Moana (2016)

I wanted my last theatrical viewing of 2016 to be a good one, and I wanted to catch this one before it left the theater (still glad my folks and I waited until the crowds had petered out). That said, I had my reservations going in, because Maui looked like an uncomplimentary caricature of Pacific Islanders. Sure, I loved Aladdin (which had two of the same directors) as a kid despite its depiction of Arabs, but Maui's a traditional demigod -- and not from the long-disbelieved Greek or Nordic myths, either. Well, Disney did recruit plenty of at least partly Polynesian actors, so maybe it's not half as politically incorrect as it could be.

Sometime before the first European arrival on the fictitious isle of Motunui, a famine begins. Local legend has it that vanished/vanquished former hero Maui (Dwayne Johnson) inadvertently brought on a spreading curse when he swiped and then lost a stone called the Heart of Te Fiti. At age 16, Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) finally fulfills her desire to sail beyond the reef against the orders of her overprotective father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison). The apparently sapient ocean gives her the Heart, choosing her to find Maui and accompany him on a journey to restore it. She finds him soon enough, but talking him into a rematch against demon Te Ka takes longer.

The biggest inherent weakness of this movie is the necessity of sailing. It's hard to enjoy state-of-the-art graphics when there's not much to look at for miles around. And apart from Maui, Moana's only company for most of the runtime is Hei Hei the stowaway rooster (Alan Tudyk yet again), possibly the most braindead Disney character ever. I kinda wish her cute pet pig Pua had come along, in keeping with the larger role implied in ads, but the makers must have decided that Hei Hei was funnier. He's almost never useful and could easily have been written out of the plot, so apart from juvenile comic relief, he functions mainly as another warm body without taking up much space. That and he proves how sweet Moana is for not letting him die.

Fortunately, the pacing is crisp enough to stave off boredom. It reminded me of Life of Pi more than The Old Man and the Sea. Sometimes the heroes make stops at cays or whatnot. Sometimes the wacky ocean does something interesting. At one point, the ghost of Moana's grandmother (Rachel House) shows up for encouragement. And if there's one scene that exists for no other reason than to entertain -- quite successfully -- it's a confrontation with the Kakamora, a bizarre pirate band who could hardly have come from Polynesian folklore.

This incarnation of Maui is hard to like, at least at first. Showing the arrogance I'd expect of someone loosely modeled after The Rock, he willfully endangers if not attempts to murder Moana on multiple occasions. I'm not sure whether he really has no regard for her life or has forgotten, after a thousand years of solitude, the frailty of mortals. But as befits Disney, he grows in morality, under the influence of both her and his silent yet highly mobile mini-self tattoo, the latter being a highlight of the flick. Is Maui ever cool? Well, I am glad that his shape-shifting doesn't stop at the great hawk form.

Moana, meanwhile, is one of the best Disney princesses yet in my book. She has physical prowess to rival Mulan, and I'd say she's pretty resourceful as well as patient. At the same time, she admits to deficits in ability and doubts her worthiness to carry out the ocean's assignment. (We never do find out why the ocean didn't deliver the Heart to Te Fiti on its own.) Like Merida and Elsa, she gets no love interest, nor is she in any hurry to get one. She doesn't even fancy herself a princess.

I counted five songs. None lend themselves to other contexts, but a couple are catchy. Others are just standard modern Disney excess. I do appreciate the singing voices of Cravalho and, oddly enough, Johnson.

To an extent, I was right to measure my expectations. Moana has its flaws and only occasionally reaches magnificence. But we were all glad to have seen it in the theater.