly that between a demigod, a set of gods, a magical transforming fishhook, a little magic green stone, a blue-glowy dead jedi grandmother, a semi-sentient ocean with unclear directives and powers, and a realm of monsters where mortals aren’t supposed to tread, that Moana had way too many fantastical functions trying to coexist. Whimsy is fun, but it does come at the cost of cohesion, and it’s a sliding scale. Putting all that into a two hour film makes you kind of crane your neck, scratch your head, and go, “okay, I guess she’s nuzzling that green island face goddess now.” Or, “Okay, I guess higher-order thinking creatures wearing coconut armor-helmets want to steal the heart of the ocean stone.” Or, “Okay, I guess there’s a crab with shiny treasure on his back living beneath this purple volcano.” But I didn’t much mind because I’m not the target audience, because some of the music is uplifting, and because the chicken was charming.
The reason it had me thinking about my past was because I was bored much of the time. It follows such an obvious structure that not only was I bored in parts, I knew before those parts arrived, which parts I’d be bored in. I knew when Moana and Maui were going to bicker, come to appreciate each other, fight again, and what kind of themes they’d work in before they went on their save-the-world final mission. So the dips in the narrative where there was supposed to be dramatic tension provided none for me because it's impossible to believe they’d write a story where the Maui character, for example, fails in his arc and never aids and appreciates Moana in the end. They couldn’t make me believe that they’d turn the sentient ocean into an insidious force, or leave the home island ashen, starving, and doomed. Not that I think making such choices would make a better movie, it probably wouldn’t, but knowing the story ahead of the time comes at a cost. Is a big part of why I love Aladdin more than Finding Nemo just because I was a child when I saw Aladdin so didn’t know the obvious trajectory of the narrative? I will ponder this.
Here’s a little side note: For all the work Frozen did trying to write a Disney princess film about sisterhood and female empowerment, and for all the hype it got about such work, Moana succeeds where Frozen failed. Frozen’s crap and its female characters are a little obsessed with the male characters who either fall into the category of evil or entirely idiotic. Moana is just a narrative driven entirely by a female hero who is courageous and skilled and good-hearted. She’s not fixated on the fact that she’s a girl, nor do people estimate her abilities one way or another because of her femininity. Most importantly, they gave her stuff to do, so you’re just following a story with a female lead. It’s not that remarkable a feat, but hey, if you’re going to take a stance that little girls need role models that aren’t sleeping princesses waiting to be kissed by tall handsome princes, give them a Rock and set them off to sea.