This musical tale of an empowered Polynesian princess marks a return to the heights of the Disney Renaissance, from the directors of 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Aladdin.'
Princesses come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, though Disney’s latest addition to its ever-growing gallery of empowered female heroines — Moana (voiced by Hawaiian actress Auli’i Cravalho), the daughter of a Pacific Islands chieftain — doesn’t see herself as a princess per se. Even so, as her friend, the Polynesian demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), is quick to point out, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.” Thankfully, while Moana is going through a pretty serious identity crisis in the new animated movie that bears her name, Walt Disney Animation Studios has resoundingly solved its own, delivering a musical adventure that’s a worthy addition alongside “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin,” two now-classic cartoons also brought to life by directors John Musker and Ron Clements, whose gift for hand-drawn animation translates beautifully to the realm of CG here.
More than “Tangled,” more than “Frozen,” “Moana” keeps with the tradition that made Disney the leader in animated fairy and folk tales, and yet, showing a thoroughly modern touch, it’s the first to do so without so much as suggesting a love interest. Sure, there are men in Moana’s life, big hulking men shaped like Samoan rugby players with egos of a similar size: Maui wants mortals to adore him, and Moana’s father enforces a rule that no one from their tribe is allowed to venture beyond the shallow reef that encircles their island, Motunui. But the only force Moana answers to is the ocean itself, which behaves quite unexpectedly in an early scene, pulling back the water’s edge so that she can amble in over her head, peering at the sea life all around her as if staring into a giant aquarium.
It’s a magical moment, and one that endears us to both Moana and the ocean for the rest of the film. As if witnessing Buzz Aldrin stare out into space as a child, we’re afforded the opportunity to see an explorer make first contact with her destiny, and if there’s any doubt that this is something special, the film front-loads her story with two exceptional original songs: The first conveys her father’s play-it-safe mantra, “Where We Are,” while the other gives voice to Moana’s own horizon-challenging desires, “How Far I’ll Go” — both the result of an inspired collaboration between “Hamilton” composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, longtime Disney music guru Mark Mancina, and Opetaia Foa’i, the lead singer of South Pacific fusion band Te Vaka. Much as “Moana” means “ocean” in Maori, effectively reinforcing the bond between the two, Miranda discovers a near-perfect rhyming connection between “daughter” and “water.”
These two competing forces are as strong as those that control the tide itself, as her dad demands that she remain on land, while Moana dreams of setting sail on a quest to return to its rightful owner the “heart of Te Fiti,” a carved, jade-like stone stolen years earlier by Maui. You can practically hear the swagger in Johnson’s voice as he plays the vain demigod, the depiction of whom has set off some alarm bells among the culturally oversensitive. Frankly, it’s impressive all the myriad ways in which research trips to the region have informed the film’s design, and though Maui may not look like previous artists’ depictions, he’s a thoroughly original character. ...
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