I just realized I’m two days behind doing a blog post. I couldn’t remember if I’d done one last week or not, and turns out I hadn’t! Keeping the once every two week schedule seems to be working very nicely, considering I’ve already got almost 40 posts and that number will probably at least triple before there’s a chance anybody might actually try to go back and read these.

Anyway, I woke up this morning thinking about the movie Moana. Thinking is an under-exaggeration actually, I was viciously dissecting it in my mind trying to figure out why it didn’t work for me.

It’s been a couple of months since I last saw even a part of the film (indeed, I don’t know if I’ve actually sat and watched the whole thing, though I know I’ve seen each scene at least a dozen times by now) thankfully our children are taking a small siesta giving Stephanie and I a much needed break. So why my subconscious brain felt the need to break the film down, I haven’t the slightest clue, but I’m going to take some time and record my thoughts here for you poor souls to one day (maybe) read through.

Bottom line, Moana is an enjoyable film, but it gets by purely by the merit of its charisma. It’s got two very likable main characters, some very catchy music and lots of very fun visuals. But that’s all the movie has, like a cake composed purely of frosting (thanks to Mr. Plinkett for that reference, *language warning.*)

The major issue with Moana is that it’s a sardine canned packed with too many ideas. There are three types of these in this movie:

1. Concepts either get brought up, then immediately resolved
   1. Consider the scene after Maui’s hook is retrieved. Maui is depressed that he can’t remember how to use its power correctly. Rather that lead into a powerful character building moment, Moana gives him a short speech, then queue a musical number and the issue is resolved! The issue is less that the problem is immediately fixed, but that it’s fixed so easily and not through any experience the characters have accumulated during their journey.
   2. Similarly, Maui’s return to help Moana at the end. Why does he return? What changed? Nothing that we can assume solves the conflict.
2. Ideas get brought up and kind of float away until you forget about them
   1. The Kakamora (coconut people) show up for a scene that’s a thrilling, enjoyable sequence. But then they disappear completely. Maui insinuates that they (and many others) want the heart of Te Fiti, which is reasonable considering the setup of the movie. The moment Moana pulls it from her shell, the Kakamora show up to take it! But once they’re defeated, not only do they not return, but nobody else comes to take the heart. This is a lesser issue, but stands to show the way the film sets up ideas only to have them disappear.
3. Pay offs without real setup
   1. The most glaring issues in this category are with the character Moana herself. The song “I am Moana (Song of the Ancestores)” is particularly notable in that it’s presented as this grand, character defining moment. The moment that Moana has truly found herself. But when was it established that she was lost? Where she didn’t know who she was? The beginning of the film has her conflicted between her role as a chieftain and her desire to be on the sea. But never are we led to believe she’s conflicted about herself. It’s never equated to us, that she defines herself by being a chieftain or being a wayfinder. Her conflict is not about who she is, it’s about wanting to sail, when she knows she should be there for her people. The only instance where I can interpret at least a partial conflict of personality is when she is sailing to find Maui, she’s practicing saying, “I am Moana of Motonui, you will board my board, sail across the sea and restore the heart of Te Fiti.” I can see where you could interpret this as the moment where she’s questioning herself (considering the climax of the “I Am Moana” song is the declaration, “I am Moana”) but the line doesn’t instill that idea, nor is it set up by the film’s opening. Instead it strikes me far more as her preparing how she’s going to confront a veritable god and tell him what to do.

Moana’s character is largely the most poorly written aspect of the film. Now I’m going to approach this carefully (after being called a male chauvinist pig more than once for daring to assert that Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens is poorly written). The issue is Moana isn’t her personality, on the contrary, that’s her most redeemable quality, the issue with her motivation and her development. Her growth from the beginning of the film to the end is, relatively non-existent from a character perspective. She gains the ability to sail and a measure of confidence (though she wasn’t exactly lacking confidence before her journey) but that’s really the only change we see in her.

At a story’s conclusion you want your protagonist to be uniquely qualified to solve the problem the plot presented. That can be done through some idiosyncrasy your protagonist possesses, but in truly well written stories, it comes from something the protagonist (and the reader) have learned along the way. Moana recognizes at the end of the film that Te Ka, is Te Fiti by seeing the location in Te Ka’s chest where the heart should go. She then allows Te Ka to come to her and she returns the heart. But nothing in the movie sets this up. Nothing qualifies Moana to recognize this. In the song Moana sings as Te Ka rampages toward her she states, “They have stolen the heart from inside you, but this does not define you. This is not who you are.” Beautiful lyrics, sung by a beautiful voice, but with a meaning that falls flat within the confines of the film’s story. We haven’t seen anything from Moana that would qualify her to say this, beyond simple empathy. Wouldn’t it have been so much more impactful if this was a lesson Moana herself had learned and was now passing on to solve the problem?

Similarly, the what does Moana learn by the end of the film? (Besides how to sail.) Her initial issue is that she wants to be on the sea, but her father wants her to stay on the island and be chieftain. Moana ultimately leaves because the island is dying and her people cannot find food. She leaves on a quest to save her people (certainly strong motivation), restores Te Fiti’s heart and returns home to the island that is once again blossoming with life.

Then they just leave?

I understand that the movie sets up her people were once explorers. But why do they need to still be explorers if the island they live on is perfectly capable of sustaining them? The film goes to specific lengths to show you that Moana’s actions have restored life to the island. So the purpose behind them leaving is to show that Moana was right all along and they should leave just because? What is she (or what are we) meant to have learned from that? Wouldn’t a much more meaningful ending have been that Moana recognizes the wisdom of staying on the island after her adventures? That doesn’t restrict her from sailing and exploring.

I worked up a very short, rough idea of what I think would have brought a stronger arc to the story. Essentially, you start the film the same, but add a new character. The people of Motonui live peacefully on the island, but there are a group of people “Wayfinders” that don’t contribute food/clothes the way others do and instead spend their days “surfing/sailing” around the island. Moana wants to be one of them, but her father doesn’t approve of them, believing the Wayfinders to be lazy. It’s anger at her father that compels Moana to leave the island and find Maui. The film could progress similarly in many ways, but during her travels Moana recognizes that the anger she had was misplaced, she was using it to define her role. She realizes this during the “I Am Moana” song when she “discovers” her people were once explorers, and the chieftains the Wayfinders. She passes the reconciliation she has had on to Te Ka when returning the heart. She returns home no longer angry and able to combine the role of chieftain with wayfinder.

Not a lot of detail there of course, just an idea that I had that would have brought a nice, meaningful conclusion to Moana’s character at the end.

Anyway, enough of that. I need to go work on my own story now. I’ll probably need to come back and edit this later, but it’s fine for now. I start a new job in two weeks where I’ll be working days, something I’ll discuss at length more later. An unfortunately side effect is going to be less time for writing, so I need to find a way to reconcile that with myself. Like Moana, my duties as a husband and father seem to be conflicting with my desire to write. If only my own problems could be faced by simply setting sail to go on a quest!