Moana

There’s a reason why people go on vacations to tropical islands. As represented here, such places are empirically gorgeous, and that fact is brilliantly captured in this movie’s animation, which is a visual feast. Even when the story moves to the ocean the look of everything remains impressive. And that story itself is captivating and well-told, and it puts its cultural concepts to excellent use, giving the viewer a glimpse into a relatively unknown piece of the human experience. The storytelling here gets tremendous help from the presence of Auli'i Cravalho's title heroine, who is lovely and charming and very easy to root for. Her sidekick, Dwayne Johnson's Maui, is fine, providing humor where it works and an entertainingly enigmatic emotional presence in the rest of the tale. The movie isn’t perfect; there are one or two weak points. One issue that pops up early in the story: it's a bit hard to buy the flimsy pretext for part of the plot's main conflict; in reality, no community of islanders in the world would be that reticent about sailing the ocean, regardless of any person's backstory. And the comic relief is somewhat overdone in spots (we could use a little less of the chicken). But those are quibbles. All in all, the film is a delight to watch and upholds the standards of the best of the canon. The girl does indeed know where she’s going, and you’ll be rewarded for finding the way with her.