Moana

Release Date: November 23, 2016

Watch Date: January 28, 2023

 

    If all Maui can say is “you’re welcome” then I suppose I should say “thank you”. Thank you for a film that is visually breathtaking, for a film with catchy music, for a film with a princess unafraid to take on challenges, and believe in herself.

    Mostly, thank you for a film where a princess stops believing in herself. Where she questions her decisions, and where her mentor doesn’t immediately give her a pep talk and tell her that she can do anything that she puts her mind to. No, Moana’s grandmother gives her grace and support to make her own decisions, to walk away from something scary, something challenging, something that is hurting her, and in that way gives Moana the permission and security to make her own decisions. In the end, she chooses the morally right path, chooses to be brave, but there is power in making that choice.

    This movie had the potential to be extremely visually boring. There are plenty of scenes where it’s just our two main characters, and a rooster, out on the open ocean on a tiny boat. And instead those are some of the richest parts to look at it. The constantly varied color of the ocean, the wide open expanse of sky. And then it’s broken it up with bright moments of color, going down into the realm of monsters, or fighting angry coconuts. It’s breathtaking in it’s scope, and personally, I could stare at the starlit night of Moana’s universe for ages.

    Lin Manuel Miranda did a fantastic job with the music. ‘You’re Welcome’, ‘Shiny’, ‘How Far I’ll Go’ are all instant Disney classics, up there with the songs that we’re still singing from the 90s, immediately as catchy as ‘Let it Go’. All of these songs have been put into my regular playlist rotation, and the entire family has danced along to them. Because they’re good, they’re catchy, and they’re fun to belt out. Is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson the most talented singer on the planet? No. Doesn’t matter. ‘You’re Welcome’ is fun to sing, and actually manages to convey a bunch of Hawaiian mythology, and that is an extremely cool thing.

    Moana immediately became one of the classic Disney princesses, and it is a richly deserved position. She needs no romance, no prince to save her. She can stand on her own two feet and navigate her own way through life, and she is a princess I would be proud to have my daughter grow up to emulate. I love the princesses I grew up with, but I am extremely jealous of the role models our daughters’ generation gets to grow up with.

    I have a feeling that plenty of Moana re-watches will be in my future, because not only do both Bob and I love this movie, but so does our son, and our daughter will bop around to ‘You’re Welcome’ with the best of them. So watch, enjoy, and be inspired to see just how far you’ll go.