Review of Moana (2016)
Seen in 2026.
Disney moves forward by subtraction. There’s no love interest, the heroine’s funny-animal companion does not speak, and—thankfully—we’re no longer looking at the fairytales of Western Europe but of Polynesia. The technical aspects of the production are impressive, but it wouldn’t have worked without the tweaking of the formula. That tweaking is self-conscious, which is not surprising after decades of staleness.
References here: Encanto (2021).