Moana Review
MAY CONTAIN SPOITERS
Moana is he story of a girl who is destined to become the chief of the island Motunui after her father, but is chosen by the ocean to find the demigod Maui ("The Rock" Dwayne Johnson) and take him to restore the life-giving heart of the island goddess Te Fiti. 1000 years prior, had stolen the heart of Te Fiti, aiming to give it to humanity as a gift before being attacked by the lava demon Te Kā, losing the heart and his mystical fish hook to the ocean.
The people of Motunui are forbidden from leaving the island, with her father proclaiming they have everything they need there, however the missing heart of Te Fiti is causing all of the fish to disappear and the coconuts and vegetation on the island is dying, which is causing much distress for the inhabitants while her stubborn father refuses to leave. Moana is nudged along by her grandmother who encourages her to look in a cave where she discovers her people used to be voyagers who sailed across the ocean.
Moana then sets out on a boat, guided by the ocean, however she encounters a typhoon which causes a tidal wave. She finds herself washed upon the shore of an island inhabited by Maui, who sings a rather catchy song before trapping her in a cave and stealing her boat.
She escapes the cave after climbing on a statue he was making of himself and throws herself towards the boat. The ocean then helps her by continually throwing her upon he boat whenever Maui attempted to get her off the boat, which causes Maui to agree to return the heart as long as they first get his fish hook so he can transform. This requires them to voyage into the realm of monsters where they have to trick a giant, vain, singing coconut crab before escaping with the hook, but not before discovering that Maui hasn't had the hook for 1000 years and thus can't remember how to transform properly, at one point he transforms into Sven from Frozen if you're into Easter eggs.
Back with his hook, they set off and aim for him to learn how to use his hook and he reluctantly agrees to teach her how to be a wayfinder, who is somebody who can navigate the oceans.
They eventually reach Te Fiti where they are confronted by Te Kā. Maui attempts to battle but is simply not strong enough and Moana ignores him, trying to use the water to their advantage to go around. The result is that Maui's hook is severely damaged by Te Kā and the boat is thrown back to the ocean, after which Maui heavily chastises and abandons Moana, who then after much deliberation decides to go back and try to restore the heart herself.
Once she gets there she finds a way around Te Kā but only with Maui's help, who rushes back to her defence and distracts Te Kā long enough for Moana to reach where Te Fiti should be, but Te Fiti is gone. Moana looks up at Te Kā and realises that Te Kā is Te Fiti without her heart, and asks the ocean to part to allow Te Kā to come to her, allowing Moana to restore the her heart and reverse the damage done to the islands created by Te Fiti.
Moana then returns to Motunui and leads her people back to their roots as voyagers, sailing across the oceans to find new islands created by Te Fiti.
This movie was very good, the performances of Dwayne Johnson and Auli'i Cravalho in particular were very impressive, the twist at the end was pretty good and it was entertaining enough to keep your attention through the movie, if a little cheesy at times.
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