NEW MOVIE: Moana

Frozen took the world by storm in 2013, for many setting a new bar for Disney's future animated films to live up to. Zootopia also struck a chord with kids and adults alike earlier this year. How does the Mouse House's latest outing, Moana, do?

Rated PG for peril, some scary images, and brief thematic elements

Moana tells the story of the young future chief Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) and her perilous quest to find the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson, Central Intelligence) in order to restore the long-lost stone, "The Heart of Te Fiti," in order to stop an impending darkness from destroying her Polynesian village and the world. Along the way, they'll come across Mad Max-style coconut monsters, a giant killer crab (Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords), and the lava demon Te Ka. One of the greatest elements of the film is the plot. Though very much a Disney film and feels familiar in that regard, it really makes an effort to tell a different kind of story, one unreliant on a love story, on a princess complex, or a simplistic good vs. evil duality. It's essentially a Polynesian Odyssey with a wicked (in the New Englander sense) strong female protagonist without feeling like a "Social Justice Warrior" kind of thing that some people complain about on the Internet. Of course, this isn't the first strong female character in a Disney movie--Belle, Esmeralda, and Mulan all were. But with such a strong character as Moana, the rest of the movie feels fresh and original without over-parodying the tropes like Frozen. It all feels organic.

What also feels organic is Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs. Coming straight off of Hamilton, this guy proves he's a musical force to be reckoned with. Even though the songs are noticeably his style, it doesn't feel distracting in the least. In fact, his music provides some of the best moments in the film, including Maui's "You're Welcome" and the climactic "I Am Moana." After walking out of the film, I declared this would have 3 Oscar noms guaranteed in the Best Original Song category, but with so many musical films coming out in 2016, like Sing Street and La La Land, the competition will be tougher than I thought. Ironically, the weakest part of the film is the crab Tamatoa's Bowie-style song, "Shiny." It's not that it's a terrible song, but my friends and I did note its oddity after the film; it seemed a little out of place, but I think that was the point. Regardless, I feel like the majority of the songs are the strongest in a Disney movie in a long time. Sure, everyone remembers the Frozen soundtrack, but those seemed designed as earworms; when remembering the songs from Moana, they are accompanied by the memories of their emotional context; they are more substantive. To compare the two, Moana's songs are like a fine steak dinner and Frozen's are a bag of Hershey's Kisses. There's a deep goodness to this film's songs, while Frozen's are fun to sing along to but aside from "Let It Go," all the goodness melts at the surface.

The animation is beautiful, and the characters are given depth and sufficient motivation. It's great to see not only the journey Maui and Moana go on, but also the inner journey as the cast discovers their identity and worth. It is easily directors Clements and Musker's best film yet and it really perfects the Disney musical. If Disney suddenly declared they were shutting down their animation division, this would a most excellent swan song. Given a score of 4.5 out of 5 stars, Moana is a very special animated film that you must see in the theaters (and given its consistent box office numbers, it will be around for a long time). It is a film I can't wait to show my future children should I ever them, and it ranks very highly on my list of best Disney films.

"And no one knows how far it goes..."

So what did you think about Moana? How do you think it stacks up? Whatever you have to say about me or the movies, comment below!