Moana Review

by Elijah Varner(as always)

Being Polynesian, I was worried going into this movie. Would they screw up my culture? Would they be white people in Polynesian bodies. Would it be another independent "strong female character" feminist movie that totally disses on men. Thank goodness I was wrong. Dead wrong.
This movie was great. It was especially emotionally gripping for me because all the characters look like my relatives. Moana especially. She looks exactly like my cousin Danielle. And her grandma looks like all my aunts. They nailed the Polynesian culture, spot-on. No doubt there. The mythology, the family relationships, the voices. I'm pretty sure that every single voice actor was Polynesian. Not to be racist, but that's one of the things that really helped the characters come to life. The songs still bring tears to my eyes when I hear them.
What makes Moana so likable, to me at least, is her respect for her parents. In all these other movies, the protagonist's parents are usually dumb, stupid people. In this movie, Moana's parents have a legitimate reason for holding her back, and Moana is willing to respect that. The whole reason she goes on this adventure is not to prove everyone wrong, but to do what's best for her people, and I really admire how they put that together.
The movie had a lot of humor. The dynamic between Maui(the Rock) and Moana was funny. Maui's kind of a has-been, and Moana needs his help, but he doesn't want to, and that makes for some funny scenes. Also, for cute animal lovers, Pua and Hehe, Moana's pets, you guys are sure to love them.
This movie stayed true to the mythology of Polynesian culture. All the monsters, except for maybe the Kokomora, are all from these mythologies. Maui even has a song about all his feats, all of which is true.
The emotional conflict in this movie made me, a full grown fourteen year-old want to bawl like a baby. They did great. Another extremely noticeable feature about this movie is the crazy animation. What a lot of people don't know is that they totally rewrote the animation algorithm for water and sand in this movie, and it looks real. One scene, Moana comes out of a pile of sand, and some of it falls of, some of it sticks, and she brushes some of it off. It's crazy. I don't think a lot of people appreciate that but I do.
On the Cinemameter, I give it a 95%. It's another Disney triumph. It's one of the best Disney original animated movies so far, right next to Tangled. Not Frozen, because Frozen sucked. And I don't say that because to be a bandwagon. I'll discuss it in a future article if I get enough complaints.
Enjoy the movie,
Comic Book Cinematic