Book and Media Reviews The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 30, Number 1, 215–260 © 2018 by University of Hawai‘i Press 215 216 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) permission. for reprint Disney contact Please Māui and Moana. Still image from the feature animated film Moana, © Disney 2016. Reproduced with permission. Moana. Computer-animated feature opened up a valuable opportunity film, 107 minutes, color, 2016. In for people in the Pacific to wrestle English, translated into numerous with a complex set of concerns that languages. Written by Jared Bush; are not often discussed in such public directed by Ron Clements and and candid ways and from so many John Musker. Original story. Pro- perspectives. This forum attempts duced by Walt Disney Animation to maintain the momentum of those Studios, distributed by Walt Disney discussions in order to enable us to Studios Motion Pictures. 3d Blu-ray, continue thinking through the film us$34.95. in ways that are reflexive, balanced, and open-minded. Although the four Few films have stimulated as much reviews included here represent but passion and difference of opinion a small sample of the much larger as Disney’s Moana, which opened discourse surrounding Moana, I hope to global audiences in 2016. In the they offer readers not grand answers Pacific context in particular, vibrant so much as rich and varied insights and vigorous debates about the merits that can help generate deeper ques- of the film and Islander participation tions and continuing conversations. in its making proliferated in aca- mārata ketekiri tamaira demic circles, in homes and class- TCP Book and Media Reviews Editor rooms, and on social media outlets like Facebook. Moana made waves *** across the Pacific—big ones. Although the churning waters have gradually When I go to see a movie, as soon subsided over the several months as the lights go out, I pray silently: since the film’s release, there neverthe- “Please, please, tell me a great story!” less remains much to discuss. Moana I anticipate the unfolding of a story so book and media reviews 217 compelling, so powerful, so resonant mises, or concessions, depending on with my hopes and dreams that, for your point of view, are often made the duration of the movie, the rest in order to suit the dictates of the of the world does not exist. When marketplace at the expense of cultural my wishes come true, I am a happy authenticity. man. But what is a great story? For Set in the Pacific about two thou- me, it is a tale that takes me on an sand years ago, Moana is Disney’s emotional journey that feels like life, latest effort to tell a story rooted in real or imagined. The more honest an indigenous culture—in this case, and authentic the representation of Polynesian. Disney took into account life, the more the story of the movie previous academic criticisms of its will resonate with me. When this stereotypical portrayals of indigenous happens, my faith in the transforma- peoples in earlier movies (such as tive power of story is restored. I leave Pocahontas and Lilo & Stitch) and the cinema feeling I have been empow- sent directors Ron Clements and ered in some way and that, because John Musker to Fiji, Sāmoa, French of the story I have just experienced, Polynesia (Tahiti), and New Zealand I have learned something important to undertake research. Disney also about myself or about our common created an “Oceanic Story Trust” humanity. consisting of scholarly and cultural A compelling and resonant story consultants knowledgeable about the on screen depends on many different Pacific. In addition, Disney consulted factors, most of which are not obvious with other knowledgeable individu- to the average filmgoer. Most of us als on various aspects of Polynesian judge a film by what we see on screen, cultures, including consultations with with little or no attention paid to the the master navigator Nainoa Thomp- various forces at play during prepro- son on Polynesian voyaging traditions duction, production, and postproduc- and practices. The use of Polynesian tion. This review of Disney’s Moana, actors to voice most of the speaking however, takes into account some of or singing roles in Moana, as well as the factors at play during the process meticulous attention to details about of making this film that influenced the the landscape, vegetation, and ocean, final product on screen. For example, made Moana the first major film by a filmmaking is a business that is often Hollywood studio that largely looks at the mercy of the dictates of the and feels Polynesian. Due to these marketplace: sales agents, funders or efforts, Moana is the most accurate investors, and exhibitors and distribu- representation of Polynesia by a major tors jostle each other for attention. Hollywood studio to date, from the The happy marriage of art (in the first moving images about Hawai‘i form of a fictional story that speaks to in 1898 up to this time of writing in our common humanity) and commerce 2017. (meaning it is a financial success) is But in spite of Disney’s best inten- therefore an elusive goal that is not tions, capitalism’s impulses to pro- always attainable, in independent as duce blockbuster movies (read: “huge well as mainstream cinema. Compro- profits” at the box office) resulted 218 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) in several objectionable creative Moana’s way, each one more challeng- decisions that aptly illustrate what ing than the one before. On finding can happen when cultural authentic- Māui (a task her deceased grand- ity collides with the dictates of the mother had encouraged her to under- marketplace. Well-known stereotypes, take), Moana pleads with him to assist proven tropes, and decisions based on her in her mission. Māui is reluctant box-office appeal rather than cultural at first but succumbs to her persistence accuracy influenced the narrative, ren- and agrees to teach her the naviga- dering the final story sold to the public tional art of wayfinding. Working culturally authentic for the most part, collaboratively, they kill the fictional but glaringly inaccurate, if not offen- fiery monster Te Kā. As Te Kā’s outer sive, in certain areas. shell disintegrates, the goddess Te The final version of Moana that Fiti is freed and the land, shaped in ended up in movie theaters around the the form of a beautiful long-haired world is worth seeing, several times Polynesian woman, wakes up from her if possible. A dazzling feast for the prostrate position to welcome Moana eyes created by the latest technologi- and Māui. More importantly, flowers cal advances in animation and visual bloom again. While Māui retreats to effects, Moana succeeds as an unprec- obscurity, Moana returns to her home edented cinematic achievement for island of Motunui to discover that the Disney. It is remarkable to view and blight that had infected the nuts of experience what money and talent the coconut trees has been cured and can produce. The film’s focus on the the abundance of the land restored. Pacific’s most impressive historical Moana succeeds her father to become achievement—voyaging on double- the island’s chief, and the Island- hulled canoes and populating the ers begin voyaging with ever greater Pacific Islands long before European frequency till double-hulled canoes steamships arrived—helps to debunk traverse the Pacific Ocean like SUVs on any mistaken beliefs that Pacific a busy freeway in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Islanders only accidentally discovered The word “moana” means “ocean” new lands rather than set out purpose- in several Polynesian languages. This fully to discover them. is a fitting title for a movie in which Targeted primarily for younger the ocean is personified, especially audiences, Moana is the story of a in the way it is animated to become determined teenage girl (supposedly a friendly and supportive ally for sixteen, but she often behaves more Moana. The land on which Te Kā like a preteen) called Moana (Auli‘i reigned is also personified in the form Cravalho) who disobeys her father, of a woman, the goddess Te Fiti. The Chief Tui of Motunui (Temuera Polynesian worldview of the land Morrison), and journeys far beyond and the ocean as life forces in their the reef in order to restore the heart own right is on full display in Moana. of the fictional Te Fiti that had been Among the most thrilling aspects of stolen by Māui (Dwayne Johnson), the film are the use of tattoos (even an ancestor much revered by modern- though they are too modern to be day Polynesians. Obstacles stand in accurate for the period) to suggest that book and media reviews 219 Māui is an embodiment of Polyne- Many found this empowering, a vali- sian culture; the portrayal of belief dation of Polynesia as a region worthy in sea creatures such as the stingray of having its own “princess.” Judging as family totems; the careful atten- from the vast majority of accounts tion paid to the costumes (except for on the Internet as well as personal Māui’s); the physical features of the experiences of parents and relatives inhabitants of Motunui and their uses of Pacific children, Moana is a big of the land and natural resources; hit with pubescent and teenage girls, and, most important, the voyaging especially the music. Opetaia Foa‘i’s feats of Polynesians on their double- Te Vaka and Igelese Ete’s Pasifika hulled canoes. Clearly, Disney was Voices provided Polynesian songs and having fun with its imagination in other musical elements that compli- creating a minor villain in the form mented the compositional talents of of the crab Tamatoa.