Moana (2016)

Every time I commented I hadn't seen (the first) Moana, Jack said, "It's really good!" He watched it again last week with Amy and me and we agreed with him. The animated musical about a headstrong independent Polynesian island princess is beautiful, funny, creative, and has great songs. Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson lead the voice cast as the title character and the muscular tattooed demigod Maui. The hilarious Jemaine Clement has a turn as an evil crab named Tamatoa.

Many cooks didn't spoil the broth, as it was directed by Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall, and Chris Williams from a screenplay by Jared Bush and story by Clements, Musker, Hall, Williams, Pamela Ribon, and identical twin brothers Aaron Kandell and Jordan Kandell.

I had heard and sung along to the songs many times at the grandchildren's houses, especially How Far I'll Go and You're Welcome (both written by Lin-Manuel Miranda), the former of which was Oscar-nominated that year. The exciting score by Mark Mancina and some of those songs can be streamed on Apple Music. 

Writing this took an extra long time because I went down the rabbit hole of reading what seems like hundreds of trivia items, including that Christopher Jackson, a Hamilton alumnus, provided the singing voice for Moana's father and that almost every actor is of Polynesian or Australian descent.

Cravalho was last blogged for Mean Girls (also a musical) but this was her acting debut at age 15, Johnson for The Other Guys, Clement for The Breaker Upperers, Hall for Raya and the Last Dragon, Bush and Miranda for Encanto, and Jackson for In the Heights.

Clements and Musker directed The Little Mermaid (1989), and Aladdin (1992), among others, Williams is credited with the stories of Mulan (1998), Frozen, and more, and Mancina's dozens of credits include Bad Boys (1995), Training Day (2001), and August Rush (2008). Ribon and the Kandells are new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are happily at sea, averaging 95 and 89%. We streamed it on Disney+ on December 28. Stick around for the credits or fast forward to the end for a bonus scene with Tamatoa.