Disney Animation’s Moana is cleverly creative cartooning with catchy songs

FILM REVIEW: Moana is an intelligently scripted and accessible fare blessed with spellbinding marine visuals and esoteric earworms aplenty.

MOANA (PG)

Directors: John Musker, Ron Clements

Starring: the voices of Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Breaking the waves and making a splash

WITH Moana, Disney Animation Studios returns to one of its most popular thematic templates: the trials and tribulations of an independent and forthright young woman making her way through the world.

While not destined to thaw the entire planet down to water in the same way as Frozen, it certainly won’t be met with an icy reception by any lovers of cleverly creative cartooning and catchy songs. Which, to be honest, is pretty much everyone.

Young Hawaiian-born newcomer Auli’i Cravalho voices the title role, the daughter of a Pacific Islands chief, and future ruler of her people.

Meet Moana, voiced by Auli'i Cravalho, in a scene from Disney’s animated film Moana. Picture: Disney via AP

Not one ever to be told what to do or how to think, Moana goes against her royal family’s wishes and takes to the open sea in a traditional Hokulea canoe. In the company of a genuinely hilarious, absolute numbskull of a chicken named Heihei (Alan Tudyk). As you do.

Moana’s impulsive odyssey — undertaken to prevent what shapes as bleak times ahead for her tribe — takes her to a faraway island where the only resident is a burly, egotistical demigod named Maui (Dwayne Johnson).

Dwayne Johnson’s voice is fitting for the character of Maui, pictured in a scene from the animated film, Moana. Picture: Disney via AP

There are some very telling reasons why Maui is living in far-flung exile as a complete castaway, and the mystical tattoos that seemingly have a life of their own all over his brawny person only tell part of the story.

Cravalho and Johnson are very well-matched in the key roles, especially once all the initial adversarial banter (“if you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, then you’re a princess” astutely observes Maui) subsides and some mutual respect kicks in for their lively characters.

Though not without a few flat spots, this intelligently scripted and accessible fare is blessed with spellbinding marine visuals (some of which surpass Pixar’s work) and esoteric earworms aplenty from composer-of-the-moment Lin-Manuel Miranda (the man behind this century’s hottest ticket as a stage musical, Hamilton).

Moana screens at selected cinemas this weekend. Consult your local listings for further information. Full release is on Boxing Day Dec. 26