Directed By Thomas Kail

Starring – Catherine Laga’aia, Dwayne Johnson, John Tui

The Plot – In Disney’s live-action reimagining of the beloved Oscar-nominated animated adventure, Moana (Laga’aia) answers the Ocean’s call and, for the first time, voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with the infamous demigod Maui (Johnson) on an unforgettable journey to restore prosperity to her people.

Rated PG for action/peril, some scary images, rude humor and brief thematic elements

Moana | Final Trailer | In Theaters July 10

POSITIVES

Despite so many of my preconceived fears of this framed live-action cash grab coming to fruition in an overall execution is lazily derivative, there are some compelling components to Kail’s helming that keeps it from feeling completely irredeemable, particularly the performances of series newcomers, Catherine Laga’aia and Rena Owen, who each appraise the most meaningful kind of dispersed energies to the air of their vital portrayals. While this film could’ve easily went the route of Dwayne Johnson and maintained the voice actors of its animated original, it instead opted to find fresh faces to distinguish itself, and with Laga’aia imbedding the kind of immature naivety and gently glowing spark of Moana’s adventurism, she breathes an infectiously innocent element in her demeanor that takes charge in carrying so much of the movie’s most memorable scenes, effectively bridging the gap for the kind of emotional maturity that comes as a result of the at-sea experiences that the character approaches head-on. As for Owen as Gramma Tala, what the actress lacks in synthetic aging, she more than makes up for in wistful wisdom, with those intimately earnest scenes between her and Moana serving as the only instance where the movie is able to conjure meaningful heart, as a result of Owen’s authentic depths, and while her time is obviously short based on everything that we know about the original movie, Owen capitalizes captivatingly with a nurturing compassion that coherently conveys the connective chemistry of the island’s people, offering a breakthrough performance that I hope is the open door to plenty of future roles involving hearty underlining. Beyond the duo of dazzling performances, some of the elements of production such as costume designs and sets are also able to elicit the impossible task of attaining identical likeness from its animated original, helping to supplant some much-needed historical significance to a tribe whose history makes up the foundational components of the movie’s material. While plenty of attention to detail is paid to Moana and Maui’s character designs breeding familiarity and mobility to many of the environmental elements, for my money the interior scenes of introspection are the production’s most glaringly evident moments of effortful initiation, helping to take the sting out of overwhelming green-screen backdrops, the likes of which obstruct tangibility to this distinguished setting, specifically as a result of seemingly man-made housing units that articulate the adaptability and intelligence of the Motunui people. The unfortunate aspect of not receiving enough time in and around this village definitely detracts focus away from effectively registering the kind of significant effort of those involved to bring this familial foundation to life, but even in the time spent within during the opening act, there’s an absorbing element to Kail’s documentation that properly materializes the importance of everything encased, with the structural ingredients of its housing stemming specifically from atmospheric elements that surround them on this tiny but organic island capable of safety.

NEGATIVES

As you might’ve already guessed, Moana falls into the shamelessly unnecessary category of a studio’s objective to capitalize lucratively on a previously proven property, while orchestrating as minimal effort as humanly possible to revisit an original movie that barely turns ten-years-old, this year. Enough disappointment certainly comes with a screenplay and corresponding direction that serves as a shot-for-shot and beat-for-beat remake of its animated original, without any semblance of creative ambition to allow this movie to stand on its own merits, but just as much disappointment stems from a presentational execution lacking any semblance of the awestruck wonder and vibrancy of this once magical world of fantasy, obscuring the pageantry and prominence for filtered visuals that look artificially lifeless on the biggest screen conceivable. This is especially the case for the film’s excessive use of green-screen backdrops and animated animals, the likes of which not only receive an overwhelming emphasis to human actors searching for any semblance of tangibility in the environments they continuously interact with, but also cast this illuminatingly abysmal glow of studio lot influence to the immersive integrity of the imagery that only stretches believability as strong as the aforementioned set decoration entails, particularly during those at-sea sequences that are obviously executed with two actors, a wooden raft, and nothing else even closely mirroring their tangible influence. The visuals are so offensively lifeless to both Disney’s representation and cinematic showcasing that it outlines a straight-to-streaming consistency to what’s capably conjured, but even in the live-action framing that so much of the movie’s marketing banks on, the animal designs are so egregiously animated that it immediately contradicts everything that’s intended, in turn leaving this version of Moana feeling just as animated as its animated 2016 original. Beyond the derivativity of its screenplay and shockingly jarring visual counterbalance, the memorability of a soundtrack with banger after banger of infectiously energetic lyrics and corresponding spectacle sequencing are nothing more than a mere memory to those who broke the replay button on their respective Ipods, with not a single one of them effectively emitting the triumphant emotionality or elaborateness of a movie a decade older than it. Part of the problem is certainly in the voices of Laga’aia and Johnson failing so flatly against monumental instrumentals that emphasize every word only to be met with mumbling monotony, a fact made worse by glaringly unobstructed lip-synching that the production doesn’t even attempt to conceal to audience interpretation, but just as much blame lies at the wooden enacting of those two aforementioned actors in evoking the feelings of every word delivered, leaving a once year’s best soundtrack hindered by the kind of performative execution as a karaoke night in the most alcoholic side of town. Considering this incarnation of Moana opts to mirror as many shots and story beats as its predecessor, I don’t understand why they didn’t just reinstitute the original movie’s musical performances on top of this precedent, as specifically the new helming of Johnson’s new vocals echo those of a tediously tired musician asked to perform the same hit song on tour for forty years, but even in approaching these as new songs to those who have never heard them before, there’s no semblance of panache or exhilarating emphasis to what’s captured, and the results have so many of the movie’s grandest emotional moments falling crucially flat, on account of cherished musical numbers not containing with them the kind of encompassing passion that makes them so infectiously addictive. Speaking of Johnson, as much as it pains me to say this, as I was someone who expressed in my 2016 review that he carried the film’s most meaningful moments, here (With an awful Michael Bolton wig in tow) he is a mere shell of his former self, evoking such a lack of palpable elevating energy to Maui’s demeanor that makes the scenes involving his character feel like a wet blanket on the movie’s integrity. Perhaps Johnson, like the audience, understands how ridiculous it is for Disney to even attempt to remake such a landmark movie for his people, but there’s nothing about his dry deliveries that even sample any semblance of the comically exuberant charisma and impeccable timing that made his original turn so memorable, and with Johnson’s stagnancy physically failing to match the expressive tendencies of 2016’s animation, it has this feeling like a completely different portrayal, for reasons that aren’t anywhere near flattery. Finally, if we’re going to treat this movie as a soulless imitator, we have to characterize it for the very same inferiorities that persisted in its predecessor, such as an overlong runtime and lack of urgency in stakes away from Moana and Maui. The first problem involving 110 minutes of screentime pertains to so much long-winded tribal exposition contained to the opening act that could easily be trimmed or condensed, in order to conjure Maui consistently to the engagement a lot quicker than the movie’s fifty minute mark, but the far greater problem of the script deliberately ignoring the Motunui tribe alongside Moana’s savior journey not only underscores the drama by failing to focus prominently on those it affects most, but also limits the levity in crafting a deviating means of escape against the persistency of Moana and Maui’s adventures, leaving the pacing working overtime to manage some momentum in order to keep the impatience of the audience at a minimum. This is obviously less intrusive on the integrity of the animated original, as the beauty of so much intoxicating vibrancy in the presentation, as well as so much compelling charisma in the performances, offer enough immersion to distract ourselves in the values of the depicted world worth fighting for, but without those same meaningful components in this installment, the stagnancy of the storytelling eventually takes shape, leaving me yearning for any kind of parental depiction with the sudden disappearance of their adventurous daughter.

OVERALL
Moana is a creatively derivative and emotionally flat assembly line live-action remake that not only fails to capture the magic and radiance of its animated original, but also sinks its meaningful message of celebrating the courage to venture into the unknown with a money-motivated rehash in the depths of the most shallow and transparent waters. While not every element is counterproductive to the integrity of Thomas Kail’s direction, such as a charmingly radiant breakthrough performance from Catherine Laga’aia, there’s enough gaping holes in its sinking sails to submerge this artificially enveloped odyssey at sea, with Disney saying “You’re Welcome” to those willing to fork over cash for something that they’ve already experienced.

My Grade: 4.7 or D