‘Moana’ Is a Beautiful Movie For the Empowerment of Young Girls

I watched Moana yesterday because I’ve been wanting to see it for two years straight. I had, for a while, lost interest in Disney movies but Frozen reawakened that excitement. I literally own Frozen, I enjoyed it that much. I know most of the songs by heart and the story was just superbly told. It was unlike any Disney princess movie I had seen before it and it really made me excited about animated Disney films again. So, since then I watched Zootopia, which I loved, and Inside Out, which I actually didn’t like that much if I’m being honest but I had never gotten around to watching Moana. Well, I’ve finally seen it and I can honestly say, it’s a beautiful movie.

There is a lot of heart to this story and what made it such a fantastic film for young girls to see is the fact that it truly stayed front and center on Moana through the entirety of the movie. The story never deferred from her, she was always the hero through the vast majority of the film, and it showed that girls can be just as heroic as the boys any day. Whenever she found herself in tough situations she used her wit and determination to get out of it and whenever she was at her lowest she found the inner strength to keep going. Moana isn’t a story about a princess falling in love with a prince but rather a young woman wanting to save the world and that is a powerful change to the narrative of girls in Disney movies.

This film had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, some fun action sequences, a couple of chill-inducing songs that are worth memorizing, but most importantly it was just a sweet movie. Dwayne Johnson as the buff demigod of the wind and sea, M’aui, did a marvelous job and Auli’i Cravalho brought a sparking personality to Moana that made me love her as soon as she appeared in the movie. Their companionship through the film was refreshingly non-romantic and very fun to watch and it showed that Disney is really evolving the picture of what we have come to expect in a Disney princess which is great.

My Conclusion of the Film

Moana is a beautiful movie, no doubt about that, but after a while it does happen to lose that magic that Frozen was somehow able to find and contain through the entirety of the movie. The story for Moana was good but easily predictable, one of the songs was a little off putting, and it did dabble in the corny department near the end of the film, but it’s a lovely movie and if you happen to have little girls this is definitely the flick to show them.

I’m giving it 3.8 out of 5 stars and an 87 out of 100. The movie isn’t exactly bad but it lost what made it great during the looong back half of the film and that is a shame.

I thank you for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day.