Moana

Moana is directed by Ron Clements and Don Hall, stars Dwayne Johnson and introduces Auli'l Cravalho. It is set in an ancient Polynesian island, where we see a young Moana answer the ocean's call to  voyage across the seas to retrive the demigod Maui and return the heart of Te Fiti, a mythical stone, to its rightful home. Moana is a fresh take on the princess genre as we see a beautiful culture being explored in an exciting new world of Disney animation.

Whilst I quickly became sick of Fozen's flimsy story line and incredibly irrataing charcters  (not to mention a song that will forever be stuck in my head - and not in a good way!), Moana spends more time creating a tropical paradise in great and rewarding depth. Disney, branches out beyond it's recent works and delveries a fresh, new fantasy world. There are a few classic disney clichés slipped in alon the way - think 'She is the chosen one' - but Moana never strays from trying to make something orignal. The most stunning part about the film was certainly it's animation, It's safe to say this is one of Disney best animated works to date. The ocean is brought to life with beautiful details of  the waves, and stunning mixes of blues that make the sea so realistic. Off land too the swaying palm trees, the lucious green leaves of Hawii and it's array of coloured flowers are set as a beuatiful background for the happy Islanders

The charcter design is certainly something special. Moana is a strong, indepedent teenager as the films protaginst. Only at aged sixteen, Cravalho created an unforgetable young female lead that sets so many admirable examples as a new, teenage role model. The character that most suuprise me (to say the least) was Johnshon's Maui. What seemed like another incredibly annoying wise crack through the trailers, Maui turned out to be a hilarious addition to the Disney universe. The charcater's design was fantstic, the way his tatoos came to life and interacted with the audience was amazing.

In more serious moments of the film they dial his charcter down and give him more depth rather than only showing one side to his character. We instantly fall in love with the two characters and exactly like Zootropolis earlier this year the chemistry between Maona and Maui was so stong that they completmented each other perfectly. This film was also wonderfully scored, the music added so much to every single scene and really gave it the Polynesian feel it was trying to achive. The musical aspect of the film was not at all over used, songs were sloted in at just the right time and fit into the scences perfectly. 

Moana took us all on an exciting journey across the seven seas, it stuck to it's roots throught the entire film and it felt they made such an effort in refining every single detail. Senstivley writen, incredibly scored and stunningly animated, Moana is a perfect ending in what has been an amazing year for Disney.

I am going to give Moana 

9.2/10