Disney's newest animated feature is planning to take us someplace entirely new, the islands of the Pacific Ocean. While we've seen the beauty that Moana has in store before, the new trailer finally gives us some explanation of what the movie is all about. Moana and the demi-god Maui are going to go on a massive adventure together. Check it out.
Moana is the story of a hero's journey, but, in this case, the hero isn't the demi-god, it's the girl that goes in search of him in order to fulfill her own quest. It's like a version of the Odyssey told in the South Pacific, as the two will travel across the ocean, finding several different adventures along the way. The journey looks to be an epic one and we can't wait to see where it leads.
The most interesting thing about Moana may be the fact that, while the journey looks to be on a massive scale, the character story is much smaller. While we expect to meet several new characters in Moana's village, once the journey begins, it appears to focus entirely on two characters. Three if you count the idiot chicken voiced by Alan Tudyk. There doesn't even appear to be a villain in the traditional Disney sense. While there will be plenty of obstacles, and at least one massive lava monster, it looks like that will be a much more mindless beast than a character with a voice and a personality.
However, the trailer also gives us the impression that there may be an entire section of Moana that we haven't even seen yet. The end shows our heroic pair jumping into the "Realm of Monsters" which may or may not be anything we've seen in the trailer before. If this is a part of the film they're keeping secret, it could open up numerous possibilities for where the story might go that we can't even conceive of at this point.
And then, of course, there's the fact that the water itself is apparently going to be a character in the story. Moana has some relationship with the water which is what pegs her as the film's "chosen one." We learned at San Diego Comic-Con this year, that Moana's story will focus on a part of Polynesian history where the islanders seemed to stop traveling the oceans for no explainable reason. This is Disney's version of how the people of the islands took to the water once again.
If you're a fan of the Disney princess, the Disney musical, or just animation, Moana looks to have something for everybody. Moana will be in theaters on November 23.
