{"id":1796,"date":"2017-04-14T06:56:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T06:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/?p=1796"},"modified":"2017-04-15T08:09:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T08:09:22","slug":"movie-review-moana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/2017\/04\/movie-review-moana.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie review: Moana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moana (2016) presents a myth that we don\u2019t see that often. Moana is a very Polynesian story. This animated film has beautiful characters, a good story, a tropical island, music and song, and a lovely look.<\/p>\n

There is no mistaking its roots with the culture firmly embedded. There\u2019s Polynesian garb, way of life, and characters. There\u2019s also mythical gods.<\/p>\n

On a Polynesian island a village is in danger of losing its livelihood. So the important teenager on the island, Moana, tries to bring back the powers of life <\/a>by restoring the heart of goddess Te Fiti. Without Te Fiti\u2019s heart the powers of darkness have their way on the island and the ocean.<\/p>\n

Maui<\/h4>\n

Maui is a demi-god who\u2019s a bit of a villain because he stole Te Fiti\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, he\u2019s Moana\u2019s companion as she ventures out. Moana needs Maui to help her–if he can, considering he stole the heart of Te Fiti.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a very down to earth reason for him stealing the goddess’ heart, which is portrayed sentimentally. Underneath lies a history.<\/p>\n

Maui is bulgy muscles and bushy hair with a personality the size and shape of a mischievous god on the loose. Maui is a bit of a performer, but he has a good heart. Dwayne Johnson has good voice for the character as he effortlessly contributes to Maui\u2019s whole package. Maui is never boring and is humorous.<\/p>\n

Moana herself is spunky and bright.<\/p>\n

The elders of the village are a mix of the wise\u2014Moana\u2019s influential grandmother\u2014and the stern\u2014the village chief who is Moana\u2019s father, who strictly warns Moana going beyond the reef–who both reflect something of Polynesian culture.<\/p>\n

A comical dumb rooster comes on board Moana\u2019s journey on the ocean. On the way, there\u2019s the scary stuff\u2014a huge demon\u2014but lots of lovely Blue Ocean and song.\u00a0 The sacredness of water is very important.<\/p>\n

The mythical tones are ingrained, but if there is one problem I had with the movie Moana is when Moana is on the seas with Maui it tends to drag a little. However, others will find their personality clashes and learning to get along entertaining.<\/p>\n

* * * * (out of * * * * * stars)\u2014good<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moana (2016) presents a myth that we don\u2019t see that often. Moana is a very Polynesian story. This animated film has beautiful characters, a good story, a tropical island, music and song, and a lovely look. There is no mistaking its roots with the culture firmly embedded. There\u2019s Polynesian garb, way of life, and characters.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,57,390],"tags":[99,28,311,282,145,8,9,185,16,7,80,24,25,11],"class_list":["post-1796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-movies","category-family-films","category-reviews","tag-animation","tag-beauty","tag-family","tag-family-film","tag-fantasy-film","tag-film","tag-film-reviews","tag-inspirational-film","tag-life","tag-movies","tag-myth","tag-problems","tag-survival-movies","tag-visuals"],"yoast_head":"\nMovie review: Moana - Life at the Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie review: Moana - Life at the Movies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Moana (2016) presents a myth that we don\u2019t see that often. 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I enjoy catching up with sport, listening to music, buying a coffee, and keeping an eye on current events. First \u2018awesome\u2019 movie moment was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Amadeus, first \u2018serious\u2019 film. A 3 star rating out of 5 stars is above average from me.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.peteswriting.wordpress.com","https:\/\/x.com\/peteswriting"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/author\/pveugelaers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1796"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1803,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796\/revisions\/1803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeatthemovies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}