Moana's an adventure for kids of all ages

Your kids will love it. If you've got a good night's sleep in, you just might make it too! 
Youtube screengrab of Moana trailer
Youtube screengrab of Moana trailer

Movie: Moana

Directors: Ron Clements and John Musker

Cast: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwyane Johnson, Rachel House

Rating: 

Verdict: Your kids will love it. If you've got a good night's sleep in, you just might make it too! 

If you’re anywhere in the parental guidance age group (or below), there’s no doubt that you’ll love Disney’s animation riot Moana. And while adults could like it just as much as they took to, say Pocahontas, it might take some searching for that inner child before they appreciate Moana just as much.


The sheer imagination used in bringing the culture, the tales and the legends of the Polynesian people to life is jotting short of extraordinary. The visual appeal and the textured animation are flawless and are quite a sight to behold. But at 103 minutes, the movie does develop a noticeable lag in the first half — leaning on song and dance routines that do everything but keep the plot moving. But like I said, if your imagination is a mile wide, all of this will only add to the wonder.


Growing up, Moana is enamoured by the lure of the sea. The next-in-line to the chieftainship of a tribe on the Polynesian island of Motunui, she’s worried by the strange blight that’s killing their produce and driving their fish away. Nobody except her grandmom, believes that it’s linked to an old tale about how the demi-God Maui stole the heart (looks like a little green stone by the way) of an island goddess called Te Fiti. Understandably, Moana sets sail to get the now narcissistic and gone-to-seed Maui to return the stone and make the world peachy again. Will she? Won’t she?


Unlike most other heavy-duty animation movies that have hit screens this season,  Moana isn’t heavy on star power when the voice credits roll. Except for Dwyane Johnson, whose voice is, well, pretty much larger than most of the frames his character, Maui the demi-God, occupies. And its a casting coup that’s worked. His brand of self-obsessed aggrandisation coupled with the earnest, youthful enthusiasm of Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) sort of create this odd couple vibe that keep things moving along. It’s a lot like the character he played in The Game Plan, Joe Kingman, except as Maui there’s a lot more shirtless action going on.


Like most other good Disney movies, the themes that you want kids to lap up when they’re kids, are solidly in place - there’s hope, beating despair, strength, being eco-friendly and undying love churned into the mix, with a fair bit of ‘clean’ humour. Using the sea as a character, a living, breathing luminescent entity that aids Moana along by plonking her on and off her boat at will, was a stroke of genius. As was using the comically dumb rooster Heihei. You know comic relief can’t be far away as long as the rooster’s in the picture.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com