Sandhya Rajagopalan ’20
Most of us think that going to a Disney movie is childish. Not me. And not my friend, Chloe. We have loved Disney movies for a long time. Sometimes, we’ll break into song in the middle of the hallways.
So, when Moana came out, swallowing our pride as two 15 year olds buying tickets for a movie for children, we went into the theater. The movie started with a showing of the short film, Inner Workings. After figuring out that this was not the beginning of the movie, and that we were in the right theater, we enjoyed the short film. It was about listening to your heart sometimes and not overthinking everything. Sometimes you need to let go and just have fun. After the short film, the movie finally started, and we also realized that half of our popcorn had already been eaten.
The movie started out by explaining that darkness is spreading through the lands because the gods are angry at a demigod by the name of Maui, who stole the heart of Te Fiti for the humans. While the darkness keeps spreading, the people of the island of Motunui are unaffected by this. Until then, the people never went past the reef of the island because they feared the storms and the darkness coming. So, they lived their lives in fear of the darkness. However, when Moana is born as the daughter of the chief, they realize she loves the ocean. Her father, the chief, and her mother try and keep her away from the ocean by saying that the island needs her for when they need a new chief.
However, Moana’s grandmother nurses her granddaughter’s need to sail through the ocean. When Moana was a child, she had found the heart of Te Fiti and was chosen by the ocean to be the one to save them. However, her father came and threw the rock away, thinking nothing of it. After years of this constant struggle of wondering whether to stay on the island and lead the people, or go sail the oceans, the people of the island start to realize that the darkness is spreading to their island, killing off the vegetation and scaring away the fish. Moana suggests that they try fishing out of the reef, which angers her father. Moana never understands her father’s anger, until her mother explains to her that her father went out past the reef and he lost his best friend.
Moana’s grandmother, seeing how devastated her granddaughter is, shows her the cave where their ancestors boats are built. Their ancestors had been voyagers, flowing from island to island. Her grandmother also shows Moana the rock that she had found as a child, the heart of Te Fiti. Moana goes to her father with the idea one more time, however her father gets angry again, saying that he will burn the boats. However, suddenly, Moana’s grandmother falls ill, and before she dies, she tells her granddaughter to go and save the island. Moana takes the rock and a boat and sets off to find Maui, the demi-god, so he can help her bring back the rock.
As soon as Moana sets off, she encounters a typhoon, causing her to be knocked unconscious and she drifts onto an island. On the island, she finds the demi-god Maui, and after a song, which was one of my favorites of the movie, both of them leave the island, after he initially tries to leave her stranded there. On the way to find Maui’s magical fish hook, they come across pygmy pirates called Kakamora, who try to kidnap them. Unfortunately, they do not specify what the pirates are, so Chloe and I spent the entire movie calling them “pirate coconuts.”
After escaping the “pirate coconuts”, Moana and Maui venture to the Realm of Monsters to get Maui’s hook back from a giant lobster. Don’t worry, I was confused by it too. After they get his hook, they venture out back into the sea to get to the island of the Te Fiti to give her the heart. After, they meet her, they realize that she is a lava monster who is spreading the darkness. A battle ensued and it resulted in Maui’s hook being broken. Maui is furious and leaves Moana to battle Te Fiti again by herself. Moana, thinking about giving up, is visited by her grandmother’s spirit, and she gets the confidence to go against Te Fiti again. While Moana is going against Te Fiti, Maui comes to help her, and in the process, destroys the hook completely. Moana returns the heart to Te Fiti and the goddess is thankful for this. The goddess also gives Maui back his hook and stops the darkness. Moana returns home and decides to take out the boats so they can start voyaging the ocean again.
I really loved this movie because of the songs and the messages in it. It shows that even if you have a “duty,” you can do what you want to as well. You do not have to do what everyone tells you to do. It also shows you that sometimes, you might have the best idea and that if you stick with it, then you can accomplish something amazing.
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