Moana
2016, Disney Animation
Well, what can I say? With Moana, Disney had a genuine hit on their hands. But therein lies my gripe: it comes off as a deliberate hit: every minute of it carefully calculated according to a tried-and-true Disney formula that was wisely tweaked to work for a more modern audience. The tweaks came in the form of an obvious "girl power" story—nothing wrong with that, really—and an egotistical yet self-aware demigod that our heroine sees right through.
There was considerable noise in the press over the fact that Auli'i Cravalho from Hawaii was chosen for Moana. Again, nothing wrong with that; it just felt as though Disney was using their diversity efforts as a marketing gimmick. Then, their choice of Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. The Rock) for the role of the demigod Maui made it seem as though Disney picked a pop culture icon for the sake of having a pop culture icon.
Casting intrigue aside, Moana is more than worth it for the spectacular animation alone.
DKS 12/17/17
Moana 2
2016, Disney Animation
It's back-to-back hits with Moana 2. Not quite as tightly assembled as its predecessor—a few of the songs are a tad awkward, some scenes seem to run on a continuous loop for as long as needed for a song, the action is at times too frenetic for my taste, and chunks of the plot are confusing, contrived, or confusingly contrived—but it's all still highly enjoyable. The comic relief is intact (i.e. the chicken) and still surprisingly not overdone. Good to see Disney using some restraint on some of their trademark film elements. They also poked very gentle fun at themselves over the fact that Moana is not a princess.
I will make one note here that some of the plot points are illustrated graphically, which does perhaps make for some refreshing breaks for viewers' eyeballs, and may help keep the brain creatively engaged. (I confess I can't recall if this was an aspect of the original or not; I'd have to re-watch.)
DKS 5/11/25
