Review of Moana, directed by John Musker and Ron Clements

Not to date myself here, but I was sixteen when Moana first came out in theaters. My family was never really a “go to the movies” kind of family except when my mother would us to the $3 theater near Baltimore City as a once-in-a-while treat. I kind of cultivated my love for the movies on my own throughout the years.

Anyways, it took me a while to see Moana for the first time. My sister collects DVDs of the movies she finds her favorites throughout the years, but she never really watched them. When COVID hit and we had nowhere to be in the evenings, we’d thumb through the collection and watch a movie or two.

That was how I ended up watching Moana the first time. I will say during that first watch I enjoyed it more than her personal favorite Disney as of late, which is Encanto. But as we were preparing for Moana 2 to come out in theaters, almost eight years later, I was pumped to revisit the movie.

Polynesian culture and history has become a fascination of mine, so I find this movie to be a great way to dip your toes, in an accessible way, to how the Polynesians lived on the islands.

Let’s get into the review though before I ramble too much! I do have a tendency to do that.

A girl and her chicken venture across the Pacific to find a way to save her island.

Before we get into the meat of the movie, there’s some lore that’s fairly significant. On the island of Motunui, the villagers there worship a goddess of nature named Te Fiti. Many years ago she, as a living island, used a stone (which is the source of her power and her heart) to bring life all over the ocean.

But one day Maui, a demigod, stole Te Fiti’s heart. Te Fiti fell apart when he took it, and a volcanic demon named Te Ka attached him. Maui lost the heart in the scuffle along with his magical fish hook.

A thousand years passes, the ocean chooses the daughter of the Motunui Chief as the person to return the heart. Her name is Moana, but her parents decide to keep her away from the ocean. Sixteen years pass, but the island is slowly dying. Their crops and plants are withering, and the fish in the ocean are decreasing.

Moana wants to venture beyond the reef with her pig, but the chief tells her no. She doesn’t listen to him and tries anyways, but ends up shipwrecked. Her supportive grandmother shows her the secret cavern of ships on the island and tells her that they were people who explored the ocean until Maui took away the heart.

Her grandmother knows that the island is being destroyed and that Moana needs to find Maui to restore the heart of Te Fiti. Turns out her grandmother has the heart, and she gives it to Moana. However, she falls ill and tells Moana now is the time. She takes a boat, a camakau, from the cavern and accidentally brings her dumb rooster with her.

A typhoon shipwrecks them on an island, but she discovers Maui there. He traps her in a cave and steals her boat, but she escapes and confronts him. Reluctantly Maui agrees to go with her, but after they are attacked by coconut pirates, Moana realizes she needs to convince Maui by telling him he can be a hero again if puts the heart back.

The first step, though, is recovering his fish hook. It’s in the Realm of Monsters and guarded by Tamatoa, a huge coconut crab with a nasty attack plan. Maui doesn’t seem capable of taking him on alone, but Moana helps him and they steal the hook. After confessing to Moana his background (his parents abandoned him and the gods pitied Maui), he teaches her toe ways of the seas while harnessing his power.

When they finally arrive at Te Fiti’s island, the volcanic demon Te Ka is still there. This doesn’t stop them, and Maui’s hook is damaged when they try to fight the demon. He abandons her and Moana becomes scared, begging the ocean to find someone else to do this.

The ocean takes the heart from her, and her grandmother’s spirit appears in front of her. Moana takes the heart back and goes back towards Te Ka. Maui returns too, and then he fights the demon, destroying his hook in the process. Moana sneaks by while this is happening and returns the heart to Te Fiti.

Te Fiti restores the ocean and islands of life, and Maui apologizes to her too. She fixes his hook for that, then returns back into being an island. Moana tells them goodbye, then returns home.

When she comes back to the village, she becomes the chief and a wayfinder. Finally, again her people return to the ocean to discover more on its water, accompanied by Maui.

Overall Thoughts

It’s a Disney movie, but I feel like there is so much to dig deeper in these cultural based Disney films. For example, the connection between the land and the Polynesians is sacred, and the fact this is represented in the movie (along with mythology) is a great example.

There’s also a bigger hero’s journey throughout this film as well compared to some other Disney movies. I could compare to Mulan, who is in war, but Moana literally has the fate of the universe and her life in her hands. She has to do something or literally everyone around her is going to suffer.

The songs in this movie are great, too. I’ve seen Cravalho live, thought she had a nice voice (although she was very much miscasted in Sunset Boulevard, which is what I saw her in), and it shows in this movie. I’m excited to see what she has to sing in the sequel.

This is a movie I’ll be returning too though. I’m happy with rewatching it every so often, unlike some of the other Disney movies. Go watch it if you haven’t already, or revisit the film ahead of the sequel’s release!

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