Moana

Dir: Chris Williams, Don Hall, John Musker, Ron Clements

2016

****

Disney seem to be going from strength to strength recently as far as their animation studio is concerned, obviously everything else they own is doing incredibly well but when I think Disney I think Disney animation first and foremost. I don't think Disney have reached true greatness since the early 90s, although I have liked the odd film here and there such as Bolt and Tangled. 2012's Wreck-it-Ralph was brilliant, clearly taking notes from the school of Pixar though. Frozen is what it is, kids just can't seem to 'let it go' and no matter what you think of it, it's classic Disney. It's was followed by the brilliant Big Hero 6 and one of my favourite animations of all time, Zootopia (aka Zootropolis). Moana strikes a happy balance I think. The animation style is modern, fine-polished and rather impressive (I couldn't get over how real everyone's hair looked) but it also looks like a classic Disney and, for the first time since 2011, features hand-drawn animation. It's got the best of the new and the old elements I like best about Disney, but then that's not surprising. Moana has two directors and two co-directors; Ron Clements and John Musker who were responsible for such classics as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, and Don Hall and Chris Williams who made Big Hero 6 together. Following the closure of Disney's traditional animation unit in 2003, John Lasseter selected Musker and Clements to work on The Princess and the Frog and Hall and Williams have been working on pretty much every Disney animation since the late 90s, so essentially Moana is the best of Disney in its current state. It was a shaky start but I think Lasseter is returning the magic back to Disney animations. I can't say that Moana has a particularly attention-grabbing beginning though and I didn't like the first couple of songs at all but it soon found its rhythm. The story involves Polynesian mythology and the story of Māui the demi-god. The main character is a princess - which seems unavoidable for a Disney animation but she's a little different from the ones we've seen before. Thankfully there is no romantic sub-plot, the side-kicks are toned down somewhat and the story sticks its tracks and is all the better for it. The original draft of the story had Moana as the only girl of her family and would take on her six brothers in another tiresome gender battle, luckily Ron Clements and John Musker decided against it and kind of just got on with the main story. Apart from the first couple, I thought the songs were really strong, a couple could even be classic Disney contenders. The majority of the film's cast members are of Polynesian descent which is a nice change of authenticity for a Disney film: Auli'i Cravalho and Nicole Scherzinger were born in Hawaii and are of Native Hawaiian heritage; Dwayne Johnson, Oscar Kightley, and Troy Polamalalu are of Samoan heritage; and New Zealand-born Rachael House, Temuera Morrison and Jemaine Clement are of Māori heritage. Auli'i Cravalho is great in her acting/voice acting debut and Dwayne Johnson is a pleasant surprise too. It's weird to hear Temuera Morrison not swearing and shouting and once again Jemaine Clement steals the show in what is a remarkably non-Disney Disney character. Not as good as Zootopia or iconic as Aladdin but a great addition from a studio that's getting itself back on track.