In November Disney released a movie that took place on an island with a Hawaiian heroine. The story is about a young girl named Moana, daughter of the chief in a Polynesian tribe on their island. “Moana”, meaning ocean in Hawaiian is significant to the story and not just because they live on a beautiful island surrounded by crystal blue water.

Moana was a young curious girl who wanted to sail the sea, she wanted to see further than their island, whereas her father has a strict rule of not going beyond the reef. She tries to fight her urge but she believes it was who she was meant to be. Soon enough, the island’s vegetation began to die and the fish population became lesser. The island goddess named Te Fiti, long ago had made life and all the islands. However, her heart was stolen by a demigod named Maui, which was keeping the ocean from being safe to sail. It had now been taken over by Te Ka, a giant lava monster goddess. The story tells about her adventure sailing the great blue, crashing through 15 foot waves to find Maui and sail across the sea, defeat Te Ka and return the heart of Te Fiti to bring abundance back to the islands.

What stood out to me about this movie was the amazing graphics. The color of the water, the detail of the plants and the sand, animals, music, it’s all so real. Many are calling it the perfect Disney movie, and it’s hard to argue with that. Water played a significant part in this movie, not just because the story takes place in the water, but the ocean had a unique relationship with Moana. It was calling out to her and by using special graphics, the producers made the water move around, clear the ocean floor for her to walk through, and push her back up onto her boat no matter how many times she fell off.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, in an interview with Rachel Mouton from Acadiana’s Thrifty mom, was asked about his feelings about his role as Maui.

“It was important for me to do the role because it was a great opportunity to showcase our Polynesian culture to the world. I’m half Samoan and half black, and it was an opportunity for me. I felt I wasn’t too sure that I was ever going to get the opportunity again to showcase my culture, and our culture’s very rich and we’re very proud of it. It was also an opportunity to work with Disney in this capacity, in a classic animated capacity with the element of music.”

The voice of Moana, Auli’i Cravalho, a 14 year old girl, is the youngest person to do a voice over for Disney. Being a young girl, starting her freshman year in high school while working on the movie was a little tricky for her, but she stuck with it. In an interview with Silas Lesnick from “comingsoon.net”, she talked about what she took away from the movie and what she is looking forward to from the outcome.

“I think that’s so special that me, a 15-year old going on 16, can learn so much from an animated character. We’ve had Disney princesses, and this is a Disney heroine. I’m excited to see her on the big screen.”

Producers took the time to do their research, and even took trips to multiple islands, talked to the high chiefs and met villagers to really see it for themselves and have an accurate interpretation of all the beauty, which they perfectly translated into the movie. I think it’s safe to say this movie is rich in culture and is definitely worth the money to see it for yourself because I can guarantee you would be impressed with the graphics in this groundbreaking animation.