Thoughts on Moana · 3:00am Jul 7th, 2017
Recently, Netflix added Moana to it's library, and this past monday, I finally found the time to watch it. Not surprisingly, it was a pretty good movie, but I found myself a bit baffled by the overall plot of it.
Spoilers below.
The film itself is goriously animated, and I enjoyed the thing on whole, but I found myself wondering why exactly the film receives such praise for being an 'empowering film' with regards to Moana-as-hero. It isn't that she isn't a good character--she certainly is--but by the end of the film, I kind of found myself wondering what exactly her role in the resolution of the conflict actually is.
I don't get it.
Let me explain; originally, my impression was that Moana had the ability to control the oceans (probably due to too much Last Airbender), and she would end up using those powers to resolve the plot/defeat Te Kā /etc. Except, the ocean is an actual character (sorta) in the film. Even though Moana has the heart, she seeks out Maui--and, again--I had the impression that Maui had to put the Heart back, for whatever mystical reasoning (ie, he took it, he had to return it). But, again, this doesn't turn out to be the case-- Moana herself restores the heart to Te Fiti.
All of this seems to build towards me wondering what exactly Moana's role was supposed to be the film, exactly. The Ocean choose her to... what? be a glorified ferrywoman and fetch Maui to restore the heart? But Moana doesn't know how to navigate the ocean, she's relies on Maui's teaching her to find her way at all. And Maui's role is confusing as well, since he didn't actually need to restore the heart himself. Indeed, one wonders why the Ocean simply didn't pick up the heart and shove it back into Te Fiti's chest. In fact, when Maui throws her off the boat, and the Ocean puts her back on it, it seems to underscore the problem with the Ocean-as-character in the film; for all the film is supposed to be about girl power, Moana is nothing but an object for the Ocean to use as it wants; she isn't fighting back against Maui by hopping back onto the boat, it's the Ocean's doing.
I asked around, and one woman suggested Moana is celebrated because she--unlike male characters--saved the day by defeating Te Ka by understanding her, rather than brute forcing it. But even here, this seems like a thin reason; if it weren't for the big spiral x marks the spot on her chest, Moana likely wouldn't have figured it out. There was no understanding, really, anymore than Link understands the big monster of the week with his fairy starts flying around its weak point.
I liked the film overall, but the more I think of it, the more it feels like there's something fundamentally wrong with the film's plot.
I never even wondered about that, to me the whole movie was about mythology. A mortal being unable to do pretty much anything without the help of a demigod, afterall she was facing giant monsters and demons, but she was needed to restore the heart because of a prophecy.
But yeah, Moana kind of did nothing for most of the movie...
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A lot of the story was inspired and based on mythology, but I'm just baffled that neither Moana, nor, ultimately, Maui, were necessary for the resolution of the plot. Moana could have gone straight for Te Fe and replaced the heart, for example. Or the ocean could have stolen a boat and given it to Maui and made him put it back. Or the ocean could have done the work for them.
One theory I read was the whole point of the plot wasn't to restore Te Fe, but rather to get Moana's people out wavefaring again. But it seems like a very round about way to do it--and the whole reason they were so afraid of the Ocean was due to the ocean killing the chief's best friend!
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Maybe it's both? The objective was to both restore the heart *and* for her people to become wanderers again? In which case, Maui was needed to teach navigation. I mean, think about it- in the beginning of the story, there were four problems: the world was dying, her people were landlocked, Maui was trapped, and Maui's hook was in the underworld. The story resolved all of them, and neither Maui or Moana could do it alone.