Moana: Does it Float or Sink?

This review is kind of embarassing. Not because it's an animated movie. It's embarrassing because it took me so damn long to watch it. I originally wanted to see Moana when it came out but I never got the chance to. With that confession out of the way, let's dive in, and yes, the pun is very much intended.

Moana is the latest smash hit from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Like Pixar, these guys are gods. They're responsible for movies like Frozen, Wreck-It- Ralph (my personal favorite of this list), and Zootopia. Notice how all of these previous movies I mentioned are really, really good. Good news folks, Moana is no different. It is directed by Ron Clements and Jon Musker. It stars Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson. The story follows Moana (Cravalho), the Chieftain's daughter, as she answers the call of the Ocean to seek out the demi-god Maui (Johnson) in an effort to set things right. If you couldn't figure it out from before, I really loved this movie. There are just so many things that it does right. Like all Disney animated movies, this film looks absolutely beautiful. I read somewhere that the crew actually visited the South Pacific to gain artistic and realistic references for the movie. It shows. The detail of the cliffs, rocks, and trees is stunning. The ocean, who is pretty much a character in this movie, looks gorgeous. I wanted to jump through the screen to go swim in it. Another thing this movie has going for it is the music. Like the visuals, the songs are beautiful. They're much better than Frozen's. Blasphemy, I know. As I was writing this review, I was listening to "You're Welcome", which Dwayne Johnson's character sings in the film. You know what, the cast deserves their own paragraph.

Everyone does a fantastic job in this movie. The stand out is Auli'i Cravalho as Moana. This is actually her first movie. What a way to start, too. She has such a beautiful singing voice. Whenever she sings, her voice just takes over everything. This is important because if she didn't work as the main character, the whole movie fails. Dwayne Johnson does a great job too. Unlike other actors who voice animated characters, he doesn't phone it in. He puts effort into it. They even got Maui to do the eyebrow thing the Rock does! While I don't love everything the Rock does, I have to admit that the characters he plays always bring a fun energy. Also, Alan Tudyk voices a chicken and every-time he's on screen, it's comedic gold.

It's hard to do negatives for such a good movie, but I gotta try. There are certain sequences that drag on a little bit. I also wanted to see more of the relationship between Moana and her mother, played by Nicole Scherzinger. She seemed like a character that was added in late into production. There's some certain story beats that you have probably seen in pretty much every Disney movie ever (for example, the son/daughter has a pre-determined path set form them and he/she wants to do something different).

To wrap everything up, Moana is another Disney hit. It isn't as good as Wreck-It-Ralph or last year's Zootopia, but it still is a great movie. It has memorable characters, songs, and gorgeous visuals. The only drawbacks are some pacing issues, unneeded characters, and some cliches. If I were to rate it, I'd giveMoana an 8.5/10.