One of the things that made this movie unique was the lore that it drew from. It was based off of Polynesian stories that I had not seen in a movie before, making the characters, setting, and story feel very different from other previous Disney movies.

I particularly liked the soundtrack written by Opetaia Foa’i, Mark Mancina and Lin-Manuel Miranda with a score by Mancina. The songs most reminded me of Lilo and Stitch, but with a more orchestral feel. That isn’t to say that they were bad; they were actually quite good and went well with the movie. The main theme of exploration and wonder in the soundtrack threaded through the entire movie and really elevated certain moments.

Moana herself was well written and well-acted. The other main character, Maui, complimented her very well and helped to round the movie out.

Clocking in at just under an hour and 45 minutes, Moana was full of lovable characters, beautiful animation, moving songs and many great jokes. The two gripes that I had with it were that the story felt very cliched at times, and some of the jokes weren’t that great.

The one character that I did not like as much was Tamatoa. Tamatoa was a giant crab who was very egotistical and had a shell that was crusted in a myriad of shiny trinkets. When Moana met him, she tried to distract him. Tamatoa response was, “Are you trying to get me to talk about myself? I would love to, in song form!”

That interaction really summed up the problem with the poorer jokes in the movie. It tried to be self-referential and on the nose, but did not work. Instead, the interaction pointed out the problems the movie had, and detracted from the movie.

The only other noticeable problem that the movie had was that the story was formulaic. Moana, a strong-willed young heroine, wanted to go beyond the physical boundaries her father placed on her, but she also had to care for her people. She reached a balance between staring at the ocean and leading her people until her people faced problems that threaten to wipe them out.

Then Moana went on a grand adventure to save her people and fill her desire to travel. In short, a very familiar story. However, I still considered it well done because it engrossed me so well that I lost track of time. I only realized that it had been an hour and a half because the story was coming to a close.

Overall, Moana was another great Disney movie. The setting was fresh, the story was well written (even if a little clichéd) and the characters were all great. This was definitely a movie that was worth seeing.