MOANA - The Different Kind of Lovable Disney Princess and A Sure Classic Animated Movie

I have watched this movie's trailer again and again in the past few months till the point of me being irritated by the length of such trailer and rather disappointed that so many scenes were shown. I like to watch trailers, but when trailers revealing too much information, it kind of ruined the surprise for me and reduced the fun of watching some new movie. I am one of those guys that hate spoiler. Anyway, it just played yesterday and since my wife did not proceed with her function, she was quite free and I immediately offered her to see this movie. It was this or the latest Brad Pitt's movie Allied and no surprise there, she chose this one. So let's get on to this exciting movie.

Brief Story Line

A very young Moana was listening to the stories from her Grandmother Tala (voiced by Rachel House) about the history of Te Fiti, the island goddess who had her heart stolen by the demigod named Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson - Central Intelligence, San Andreas and so many more) but he lost it when he encountered the lava monster Te Ka. Maui wanted to steal the heart as he believed it would give the power of creation. Maui himself lost his weapon, a fishhook that he got from the gods and was gone for 1000 years.

Since Te Fiti's heart was stolen, all the islands which were created by her, started to deteriorate and slowly losing their lives, including the island of Motunui where Moana lived. On the same day, after listening to Grandma Tala's story, Moana wandered around the beach by herself and found Te Fiti's heart shaped as a shiny green stone. Her father, the island chief named Tui (voiced by Temuera Morrison - Star Wars episode II and III) was very protective of Moana and immediately brought her back to the village to meet with her mother Sina (voiced by Nicole Scherzinger - Men in Black 3).

Years later, the teenager Moana (voiced by newcomer Auli'i Cravalho) was informed by his father that she would become chief and she should not think about the ocean even though she was still drawn to it. However her Grandma still tried her best to convince her that her future probably lies in the ocean. When the island was starting to have problems of dying coconut trees and no more fish in the fishing location, Moana realized that her Grandma's story might be true about the island dying.

After a major experience, Moana finally decided that it was really time for her to embark on the journey to look for Maui and put the heart back to Te Fiti to ensure island of Motunui would be alive again, despite her father's non approval. She went out all by herself only with the company of her chicken named Heihei. But first she had to find Maui before she could go to Te Fiti island. Through some obstacles she finally found Maui. However, Maui did not want to support Moana at all especially helping Moana to go back to Te Fiti island. 

So could Moana convince Maui to accompany her to Te Fiti island? What was the reason for Maui to do the stealing and his reluctance to go back to Te Fiti? Could the island be saved? You can find all the answers to those by watching the fun, lovely, amazing adventures of Moana, Maui and Heihei. 

End of Brief Story Line

Well it's been a long time since the last animated movie of Frozen (also by Disney) that I was truly entertained with such film that had a lot of songs. While that movie I watched by myself, I had the pleasure of my wife's company watching this one. And I knew from the first few minutes that she would love this movie till the end (proven by her various emotions during the duration of the movie). This movie was very very good in term of story and the quality of the animation which made the characters look soooo much alive. I could picture Grandma in real life and also Maui (who I pictured would look like Dwayne Johnson). The songs in this movie were mostly gorgeous with the one sung by Auli'i especially nice (I think it was titled How Far I'll Go). 

This is a movie for all audience. I am very sure children would be entertained by the funny scenes involving Heihei (the dumbest chicken we have seen, LOL), while the more adults would be happy to see the adventure and the moral of the story. It is mainly about a girl trying to find out her real destiny and doing everything she can to fulfill it because she felt it was her responsibility. It was a different kind of princess than the usual Disney princesses (this was mentioned very cleverly by the writers through Maui when he talked about this in the first few scenes of him together with Moana in the ocean). Another thing that was a bit different from the previous Disney movies such as Zootopia or Jungle Book, was the fact that in this movie, the animals do not speak.

In addition to those, the relationship built between Moana and Maui, plus the strong presence of Grandma made the whole movie truly felt like a complete Disney style animated movie. Well done Disney team, you have done it again!

For those of you who have not watched this movie, please go there and see it. And please do not be late, as there was a very great short story presented before the movie started. I am very sure those working people like me, would appreciate such a lovely story. Oooh and another thing. Apparently there was also an end credit scene which I did not know of. It's too bad that the people working in the cinema did not know about this and we missed it. So if you have not seen it, do not leave your seats till the very end. I understand it would show something that people who watched Disney's animated movies could relate to.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars