Critique: Moana (Film) 1/2

Before I even introduce the film, there’s one thing that must be addressed.

Maui calls Moana a princess. Moana says she’s not a princess but is the daughter of the chief. These aren’t mutually exclusive. A princess is the daughter of any sovereign leader… like Moana’s father is. So she is a princess.

It’s almost like the makers forced a situation so they could include the (admittedly funny) joke of, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.” Disney referencing themselves is rather funny.

Still, if they didn’t try to force the situation to fit the joke, Moana wouldn’t have been given the ridiculous line of “I’m not a princess.”

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Plot

Easy to follow yet full of nifty details, the plot of this film is special.

In the distant past, Maui stole the Heart of Ta Fiti from an island. It started to die. Then the volcanic demon Te Ka comes, defeating Maui. The Heart and Maui’s Hook (the source of his powers) were lost to sea.

In the present, Moana’s island of Motunui is losing life, the plants succumbing to blight and the fish stocks disappearing. Moana suggests that people fish beyond the reef. This makes her father Chief Tui refuse. Not only did their people stop being voyagers after Te Ka came, but Tui ignored this tradition to not go beyond the reef and, as a consequence, his friends died.

But unless they find food elsewhere, everyone in the island dies. Not going beyond the reef guarantees that everyone will die; going beyond the reef means there’s a chance of survival. Yet all the chief sees is tradition, guilt, and thinking Moana’s using this as an excuse to go to sea like she always wanted.

The sea chooses Moana to restore the Heart of Te Fiti. She teams up with Maui, find his Hook, and then they go on their merry way.

There’s no island to which to restore the Heart of Te Fiti. Moana then notices that the Heart and Te Ka’s chests both have the same spiral. Moana puts the Heart into Te Ka and the demon becomes Te Fiti. With Te Fiti restored, her life-giving powers start to cure the islands.

 

 

Clever

 

So much intelligence went into crafting this film.

Toddler Moana wanted to get a flower but instead she helped a baby turtle get safely to the ocean without being taken by frigate birds. Even as an infant, she puts other’s needs in front of her own.

Each new chief of Motunui adds to a rock pile. Moana uses a conch instead: this is nice symbolism because she is of the sea. (But I do wonder how future chiefs will manage to balance their rocks on a curved conch.)

To escape the cave Maui trapped her in, Moana toppled a statue in order to jump through a hole in the ceiling. Just like Moana topples Maui’s ego in order to help.

On the mountain to Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters, there’s a frigate bird, the same type of bird that eats newly hatched baby turtles. Eating babies can be considered monstrous so this was an excellent choice.

When they enter Lalotai, they are underneath the ocean. Fish and whales can be seen swimming above them. This is so clever because underworlds are usually under the ground, not under the water.

 

The two main beyond-human entities are Te Fiti the nature goddess and Te Ka the volcano demon. A lot of thought went into these two.

Moana always aims her boat straight for Te Ka instead of the gap in the rocks. This seems stupid at first. However, because Te Ka is so large, it can see the boat coming from miles off. So if it saw Moana aiming for the gap in the rocks, Te Ka would go there and block the way.

When the lava demon Te Ka becomes the nature goddess Te Fiti. She breaks free from the hardened lava rock, just like how life in the Pacific readily regrows from lava wrong.

Te Fiti is completely green. However, the textures are different depending on what plant the area is. For example, her skin was made of grass and her hair was a forest of trees. The makers could have easily made her monotone but they really gave the nature goddess some life.

 

The film’s events arise from Maui stealing the Heart (Moana couldn’t restore the Heart unless it was stolen).

Maui when baby rescued by gods. He did all those things like creating coconuts (as listed in his song your welcome) so that humans, and thus his parents, would accept and love him.

We see how someone seeking approval (like Maui stealing Heart) can have bad consequences. Just be yourself (the film’s persistent message with Moana) and that is more than enough.

His ego is a front for him to hide behind. If he makes his achievements seem amazing, then maybe others will, too. His ego lets him approve of himself and his deeds are for humans to approve of him.

 

 

Humour

 

Tala, Moana’s grandmother, tells the village toddlers the story of how Te Fiti’s Heart was stolen. They all look petrified; one even cries and another faints. This is amusing, but to see Moana clapping and giggling juxtaposed with the others’ fright was top quality humour.

Tala, Moana’s grandmother, has some of the best lines. For example, when Moana asks why she’s acting weird, Tala says, “I’m the village crazy lady. That’s my job.” She also willing to keep Moana’s attempt to leave the lagoon a secret, saying, “I’m his [the chief’s] mum. I don’t have to tell him anything.”

Maui signs an oar with Hei-Hei’s beak, saying, “When you write with a bird, it’s called a tweet.’ That was an unexpected reference to the modern real world.

There are several small details that are funny in their simplicity. Moana attempts to kick the ocean so it moves away, making her miss and fall flat on her back. The kokamori draw slanted lines on their face, making it look like angry eyebrows. Maui jokes that they need a human sacrifice to open the entrance to Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters.

When Moana leaps from some rocks to land on the boat Maui stole, we expect her to land on said boat. Instead, she falls shorts and lands in the sea. Once she gets on the boat, she turns her head, making her wet hair slap her face. When she finally starts to deliver her speech, Maui calmly throws her into the sea. This quick succession of humour was well handled.

Maui jumps into Lalotai and yells, “Don’t worry, it’s deeper than it looks. I’m still falling.” Usually, reassuring things would be said in this situation but Maui goes out of his way to make Moana as uncomfortable as possible.

When they go to the giant crab Tamatoa to get the Hook, it wants Moana’s necklace. “No that’s my grandma’s!” Tamatoa mocks her by repeating the sentence in a high pitch, like a child, before declaring, “I ATE my grandma!” This dark humour is somehow right at home in this children’s film, so well done for that.