WARNING: this article contains spoilers for Moana. Do not continue if you do not want spoiled.
What can I say about this newest Disney endeavor other than wow! For myself, it felt like a mixture of the beautiful colors and mood of Lilo and Stitch, and the empowerment that we see in Brave. There were many amazing things about this film, but like most movies this film had a few blemishes of its own. Here are some of the best and worst parts of Disney's Moana.
1. Moana - Best
The central protagonist of Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) was an outstanding move on Disney's part. It is great to see young girls taking the lead and standing strong, especially those in the "Princess" category. She stands strong and will be an inspiration to many young children.
2. Hei Hei - Best
Moana's little friend is probably one of my favorite treasures from this film. Even though she does not "officially" consider herself a princess, we all know as Maui (Dwayne Johnson) put it, "any girl with an animal sidekick is a princess." This little bird offered the best comical relief possible to the slower portions of the film.
3. Music - Best
Considering the music was written by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, one can assume that it is going to be pretty good. Miranda's record holds true for the most part. Not only did Miranda write the music, but we were also blessed with his outstanding voice in one of Moana's flashbacks as a previous chief of Moana's tribe. Miranda did an interview discussing how some of the processes to create the beautiful soundtrack of Moana came to fruition.
4. Grandma Tala - Worst
This may confuse many of you from the heading, but Grandma Tala's death was one of the worst pieces of this movie. It is a standard staple that in Disney movies someone is most likely going to die. They also normally die in either an awful way or the person who dies is someone that means a lot to us as viewers. Her village saw her as crazy, but we all knew that she knew exactly what she was talking about the entire time. So this isn't worst because it was a bad piece, but worst because it just rips your hearts to shreds.
5. Tamatoa - Worst
People may disagree with this, but Tamatoa was probably one of the worst pieces of Moana. His entire scene was awful. Every movie has that one cringe moment. What was worse was the song. I think they may have run out ideas when writing this piece. Slow, boring and not entertaining. I think the only thing that even partially redeemed this character was his little joke during the end-credit scene. However, it did not fully redeem him at all. I think if they had done something with the warrior that Moana encounters instead, that could have been really good.
Overall, this was a great production by Disney. I can guarantee that this movie is one that will bring back the older crowd who love Disney's empowering messages. This will also be a great film for the new and young crowd of children coming up. I want to give this movie an A+. However, due to that awful crab and the entire scene connected to it I cannot do that. The film could have stayed almost the same without Tamatoa. So, I must bring this films evaluation down to an
