This Polynesian princess can paddle her own canoe: Family-friendly fun in Disney's latest film Moana, writes BRIAN VINER
There is much to relish in this animated Disney film, but I appreciated it as much for what it lacks as for what it contains.
So, although the title character is a doe-eyed, teenage Polynesian princess, there is no lantern-jawed hero for her to swoon over, indeed no love interest at all. Three cheers!
I do confess, though, to a slight feeling of queasiness at the Disneyfication of yet another ‘colourful’ foreign culture.
The demigod Maui is voiced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who may have Samoan roots but couldn’t sound more Californian, ditto Moana (though in fairness she is voiced by young Hawaiian actress Auli’i Cravalho).
Never have a lagoon’s turquoise shallows looked so inviting, so wonderfully paddlesome, as they do here
Still, my qualms were soon swept away by the sheer exuberance of the story-telling, some genuinely witty one-liners, a few decent songs and of course, the brilliant animation. Never have a lagoon’s turquoise shallows looked so inviting, so wonderfully paddlesome, as they do here.
The film — written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, who were behind Aladdin and The Little Mermaid — apparently takes its story from Polynesian mythology. I’ll buy that, though I discerned a few nods to Egyptian, Greek, Norse and, unavoidably, Disney mythology, too.
Anyway, the headstrong but brave Moana sails off from her South Sea island, crossing the reef in defiance of her protective father, the chief, in search of the once-mighty Maui.
She wants the demigod to rescue her people from a terrible blight on their harvests and fishing grounds, and he agrees to come, pitting them both against a series of sea monsters (and, fabulously, a tribe of malevolent coconuts) hell-bent on stopping them.
It’s gloriously inventive, and who couldn’t love a song in which ‘the powers of creation’ rhymes with ‘crustacean’? Huge, wholesome fun.
Beautifully acted, sensitively written and actually rather moving
As in Moana, a spirited adolescent drives Edge Of Seventeen, an unusually intelligent teen flick from debutante writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig.
Hailee Steinfeld (below) gives a rousing performance as narky Nadine, who is so out of step with her high-school generation that she not-so-secretly despises their reliance on social media. They ‘literally have a seizure if you take their phone away for a second’, she spits.
Nadine adored her dad, but he died, and thinks her mum (Kyra Sedgwick) favours her brother Darian (Blake Jenner). Her only real friend is Krista (Haley Lu Richardson), who then starts going out with dishy Darian, in what Nadine considers an unforgivable act of treachery. That leaves her with only two confidantes: a classmate (Hayden Szeto) with an unrequited crush on her, and a laid-back teacher (Woody Harrelson).
None of this makes the film sound especially original, and it is not without flaws (her teacher never seems to talk to anyone but her; in fact, their relationship seems mildly inappropriate). But it is beautifully acted, sensitively written, and actually rather moving.
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