From the detail of its beautiful animations, to the message of the story and its wonderful characters, everything about Moana had me reeling in inspiration and delight.
The movie is set on a small Pacific island, whose chief – Chief Tui Waialiki, voiced by Temuera Morrison (who you may know as Jango/Boba Fett) and ‘sang’ by Hamilton’s Christopher Jackson – is looking to pass on the legacy of the island to his daughter, Moana.
However, the island is plagued by a disease, which is killing off their produce and making the future of the island look bleak – Moana has the answer, but the conservatism of her father which is rooted in ‘traditions’ of not going beyond the reef, is preventing her from saving her island and realising her dream of going out to sea.
Moana (as suggested by bonus track More) seems born to ‘break the silence’ of the film industry in more ways than one. Whilst the fictional islanders in the story hide from their ancient culture of Wayfinding, in the real world, representation of Pacific Island culture on screen remains limited. I, as a white-British female, cannot comment on the accuracy of the film, but I was impressed by how interested this made me in studying the Pacific Islands, and how seamlessly it passed the Bechdel test and portrayed its female lead. Works of fiction are, after all, never going to be entirely accurate, but it’s important to share as many voices as possible and celebrate representation instead of perpetuating white-washing.
The multicultural cast and crew add layers of representation to this film that are (thankfully) on the rise in modern filmmaking. Dwayne Johnson features as Maui, Auli’i Cravalho is Moana and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foa’i are composers on the film. Animators visited the South Pacific and established the “Oceanic Story Trust,” made up of scholars and native people who helped to ensure that the film was not made up of endless stereotypes, which – I hope – is effectively reflected in the end result of the movie.
Celebrating Feminine Desire for Independence, and Discouraging Self-Repression:
Moana herself is a strong character, who is being prepared by her parents to take over her father’s role as chief. Arguably, her character has depth enough without this story, but the position of impeding power adds a dimension of responsibility and emphasises her ties to her island and its tradition. However, her discovery of her people’s ancient tradition, which has been hidden away and suppressed, actually ends up being exactly what keeps her island going.
Moana’s grandmother represents not only a voice of adventure, but also a voice against conservatism, and gives echoes of a feminine revolt against patriarchal norms. She floats into ‘Who You Are’ – a song about sticking to your responsibilities and the roles expected of you – to assert herself as a space for Moana to realise her passions and her true direction without the pressures of her role in the family and on the island:
‘The village may think I’m crazy, or say I drift too far, but once you know what you like, well there you are’
Similar to Frozen’s unpacking of the problematic phrase ‘conceal don’t feel’, Moana is intent on being a voice for those who feel like they are being driven into a corner by the role they have unwillingly been given:
’You may hear a voice inside, and if that voice starts to whisper to follow the farthest star, Moana that voice inside is who you are’
Slate argues that Disney ‘has entered into its third golden age’, where ‘progressivism and a commitment to inclusion are not only powerful artistic decisions but profitable business ones’. Moana has so far smashed the box office, proving that you don’t need a hint of romance to be successful, and you don’t even need to be subtle when questioning norms. Moana almost goes out of its way to prove a point, and I love that this film is able to explore themes of femininity, patriarchal family roles (and ageism, to an extent), representation, remaining true to your own heart, and even environmental degradation in a timeless mythological context.
At one point during her struggle to compromise her role as next in line to be Chief and be ‘the perfect daughter’ with her call to voyage to ‘the line where the sky meets the sea’, Moana yells an exasperated ‘What is wrong with me?’.
This isn’t the only film currently unpacking the dangers of repression of the self. Fantastic Beasts, which came to the big screen at virtually the same time as Moana, is unpacking this in a much darker way, highlighting the importance of representation in film, tv, music and basically any entertainment or media.
The song also suggested similar themes to Mulan – trying to be ‘the perfect daughter’, yet no matter how hard she tries she cannot ignore the call inside her to act. Instead of being portrayed as a baseless feminine revolt, this call of inspiration and aspiration is driven by Moana’s desire to follow her heart and her mind. Her reasoning is presented as practical and it was refreshing to see her independence emphasise her qualities of a great leader. Her grandmother is the guiding presence in her life to remind her that whilst she seeks the call of ‘the line where the sky meets the sea’, the power to change her circumstances are entirely inside of her. Moana later shares this message with other characters (without wanting to spoil the plot), affirming the role of feminine independence to give broader implications to themes of the danger of self-repression and the importance of diversity.
Maui, interestingly, takes on the role of the stereotypical ‘white male’, who is the literal definition of privilege despite his presentation as a non-white character with a disadvantaged upbringing. Whilst he brags about his achievements and abilities, overwriting Moana’s message by asking who made the tides and the seasons and the sun then exclaiming ‘you’re looking at him, yo!’ and handing her a hearty ‘you’re welcome’, it’s not hard to see that his sense of power and validation rests upon his identity as a demigod. His powers, we find, rest in his privileged status as a demigod (seen in his dependence on what I like to call ‘the magic fish hook of the fragile male ego’), which has clear echoes with themes of male dominance and the need to embrace collaborative action and interdependence, rather than patriarchal ideals of responsibility and authority. Moana does not ‘save’ Maui, but Maui does not ‘save’ Moana, either. They have each other’s backs and learn to work together, rather than overwriting each other’s achievements.
Who is Moana?
Moana is a girl who loves her island, and who isn’t afraid to explore her desires. It’s a refreshing theme to have in a world which has oh-so-slowly warmed up to the ideas of gender fluidity, spectrums of sexual preference and a world which is afraid to let people celebrate their cultures. Again, Moana’s grandmother – though she might be slated as a ‘crazy liberal’ in a discussion on modern day politics – grounds Moana in simple values and virtues of compassion and self-respect:
‘Sometimes the world seems against you, the journey may leave a scar’ ‘the people you love will change you, the things you learn will guide you, and nothing on earth can silence that quiet voice still inside you’
I also teared up more than a bit at this idea of self acceptance and celebration:
‘When that voice starts to whisper “Moana, you’ve come so far”, Moana listen – do you know who you are?”
Moana’s reply embraces her strengths, and shows that she isn’t afraid to accept who she is and where it will get her:
“I am a girl who loves my Island, I am a girl who loves the sea – it calls me. I am the daughter of the village chief, we are descended from voyagers. We found our way across the world – they call me. I have delivered us to where we are, I have journeyed farther. I am everything I’ve learned and more”
The Reality of Representation: Introducing Moana’s Directors
Moana’s creative team has done an amazing job, in my opinion, but what’s going on behind the scenes? The four directors of the film (Ron Clements and John Musker,[7 and co-directors Don Hall and Chris Williams) are neither a) women or b) people of colour. Whilst the voice of men and white people cannot be entirely silenced, in a film primarily focused on a female lead and Polynesian culture, isn’t it only fair to have representation of these on the directing team? Are there not enough female or Polynesian directors to make this happen? Is this a problem Disney should have been looking to fix in this film by offering this opportunity?
If you want a small glimmer of hope, the film’s Producer – Osnat Shurer – is female. Before this project, she worked at Pixar on non-feature films (which included producing the loveable shorts before each film), and Zootopia, from where she was asked to work on Moana. She told Inside the Magic that the chance to make a movie with a female protagonist appealed to her most about Moana, because ‘We don’t have a great track record in films in general, in Hollywood, of telling great stories about women, especially about strong women’:
‘Moana is a hero, and [the film is] an adventure story in which she goes out to save her world and with her, there is a really special combination of compassion and emotional intelligence and empathy, with courage and strength and bad-assery. And that’s very unique. It’s a very unique thing to pull together and to protect throughout the process of the making of the film. So that drew me.’
She also notes that one of the heads of animation is a woman, and women in the creative team often ‘[spoke] up to protect the power of [the] female lead’:
‘That only needed to be said a few times so that everybody was there in that head space with me, as well. It didn’t take long, because everybody wanted that. It’s just that we default [to earlier preconceptions].’
Shurer said that the most important message of the film is being true to one’s self and celebrating who you are:
‘We all have a voice inside us. We don’t always learn to listen to it. We don’t always tell each other to listen to it. We’re more and more, I feel, focused on what others are telling us we should be. So if people come out of [the movie] with that one message, it’s great. There are more in the film– I feel like there’s an observation about our relationship with nature that we could all learn a lot from, especially right now, about how nature is what we live with and honor and respect. Also, I really hope that the people of the cultures of the Pacific Islands will come out of this movie proud.’
There are clearly still issues with representation in the film that are not quite aligned with genuine diversity. Ms Blog summarises the problem I had been having perfectly – whilst it’s brilliant to go out and research cultures and seek their inputs into the content you make, actually involving them in the negotiation of the creative process and bringing the people you are representing on board in a more direct manner may be a tad less problematic – especially with Clements and Musker’s track record with Aladdin:
“The duo’s draw to the South Pacific seems to stem from exoticism rather than a genuine desire to learn. In the same interview, Musker explains how he “grew up reading the novels of Melville and Conrad, and the South Seas, the exotic world that a lot of their stories are set in, was extremely intriguing.” This exoticism seems to propel the film (rather than a genuine desire to portray Moana as a nuanced, complex character who happens to come from a different cultural heritage than the two white directors).
Reviews, however, emphasised the fact that progressive films not only have the potential to inspire people of all ages to be better and think more holistically, but they also sell:
MaryAnn Johanson, of Flickfilosopher, draws on Moana‘s green messages:
‘If Moana becomes an inspiration for youngsters today to become the green warriors of tomorrow — which doesn’t seem very unlikely at all — she may end up embodying the spirit not just of her Polynesian peoples but of all of us. And that would truly be unprecedented.’
The Guardian’s Lindy West puts Moana‘s achievements in the context of 2016 and Trump’s election:
‘Moana ‘centres [non-white people] in their own story, it passes the Bechdel test without breaking a sweat, it defends the sanctity of the biosphere, and the heroine isn’t gratuitously married off at the end. Perhaps the most middle-American of all genres – the Disney princess movie – has managed to turn out a deeply progressive film without being explicitly progressive at all’
Chris Knight from The National Post says:
‘This is a pre-modern tale, and thus conveniently timeless … It is, like its title character, smart, quick-witted, inventive and melodious.’’
If you haven’t already, watch the trailer for Moana here, and be sure to see it as soon as you can – it’s a game changer, and the songs will be stuck in your head for weeks!
HINT: Don’t miss the end credit scene!