Today's Movie: Moana (2016)

I had mixed expectations going into this one as I'm not a fan of the last few Disney animated feature films. I was unimpressed with Zootopia (2016) and Frozen (2013), and Big Hero 6 (2014) had some fun moments but I wouldn't call it a great movie. Nevertheless, I wasn't going to skip out on Moana just because I didn't care for those others.

I've always found Disney movies to be more memorable for their characters, quality and style of animation, and music rather than the details of their plots. So, I'm going to approach this review a little differently and examine those three elements individually without giving the story away.

The Characters: The film's focus is on Moana (played by Auli'i Cravalho) and Maui (played by Dwayne Johnson) and I really liked both of those main characters. I liked their personalities, thought they were well written, and had a good chemistry. Even in a voice-acting role Dwayne Johnson's charisma is a force to be reckoned with, and I found Moana to be a really well-rounded, likeable character that I enjoyed much more than I expected.

The Animation: Wow. There are moments in this film that are absolutely breathtaking. The animation is solid, vibrant Disney quality throughout, but there are some moments in particular that are just incredible to look at. This is one of the very rare instances that I recommend seeing the film in 3-D if you have the opportunity.

The Music: The music is a little bit of a mixed-bag. I don't think any of the songs in this one will become one of those super memorable Disney melodies like 'When You Wish Upon a Star', 'Under the Sea' or 'Be Our Guest', but I did think the music was solid for the most part. Most notably, I thought 'You're Welcome' and 'How Far I'll Go' were both pretty catchy tunes.

Overall, I really enjoyed Moana. I thought the film was a ton of fun and it did exceed my expectations. Any issues I have are just little nitpicky things. So, I give this one a 4.5 out of 5.


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