Moana is the Disney princess movie everyone needs right now—or, at the very least, Moana is the princess I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little girl. Not every kindergartner can see herself in Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, or, even nowadays, Frozen.
After years of witnessing people of color gunned down and beaten on-screen, having a whole movie dedicated to showcasing the knowledge and beauty of brown people felt restorative. Yes, Moana is an animated children’s movie, but it is important for children of color to be able to see movie audiences sit in awe of their people’s stories. Representation matters regardless of age. And Walt Disney Studios is finally wising up and taking that message to heart—just look at The Princess and the Frog, Big Hero 6, or the recent Queen of Katwe.
The film focuses on Moana Waialiki (Auli’i Cravalho), the teenage daughter of Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison) of the fictional Montunui island in Polynesia. From the second Moana can toddle around her homeland, she is deeply fascinated with the ocean—probably because her father wants to keep her away from it (she is a teenage girl). Her kooky-sweet paternal Gramma Tala (Rachel House), however, knows better and encourages Moana to go beyond the reef and remind her people that they’re the descendants of voyagers who once traversed the great ocean beyond.
