Moana Essay

The movie Moana is about a beautiful polynesian princess who journeys beyond the reef in order to bring life back to her island. For centuries Moana’s people were the greatest sailors, voyagers, and wayfinders until the “demigod” Maui stole the heart of Te Fitit. Due to Maui stealing the heart, the island and their culture began to die. The empowering storyline paid tribute to the Polynesian culture with singing, comedy and a hard earned victory. It was a delight to watch, as I cried and laughed my way through each scene.

The relationship between the grandmother and Moana reminds me of me and my grandmother. Moana looked up to her grandmother and turned to her for advice. When the grandmother passed away, Moana fulfilled her last dying wish to give the heart to Te Fitit and to remind the people of her culture who they really are. Even though the grandmother was not physically there, her spirit was always with Moana. It was very touching to watch, especially seeing how Moana, the Grandmother and the water had some type of strong connection.

The visuals effects of the movie were almost life like. The drawings of the
Well, they failed. They mentioned twice in the movie that she was not a princess, and I just felt that they were trying too hard. She wore her cultural fitting dress, a flower band around her head and she was the daughter of the chief of the island. I felt that Disney could have tried a lot harder to break the barrier of defining what a princess really is. In my opinion Disney could have went above and beyond with breaking the princess stereotype and presenting more facts about the polynesian culture. Sure, the singing and dancing was nice but I was expecting to learn a little bit more in depth about what the culture was like. Instead Disney presented the basic facts and a typical princess