Walt Disney’s Moana offers a new strong female lead

Olivia Mlynarek '19, Staff Writer

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Official Movie Poster via imbd.com

Meet Moana. She’s the newest edition to the Disney Princess collection. She’s brave, daring and independent. On some levels she has some traits in common with the other princesses, but in other ways she is different from them all. That is what makes her one of the better Disney characters out there.

Before you see this movie prepare to be serenaded with Hawaiian music with the most distinct melodies that differs from some of the other songs you hear in the other disney films.

Moana is a movie centered around the Hawaiian gods and how they are affecting the Island town that Moana lives in. From the beginning of the film it is indicated that Moana has a special connection with the water and she feels that the water is her destiny. Moana defies what her parents tell her her destiny is and instead she follows her instinct and her heart to set out on a journey to do what is right to save her people. The purpose of her journey is to find Maui an ancient Demi-God who’s old mistakes are causing problems to the life on her home island.   

I went into the movie theater not knowing anything about what the movie was about. The only trailer that I saw for the movie was the teaser trailer that was released a while ago. I went into Frozen the same way almost three years ago when I saw it because I wanted no spoilers. After I saw Frozen I was shocked at how good it was for a disney movie, the same thing happened with Moana.

Moana was similar to Frozen in the way that the people look the same and have those same big eyes, but I thought that Moana was in a way better.

I found the music to be a good change from all of the other disney songs. The music from Moana was really upbeat and wasn’t annoying at all. Although it was weird at first because it was so different, I ended up getting used to it and really liking it.

Moana is different from the typical disney princess. First of all she has parents. Unlike a majority of the other disney princesses who only have one parent or both of them were killed off in some terrible way at the beginning of the film, Moana has both of her parent who unlike some of the other parents in disney films actually play a key role.

Moana’s parents are the reason that she separates herself from the others in her hometown and strives to be different and save her people ultimately. Moanas parents have different ideals for her which as you can guess contradicts with  who she truly sees herself as in her mind.

Moana is also different in the way that she has love interest. Moana’s feelings are centered around her family and her friendship that she makes with Maui and her pet chicken Hei Hei. This adds to the film in the way that it is not cliche or makes Moana the same as every other disney Princess.