There are two big things that my friends and family know I am obsessed with. First, I love Disney, anything Disney. Second, I love movies, going to the movies, experiencing a whole new world. So when both happen at the same time I am beyond excited and must see the Disney movie as soon as possible in theatres to get the full experience with a large bucket of popcorn. This has recently happen as I went out to see Disney’s new movie, “Moana”, as soon as I could. Here is my take and review on the new movie.
First, huge kudos to the Disney production team. The CG Animation is absolutely amazing and my eyes were traveling every trying to catch the detail. The scenes were stunning in it’s beautiful array of vibrant colors. Every detail was obviously well calculated from each strand of hair, feather, and highlight in the water. It was all one stunning masterpiece. I know it took them forever and a lot of work, it obviously paid off.
Second, I want to talk about the characters. Our heroin, Moana, has an amazing personality, large heart, and great story. I think she will be a great role model for young kids. The new young girl, Auli'i Cravalho, has an amazing voice and I can see her name get larger in the future. The next main character is Maui, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, was amazing. Lets just talk about Dwayne killing this role and showing his charisma even through only his voice. Maui was a narcissistic jerk actually, but because of his background story, great development, and humor, you really end up enjoying his character. My favorite part was his cool animated tattoos that he could interact with and continued to keep things entertaining.
As for the other smaller characters, they were all very well developed. For example, the wise grandma to help lead the main character. Or the parents who didn’t agree with everything she was doing at first. And of course we cant forget about the sidekick who’s main job is to add humor, and although Heihei the chicken was cute, I wish the pig would have made a larger appearance in the movie because he was adorable too. There was only one character I really was not fond of, the crab, and he had a very small part in the movie. Personally, it seemed like to me Disney was just trying a little to hard with him.
Third, like every Disney movie, “Moana” had many songs to build a soundtrack. Even “The Rock” sang and was very good. His song was actually my favorite and stuck in my head the rest of the night. The intro song was wonderful. Moana’s voice was so pure and great. And each song was catchy. Although I had a few issues with the transition into the songs. Some of them just felt a little awkward to me. Although, I don’t think “Moana”’s soundtrack will become as huge as “Frozen”’s, I do believe people will love it.
“Moana” was entertaining. It has a few scenes that seemed to be slow or more boring, but it could have been the no change in scenery since the characters do spend most of their time at sea. I do believe Disney tried to break it up with other scenes, but it cannot be controlled sometimes. The ending was great with a good build up, an unexpected twist, and a great resolution. The moral and message of the story was wonderful, it has some girl power in it and never giving up.
Disney really pushed some never before limits. For example there was no main romance shown which is a huge change. It also shows a new culture, which was exciting. Of course you have some of the Disney classic stories. Like, two people who disagree often, but have to work together or a coming of age story of a young girl blossoming into something stronger. But what is Disney without those things.
Overall, “Moana” was a great movie. I still cannot get over the amazing detail in the animation. Not every movie will be perfect, and this one has a few tweaks. We will all think differently of it as well, but I truly believe that generally the people will fall in love with this movie and it may one day become a Disney popular classic. It is funny, entertaining, a thrilling new adventure with great characters and a wholesome plot to lead you through the way. In the theatre that I was in the kids laughter stood out, but everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves and that why I believe it will become something bigger. So make sure if you don’t want to go see it in theatres, at least rent it from Redbox or borrow it from a friend when you can, because you will not want to miss this one.
