Moana is a gorgeous movie, as you'd expect for one based on Polynesian islands. The characters are all likeable enough, with special credit to Dwayne Johnson who was happily hamming it up.
Unfortunately, it's no Zootopia or Tangled. Moana is well, formula. A princess (who's not a princess) looks to find her place in the world after getting told to settle into a role she was born in. Meets some mythical monsters, and ends up saving everyone.
Which is a real pity, because how often do you see a movie about Polynesian mythology?
What Moana gets wrong is that the plotline doesn't naturally flow along. It hits beat after carefully-timed beat, but none of the scenes feel like the build into each other or offer anything refreshing. Refuse the call. Tragedy. Answer the call. Meet the sidekick. Face monsters with no explanation. Go find more monsters. Go find more monsters. Have a crisis of confidence. Get over it and face monsters. None of the monsters are naturally related to one another, and none of them truly challenge Moana on a psychological or emotional level. In fact, the most-loved part of this movie is the Big Lipped Alligator Moment glam song which... still doesn't actually have anything to do with Moana herself. And the musical numbers... which more often than not are forced into random places and break up the whole scene.
It's not bad, and the twist at the end is clever enough on a meta level. But it feels like phoning in the plot a hero movie should follow, not something new and different. If that's what interests you, try out Princess and the Frog or Mulan instead.
Good but lacking
Moana is a gorgeous movie, as you'd expect for one based on Polynesian islands. The characters are all likeable enough, with special credit to Dwayne Johnson who was happily hamming it up.
Unfortunately, it's no Zootopia or Tangled. Moana is well, formula. A princess (who's not a princess) looks to find her place in the world after getting told to settle into a role she was born in. Meets some mythical monsters, and ends up saving everyone.
Which is a real pity, because how often do you see a movie about Polynesian mythology?
What Moana gets wrong is that the plotline doesn't naturally flow along. It hits beat after carefully-timed beat, but none of the scenes feel like the build into each other or offer anything refreshing. Refuse the call. Tragedy. Answer the call. Meet the sidekick. Face monsters with no explanation. Go find more monsters. Go find more monsters. Have a crisis of confidence. Get over it and face monsters. None of the monsters are naturally related to one another, and none of them truly challenge Moana on a psychological or emotional level. In fact, the most-loved part of this movie is the Big Lipped Alligator Moment glam song which... still doesn't actually have anything to do with Moana herself. And the musical numbers... which more often than not are forced into random places and break up the whole scene.
It's not bad, and the twist at the end is clever enough on a meta level. But it feels like phoning in the plot a hero movie should follow, not something new and different. If that's what interests you, try out Princess and the Frog or Mulan instead.