Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Moana'

​Written by Mike Cervantes

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

So, I’ve written a lot of reviews for this site by now, and it’s become somewhat obvious that I tend to be a bit more…judgmental…of certain kinds of films than the other authors of this page. I often don’t bring it up, because it’s a silly thing to even write out: here I am the most critical critic on Nerds that Geek. I do, however, have a confession to make in the form of my bias towards movies from Disney. I’ve rolled my eyes pretty severely at live action remakes of animated films like Pete’s Dragon, and direct sequels to animated films centered on sidekicks like in Finding Dory. I blame my upbringing, since I’ve basically been watching the animated Disney feature since its revival in the Eisner era, and I have literally every other movie in that genre to compare a new one to…except for Home on the Range, Dinosaur, and Treasure Planet, because….ernhhmmhnh.

Back in my day, we called these things “Disney animated musicals,” but with the second revival of the series, containing films such as The Princess and The Frog, Tangled, Frozen, and now Moana, they have been re-classified as the “Disney Princess Movie.” It’s a more appropriate nickname for these films than the earlier kin, because they more centrally focus on their lead female characters, with Frozen going as far as turning the whole premise of “girl seeking truth and adventure and finding a handsome prince” completely on its head and shaking out all the fairy dust, leaving us with empowered female characters that support and elevate one another above the simplicity of the concept. Moana seeks to do the same thing, but with a lot more subtlety. To use an easy metaphor, Frozen passes the Bechdel test, while Moana features a Mako Mori, a female lead whose motivations drive the plot further than any other character in the film.

The beginning of the film immediately hands out the “great destiny” motivations of the film. Moana, played by newcomer Auli’I Cravalho, is destined to carry a small green stone known called The Heart of Te Fiti, which was taken as a gift to humankind by the demigod Maui, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, cursing the sea and surrounding islands to a slow and eventual death. It’s made clear right off the bat that Moana is not a princess; rather she’s destined to be the chief of the Montinui tribe after her father, Chief Tui. She knows vaguely about her destiny at sea, but her father forbids her to go near the water, because childhood trauma. So she stays, and becomes pretty adept towards her bid at future rule, until the curse of Te Fiti begins to eat up her island as well. She’s finally spurred to adventure when her grandmother (Rachel House) passes away, having learned the secret of the sailing ships her father kept hidden away under the reef.

From this point on, you can expect to see Moana, and a small wall-eyed rooster named Hei Hei (Supposedly voiced by Alan Tudyk, although stock chicken sound effects are used just as often) sail the ocean in order to fulfill the tent posts of the legend she was told as a child. The first rough night out at sea lands them on the very island where Maui has been living in exile. Maui, predictably has a lot of The Rock in his portrayal, Dwayne Johnson being no stranger to playing an egotistical yet charismatic Polynesian demigod. He, surprisingly, also takes after the Genie in Aladdin, moving about gracefully from scene to scene like a giant warrior ballerina, while the more mystical elements of his nature are illustrated with the animated tattoos that are all over his body. But as front and center as the character is, he never steals the heroism spotlight from Moana, who needs to motivate him constantly to do the responsible thing, and return the stone to Te Fiti. There’s a brief fight with one inch tall pirates, and then a slight detour where Maui has to retrieve his stolen magical fishhook from the 20 foot hermit crab monster Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement). All the while, both Moana and Maui challenge their individual motivations, part ways, and come back, all the way until the inevitable moment of confrontation with Te Fiti, where, guess which one of the two of them succeeds in returning the heart.

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There’s an interesting concept at play through this film: the characters seem to understand there’s a plot going on, and they have to do it, but their minds and hearts are always back at home, where they’re supposed to be. It’s certainly a contrast from other Disney Princess films, but it’s hard to tell whether it was even intentional. Maui, in particular, loves to riff on the fact that he considers Moana a princess, even though there’s really no concept of that in this region. Also, the soundtrack provides tons of songs written with Polynesian orchestral sections, except for “You’re Welcome,” sung by Johnson as Maui, and “Shiny” sung by Clement as Tamatoa. Tamatoa’s whole arc is practically A Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, the only thing anchoring it to the main story being the retrieval of Maui’s magic hook.
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I’d be lying, though, if I said it wasn’t all entertaining, and also amazingly well animated. While lots of other animation studios are scaling back their CG to resemble something hand-drawn or stop motion, as with Dreamworks’ Trolls, Disney works fully within the 3-D rendering palette. The characters still seem lively and are full of expression, without resorting to any squash and stretch, frame-by-frame cheating techniques. There’s, naturally, lovely water to be seen, and lots of amazing wind and nature effects. And just count how many times you catch Maui doing “The People’s Eyebrow.”

So, there you are. It’s a good film. You’ll like it, your kids will love it, and there are no buts to be had. It goes alongside the current crop of Disney princess movies without becoming a direct clone of them. If I didn’t know better, I might even say it’s a mold breaker. But don’t quote me on that. It isn’t. 

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