Moana is an animated musical film by Disney that came out in 2016. It was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements with a screenplay by Jared Bush. This is an enchanting, humorous, and surprisingly, an emotionally powerful film.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t initially excited to watch this movie. Maybe I’ve had my fill of Disney after recently reviewing Inside Out 1 and 2, Encanto, and The Kid. I enjoyed reviewing Star Trek so much that I’m itching to review Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings and maybe a superhero movie or two. But my dear friend Mother Natalia insisted I needed to see Moana. And she wasn’t wrong. Moana has a lot to offer from a parts perspective as well as quite a few surprises.
I’m willing to take a moment and challenge my own biases upfront. Like Encanto, Moana takes place in a culture that I’m not very familiar with. I’ve been to Hawaii twice, sure enough, but I don’t really know the culture well and I’m completely unfamiliar with its history, mythology, and religious beliefs and practices. I was raised on and remain generally comfortable with European style fairy tales, mythologies, and cultural norms.
My own favorite Disney animated movies were Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid. Even the Lion King, although African and not European per se, follows the same basic story line as Star Wars and comes with both a Phil Collins soundtrack and Broadway style musical numbers. It might include African culture, but it is nicely packaged for a Western European and North American audience. You can say the same about Aladdin, another one of my favorites, a Middle Eastern cultural experience designed for Westerners.
Another bias I’ll own is my weariness with annoying child characters. I never liked the younger version of Ashoka from Star Wars: Clone Wars. And don’t get me started on Princess Morbucks from Powerpuff Girls or any version of young Anakin Skywalker. There’s DeeDee from Dexter’s Laboratory, SpongeBob, Vicky from Fairly OddParents, and the list goes on. Perhaps it’s my 50 something male perspective, but I don’t find snarky, reactive, spunky, and manic to be endearing. And, in my view, sometimes they mistake sassy for strength in writing female characters. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to see strong female characters who are good role models for young women. The days of damsel in distress Snow Whites, Cinderellas, and Sleeping Beauties are well behind us (as I sheepishly admit I love all those classics) and I applaud the Belles, Jasmines, Mulans, and Princess Leias. It is truly amazing to see all the diversity and variety and courage in Disney female leads, but I’m interested in neither obnoxious precociousness nor heavy handed “messaging,” over rich characters and good storytelling.
I had the same fears going into Encanto and my concerns were not justified then. Same goes for Moana. The female lead in Encanto, Merida, was quirky and interesting and had a journey to find her courage and discover her real worth. She was likable, she tried hard, she failed a lot, but she persevered.
She fostered a spirit of collaboration, and she was a peacemaker. Moana was likable, kind, caring, resourceful, adventurous, and courageous. Moana didn’t come with the same list of insecurities as Merida. She had an interestingly strong role model in her grandmother who played the dual roles of “wise fool” and mentor. In both Encanto and Moana, the role of the heroine’s mother is de-emphasized but a lot of attention is given to the grandmother. In Encanto the grandmother was a strong matriarch who had experienced terrible trauma but had to learn to soften. In Moana the grandmother is quirky and fun-loving and yet holds the community’s stories, their history, their true identity, and gently encourages Moana to go on her heroine’s journey.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the richness, depth, and beauty of the Polynesian culture presented in the film. It didn’t feel overly packaged for North Americans (for an animated children’s film) or heavy with postmodern ideology. At first, I questioned whether a girl in this culture would be groomed to inherit “chiefdom” as depicted, but I looked it up, and Polynesian culture does in fact practice a descent system that is often bilateral (traced through either or both parents) and even sometimes matrilineal.
We learn something of the mythology of the Polynesian island Motunui. They worship the goddess of nature, Te Fiti who brings life to the ocean with a pounamu stone, which represents its heart. The trickster demi-god Maui steals the stone and the source of her power. The lava monster demon of the volcano Te Ka attacks Maui and he loses the fishhook that gives him his shape shifting powers. All this is presented, by the way, with beautiful, animated cinematography.
Many years later the ocean, which has a mind of its own, chooses Moana to return the stone/heart to Te Fiti. She has to decide whether she will stay on the island to eventually become their next chief or answer the call to go on this journey to return the stone. The grandmother, Tala, shows Moana a cavern that reveals the real identity of her people – they were voyagers of the sea. If Moana can find Maui and get him to return the stone (heart) to Te Fiti then the darkness that is starting to destroy the island will be averted.
Moana goes on her journey and encounters Maui who is vain, stubborn, selfish, and difficult. They go on a series of adventures sometimes at cross purposes.
The humorous dynamic between Moana and Maui works very well and the vacant chicken character provides additional laughs. But even with a larger-than-life trickster character such as Maui, there’s emotional depth. Maui has many tattoos on his body that are interactive, and they represent memories. The tattoo characters operate as “parts” that Maui interacts with as he works through his internal struggles. We learn that one of his tattoos was earned when he was abandoned as an infant – an exile part – and yet he also gains powers from this trauma when the gods take pity on him. So, there’s an adaptive element to trauma here as well. This is perhaps the cleverest way of depicting parts of the self-system that I’ve seen to date! As Maui grows closer to Moana, teaching her the art of wayfinding, becoming more “human” and less self-absorbed, he regains his powers.
When they make it to Te Fiti’s island they are attacked by the demon Te Ka. In the ensuing battle Maui’s hook is damaged and he loses hope and deserts Moana. Moana heroically retrieves the stone from the ocean and searches for Te Fiti, only to discover that Te Ka is Te Fiti. Here we have a firefighter part who takes a self-protective extreme role to defend itself. In parts work we often encounter terrifying parts, sometimes monsters or dragons, angry and reactive parts, who believe they must be this way to survive. Te Ka is one such part.
But what Te Ka needs is understanding and comfort, which Moana offers. She returns the stone/heart to Te Ka, and the demon is transformed into Te Fiti again. She no longer needs the “extreme role” of Te Ka. Maui apologizes to Te Fiti which is an emotional repair and allows further healing for both of them. Te Fiti repairs both Moana’s ship and Maui’s hook and becomes an island again. Te Fiti is safe now and able to rest and be calm once more. Moana can return home and take up her role not only as chief but as a wayfinder, leading her people back to their true identity as voyagers.
I was delighted to see how this film understands and presents inner dynamics, relational repair, and therapeutic healing. Moana and her people must discover their identity, their core spiritual center that defines them – their inmost self. Maui and Te Fiti take on extreme roles causing parts with maladaptive behaviors to take over. Ultimately it is compassion, the heart, that can soften Te Ka into becoming Te Fiti again. And it is repentance and courage that moves Maui to return, even without his fishhook powers, buying Moana needed time during her encounter with Te Ka. It is Maui’s ability to apologize and Te Fiti’s ability to forgive that restores harmony to the larger system that includes the ocean and the surrounding islands. And if the ocean is a metaphor for the unconscious mind (as it normally is in psychodynamic theory), then Moana’s people becoming voyagers again means they are able and willing to explore their entire self-system. The ocean guides Moana and her people into self-discovery, processing, healing, and growth.
I’m glad I was able to put aside my biases and look at this film with an open mind. I’m inspired by not only the interesting, rich, and complex characters but the overall message which didn’t end up being didactic or pedantic at all. Instead, there was a rich exploration into the human psyche, the complex internal and external dynamics at play, the need to find our true identity, and the importance of compassion when working with even the most difficult and traumatized parts.
PS: I hear that Moana 2 received negative or lukewarm reviews, so will probably pass on that one.
Christ is among us!
Dr. Gerry Crete is the author of Litanies of the Heart: Relieving Post-traumatic Stress and Calming Anxiety Through Healing Our Parts which is published by Sophia Institute Press. He is the founder of Transfiguration Counseling and Coaching, Transfiguration Life, and co-founder of Souls and Hearts. Check out all Dr. Gerry’s movie and TV series reviews in our “Parting Thoughts” archive.
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