Moana Review

Disney’s Latest Animated Picture is a Musical Marvel

Moana+Review

Throughout the years, Walt Disney Animation Studios has excelled in the creation of flawless animated films. From the warm-hearted Frozen, to the brilliantly written animated film of this year, Zootopia; Disney has managed to generate timeless classic after timeless classic. But the question is, will Disney continue to produce beautiful animated pictures? Well, Disney’s new project Moana, Disney has upheld the high standards. As it stands, Moana is an animated film that will surely rise above the ranks as being one of the year’s best animated pictures along with movies like Zootopia and stop-motion animation studio Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings that came out in August.

The film centers on an adventurous young girl named Moana, voiced by Auli’I Cravalho, who is the daughter and heir of the chief of a Polynesian tribe living on a luscious, tropical island where life is wonderful for all the people there. Unfortunately, disaster strikes when the island suffers from shortages of resources; fish they hunt aren’t around the island anymore, crops they grow are vanishing, and the food they eat is rotting from the inside out. The townspeople have no idea what to do to handle these debacles, but luckily, Moana is able to discover why the island’s resources are becoming unusable and the island itself is slowly dying. She finds out that thousands of years before, a demigod named Maui voiced by Dwayne Johnson, had stolen a sacred stone, thought to be the heart of an island goddess who created life for all that existed. In an effort to save her people and bring back all that has been lost, she sets sail on a heroic quest to find Maui to help him return the ancient stone to its rightful place.

One of the most excellent attributes of Walt Disney Animation Studios films is gorgeous animation, and I have to say that without question, this is some of the most breathtaking animation I have ever seen from Disney, at least, since Frozen. Everything from the character designs to the environments, even the ocean, are some of the most spectacular pieces of animation that can be seen on the big screen.

Originally, the movie’s directors, Ron Clements and John Musker, intended the film to be another hand-drawn animated movie that was going to go along with the animation style of their past films like The Princess and the Frog, but once they changed the film into a 3D Animated project, they did something visually impressive with the animation, by combining computer generated imagery with stylistic two-dimensional drawings. It is something we’ve never seen before in a film like this, and it exemplifies Disney’s continuous progress animated films.

Another thing that Disney is praised for so highly for is their creation of iconic layered characters, and Moana indeed does have its fair share of memorable characters, like the charismatic braggart Maui, and the brave and fearless Moana. Maui’s character is more than just a one-note braggadocious character throughout the film. His charm and bravado, along with an important foundational backstory make him a very entertaining character, also attributable to Dwayne Johnson’s vocal performance. Alongside Maui, the main character Moana, who is voiced terrifically by new actress Auli’I Cravalho, who plays an endearing character. Not only is she another empowering female figure to represent the Disney brand, but she is perhaps the most relatable character in the movie.

What Moana shares with other Disney films is an collection of fantastic songs and a melodic score. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is best known for his renowned work on the musical Hamilton, wrote and composed the songs of Moana, and the songs themselves are well executed and are also extremely catchy. My favorite track is the rhythmically memorable song that is sung by Dwayne Johnson entitled, “You’re Welcome.” However there are also some really amazingly melodious songs like “We Know the Way” and “How Far I’ll Go,” a song sung beautifully by Cravalho.

Moana, with memorable characters, gorgeous animation, excellent songs, and a very applicable moral, is one of the best animated movies of the year and, quite possibly, one of the best films of the year. I hope families have a blast watching it and I also hope you will love this movie just as much as I did.