Failure to engage

It will be interesting to see whether Moana, Disney’s latest would-be holiday blockbuster, proves as popular with kids as it is with critics. Visually, the film ranks as one of the studio’s best—full of breathtaking tropical vistas that flow and glow. But the cultural authenticity and female-empowerment themes may carry less weight with viewers under 10 than they do with those over 30.

In past Disney movies like Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Mulan, religious traditions played a role in the story. In Moana, they are the story. Moana (newcomer Auli’i Cravalho), daughter of the village chief, longs to leave her Pacific island and navigate the ocean like her ancestors. Her sea-fearing father forbids it, but when Moana discovers the lost heart of the goddess Te Fiti and realizes it is causing a blight on the land, she embarks on an odyssey to find the demigod Maui (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and recruit him to help her return it.

Christian parents might want to point out to their children that every culture has a creation story because it’s written into human hearts that a supernatural being created us. Our job on earth is to seek the true story so we can worship the true Creator.

Despite its beauty and a few inspired scenes (particularly Jemaine Clement as a bling-obsessed crab), Moana (rated PG for some scary monsters) largely fails to engage. Not because it focuses on the myths of Polynesia, but because it focuses on them to the exclusion of everything else. Although its two hours feel too long, it also feels as if it could use another character to give the journey more emotional depth. What made Frozen resonate weren’t the bits of Scandinavian flair, but the drama between the sisters.

It’s good that Disney is branching out beyond the Western European princess model. But the story around those characters can’t be just a generic amalgamation of native lore with a couple of catchy tunes. That shortchanges both the culture and the story.