Moana: Go See It. Now.

I've been looking forward to Moana since it was announced. The setting and basic plot, the daughter of a Polynesian chieftain rediscovering her people's lost seafaring skills to go on a quest to save her people, had "Jeffrey's gonna love this" written all over them. How could a Lapu Lapu-loving, Polyneasian Village Resort-dreaming, tiki head collecting guy who dreamt all his life of living by the sea NOT be excited for this?

We saw Moana on opening night, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, in the local theater. I could have waited to go to the more "modern" theater in Wilmington and catch the film in 3-D with all the best sound and projection tech, but I couldn't wait. I think now that was a good choice. It let me get enveloped in the story, and for all it's beauty and all the spectacular music, that was my favorite part. I'm sure Moana in 3-D would blow me away, and I hope to see it again in that format. The music is perfect. I bought the deluxe edition soundtrack so I'd have all the little instrumental bits. It really couldn't be any better in my opinion. But the star of this film is the story, and the storytelling, and that is exactly how it should be.

The story is both original and classic. This isn't based upon any Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen story. It's based loosely upon both Polynesian legend and fact, as all the best stories are because the two aren't mutually exclusive. Moana, the not-a-princess heroine, is entirely a Disney construct while Maui, the demi-god sidekick, is inspired by Polynesian myth. The fact is, the Polynesian people were some of history's greatest seafaring navigators, traveling thousands of miles between tiny islands in sailing canoes, and then they stopped. No one, including them, knows why. That's the basis of this tale. The story seems familiar enough to our Western tastes to be very accessible and easy to follow while maintaining a flavor of the exotic that makes it interesting and fun.

As good as the story itself is, the storytelling is even more impressive. Disney doesn't rush it, doesn't force anything at all. We get a good half hour before even meeting Maui. That time is spent getting to know Moana and her people and it makes the rest of the story, the adventure part, that much more fun because we're invested deeply in both Moana personally and her culture as well. I can't remember a Disney film, or really any other animated feature, that spends this much time building this kind of base. It's a great thing that Disney trusts its audience, even its youngest audience, to leave the immediate gratification expectations behind. And I think it'll work because it was done so well, bringing in music and visuals that captivate and amaze. By the time Moana sets msail on her adventure, we are 100% with her.

The adventure itself is everything one could wish. Maui is more than worth the wait and he's voiced with passion and heart by Dwayne Johnson, who really is larger than life. But he never steals the show from Moana. She is the star and the heroine, not because she's some super-duper brilliant genius, magically-enhanced, over the top super girl, but because its her story. Disney has given us perhaps its first Heroine rather than Princess. Moana does have a bit f a superpower in that the sea likes her and helps her out, but she's not in control of it, she's as amazed and confused by the help as we are. What she does have, her real superpower, is her tenacity will power. She doesn't know how to sail, but off she goes anyway. She's a "I'll figure it out as I go" kinda girl, and I love that. The lesson that teaches, one of risk-taking and trust in oneself, is invaluable for all children, but particularly little girls.

This is a movie for anyone who's ever felt the tug of the sea, for anyone who loves adventure and comedy (the chicken and the coconut pirates still have me smiling), for anyone who appreciates music, for anyone who's onged for the South Seas, for anyone with a child or a parent or a grandmom. Disney has given us a gift here, go unwrap it as soon as you can!

13 Days: Mo...mo.....mo....and even mo.....Moana!

Have  mentioned I'm very excited for this movie? I might have. But check it out, Moana has it's own airbus now!

 

Now, who wouldn't want to fly to Hawaii on THAT? Not that a trip to Hawaii would involve twisting my arm in any case....

And that's not all. Dwayne Johnson released a "Twitter Exclusive" (you'll get the joke when you watch it) video clip from the film that takes a scene we saw a bit of in previous trailers and follows it a bit further.

Because I can't figure out how to embed the Twitter post from @TheRock, you'll have to watch on Inside the Magic here. And poke around, they have a fun site :-)

40 Days: Moana, Halloween and "Cultural Appropriation"

First off, if you ever say the words "cultural appropriation" without sufficient sarcasm in your voice or making those little quote things with your fingers in the air, we need to have a long, long talk, my friend. I think if you Google "Psuedo-Intellectualism" the first link is a YouTube video of a poorly dressed college professor giving a room full of rich white liberal kids a lecture on "Cultural Appropriation."

So what's got my anthropology geek dander up you ask? This completely moronic article on the i09 website complaining about a Maui (the demi-god sidekick to Moana, the title character in the upcoming Disney animated feature) Halloween costume being not only an example of the dreaded "cultural appropriation," but also.....gasp....tantamount to "brown-face." You get it, right? They refer to the old Vaudeville and minstrel show trope of the white guy in exaggerated make-up known as black-face. Only Maui isn't black, he's Polynesian. Hence, "Brown-face".

This is black face. If you send little Johnny out as Maui, i09 thinks you're doing the Pacific Islander version of this

Only it's not the face that's brown in Disney's costume. The fine, sensitive folks at i09 assume parents will take care of that part themselves. No, what Disney did with it's Maui costume is make it look like, well, Maui in the movie. It's a body suit colored like a Polynesian with Maui's tattoos all over and an attached grass skirt. And that's the problem, well one of them, these morons have. It's, oh the horror, colored in a non-white skin tone! This is racist, you see. Don't ask me to explain, I'd lose brain cells trying.

Meanwhile, on Planet Earth, what Disney is doing is teaching about and paying tribute to the rich Polynesian culture in an entertaining and, my guess is, very popular manner. The film Moana is based upon one of the great cultural mysteries. Polynesians once roamed the Pacific Ocean in small sailboats, traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles of trackless sea with no compass, no chart, no astronomical book, no chronograph. They didn't get lost. They used tide and current and wind and weather and who knows what else to guide themselves. But then, for over a thousand years, they simply stopped. All of a sudden. No one knows why. Myths sprung up among the people of the South Pacific islands to explain the mystery, and this film is based upon a hodgepodge of those stories. Is it a stricly academic study of Pacific Island culture? No, it's a Disney movie with a pretty young girl as heroine and a big, strong, funny guy, demi-god played by  Dwayne Johnson as her sidekick. There is music and magic and anthropomorphic critters. But what it is NOT is making fun of or belittleing in any way whatsoever the people of the South Pacific.

Disney once was criticized, and probably rightly so, for all it's "Princesses" being white Europeans. Lately the company has been making a concerted effort to be more inclusive of other cultures, which is good and makes perfect sense. All peoples of this Earth have stories and myths and legends, and Walt would be proud that today's movie makers are exporing new things and letting curiosity lead them down new paths. And it has a positive effect on audiences. Quite the opposite of the complaints.

No 8-year-old in suburban America was dressing as a Hawaiian demi-god last year. This year, I'm thinking quite a few will, and it will be because Disney ignited that spark in them and led them to open their little minds to a culture they would otherwise be unfamiliar with. How that can be a bad thing is a compete mystery to me.

82 Days: The New Moana Trailer ROCKS!!!

We got an HD antennae and began receiving network TV again (after cutting the cable a few month back) so we could watch the Olympics. Turns out we got to see the premier of Disney's new Moana trailer last night as an added bonus! If you haven't seen it, go watch it now. I'll wait.......

The big dude is Maui. He has a magic fish hook.

OK, see? Isn't that cool? I've been stoked for this movie since it was announced. Moana is the story of a Polynesian girl re-learning her cultures seafaring skills after many years of being island-bound. It's based on a bit of fact. The Pacific Islanders were excellent open sea navigators, able to cross vast distances without compass, chart or chronograph. The Pacific is full of little islands and these dudes could find them after crossing sometimes hundreds of miles of open sea. Then, mysteriously, they stopped. No one knows why they quit traveling. That mystery triggers Moana's quest. She is joined by a demigod named Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), who is a Disney-fied version of a real Polynesian mythological character attributed with raising the Hawaiian Islands from the sea.

There's so much to love about this film. There's NO SNOW! It takes place in a setting Disney has explored in many ways, the Enchanted Tiki Room attraction and Polynesian Resort to name two, but not in an animated feature. The story is fresh, the character of Moana looks to be a great role model, the music sounds wonderful and The Rock appears to be having the ham-it-up time of his life. With a release date right around Thanksgiving later this year, I'm hoping it hits it big. I know I'll be one of the first in line.