Cinepals - MOANA (2016) Movie Reaction & Review! | Disney | Auli'i Cravalho | Dwayne Johnson

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Before the release of Moana 2, Jaby and Achara revisit this stunning Disney animation. Moana is the story of a spirited Polynesian teenager who embarks on a daring ocean voyage to save her island and persuade the demigod Maui to restore the stolen heart of Te Fiti. Moana was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules). The main cast includes Auliʻi Cravalho as Moana (All Together Now, Darby and the Dead, Rise of the Pink Ladies) and Dwayne Johnson as Maui (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Black Adam). The ensemble also features Rachel House as Gramma Tala (Whale Rider, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Soul), Temuera Morrison as Chief Tui (Once Were Warriors, Aquaman, The Book of Boba Fett), Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa (Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, Rio), and Alan Tudyk as Heihei (Firefly, Wreck-It Ralph, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). You can watch the cut down reaction to this movie (and many others) on our YouTube channel https://www.YouTube.com/@Cinepals and the full length reaction is available on our Patreon page https://www.cinejump.com SOCIAL MEDIA ~ACHARA KIRK~ Twitter & Instagram:  @Acharakirk  YouTube:  @Achara  ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals

Senna. Pals. Full transparency, I haven't watched Moana in 52 years. I only saw it the one time. Pixar hasn't even been around that long, Jabby. It's not even a Pixar movie, Jabby. That's right. Made you all laugh a little bit.

You're welcome. That's the only thing I remember. Oh, my God. You're welcome. That's it. That's all I remember. What a callback. Yeah. So why are we doing this today?

Well, it's coming on on Thanksgiving, so I thought we'd ride that trend. Sea surfing. Ride the wave of Moana. Also, it's a great film. Yes. I've only seen it once as well. Yeah. Most of these animations that are like Asian and ocean, I've only seen the one time.

This is Asian? Anyway, we are watching Moana today. Disney's Moana, not Pixar. I'm very excited and I'm also half Asian. They're Polynesian. You're also half Caucasian. Doesn't count. It's wrong Asian.

That's the only white that's the only ethnicity not Asian that sounds Asian. Because by all rights, Caucasian should be Asian. What? Caucasian. Yeah It should be Asian They stole it Just like everything else

She's a princess She's a chief I love this song Why can't she be a princess Why does she have to be We don't all have to be princess We can be, like, warriors. So the little girls.

So when the little girls go into the Disney store, they can be like, oh, yeah, see, I'm a princess too, mom. I guess. That's all it is. Oh, such a good movie. My gosh. I love it so much. You know, I remembered, like, only bits of that.

Most of the film, I felt, like, very fresh. I think there's like an after credits thing. Yeah, probably. I didn't remember. the crab at all. What? Yeah. Okay. Then when you started talking about like Flight of the Concords and Germain

I was like, okay. He was the reason he was the reason I remember that. I didn't remember the music though or like what transpires in that scene. I just remembered him singing. It was fun. Yeah, like the whole third act like his the what's it called his hook breaking and stuff like I didn't remember what was actually

going on with the lava monster. I remember that part I remembered. Yeah. Like I said, I only watched it the one time. So it felt very fresh for me yeah um it's a beautiful movie uh it's very touching yeah i i i while you you were like really properly crying i was on the verge of crying a couple times and i was like oh i was touched yeah i think it's just like because of what the story is because you know ultimately it's about knowing your history knowing your ancestors but also finding your own path yeah like quite literally like she's going on a

journey, like literally on this journey to help her people, but she's also on a journey to discover who she is and her place in this big wide world. And I think that that's something that is very relatable. No matter how old or young you are, we're always on this journey to find out who we are and what our purpose in this life is. I'm highly fixated on the whole crying factor for some reason, because like, anytime I watch Big Hero 6, I will cry. and it cannot be helped, like, every single time. There's, like, at least three parts of that film that will always get me. Yeah, you were crying, just thinking about it.

Yeah, I was. This was a really beautiful, fun adventure, and, I mean, I just, I feel positively, I guess, as this short of it. I'm almost at a loss of words. It was just, like, a really sweet adventure, and I'm glad they made this film. Yeah, it was neat to think about how they're probably incorporating real-life elements and real-life lore and actual locations into the story, you know, as a, representation for these people, you know, and anyone who kind of, yeah, exactly, but anyone who kind of

even loosely identifies with, I guess, the Pacific Islander culture and whatnot. It's like, it's really cool to have a story that you can kind of look up to, you know, because when I was a kid, you didn't have this. The closest thing I got to this was Mulan. Right. You know, but there was nothing necessarily for me in this regard, I guess Aladdin, maybe, you know? And so, yeah, it's just, it's really cool. It's beautiful the look of it. They nailed the ocean and they nailed that hair. God dang. Like, the hair looked amazing.

And overall, just like a really fun vibe throughout. Yeah, the animation was incredible and the music as well. I think a lot of it was actually that song, her main song, right? How far I'll go, I think is what it's called. But there's just something about that song when I hear it. It really moves me. Well, you're someone who crossed the ocean and, you're. you lost your grandma.

So there's two elements there. Yeah, you're talking about her. Yeah. But, like, the song is fantastic because it, like, it really helps to tell the story. There's something in the way the song is written. It gives you that sense of, like, adventure. Sure. And venturing out there to find yourself and to make a difference in the world.

And so it's really, really powerful. And I think the classic Disney that we grew up with, every movie had. songs, you know, and they were all fantastic songs, like, and we know them so well from like The Little Mermaid from from, from, like, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, like all fantastic songs. And I think this is up there as, as being a great Disney musical, or at least with like one really, two really great songs. I'd say, yeah, I would agree that last part. I remember there complaints about Frozen because while you had the Let It Go song that everyone knew, a lot of those songs were written like musicals

and so they were hard for kids to keep up with in terms of singing along with them and so they weren't like earworms like let it go and like a lot of the songs you heard between Little Mermaid, Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, etc. All those songs were simple and you had VHS tapes with the little subtitles that you could sing along too. You know what? I was so tempted for us to play the sing-along version because they have that. Disney Plus, so you can sing along. So I felt like, okay, so coming off of Frozen and then to this, you know, in terms of the

music, I felt like this was definitely closer to what we got in the 90s in terms of songs that you could just go with and sing and like kind of commit to memory of a little bit more easily if you're eight years old. Yeah. You know. I didn't realize that this was Lynn Manuel Miranda who did the music for this. It totally makes sense. He became Disney's puppet.

No, I mean, he's like a modern day musical. I know, but he ends up showing, like, of everywhere. Like, Enkanto was him, too, wasn't it? Enkanto was him, and how great were the songs in Enkanto? I just really, really like this movie. It's just so, it's so lovely. They did a great job with that chicken, because, like, it's like he's adorable but ugly at the same time. I was feeling bad for the pig because the pig was left behind.

I know. I was like, wait, we didn't get a journey with the pig, too. But I guess you can only have one animal sidekick at a time, otherwise it gets a little bit too crazy. You had Mushu and the horse in Mulan. And cricket. And cricket. He had three.

Yeah. Moulin's special, though. Not to say that Moana isn't special. Shiny. I'm so shiny. Didn't help me though, did it? No. Still upside down here.

Just need a little push. Oh, my God. Can we be real? If my name was Sebastian and a head. had a cool Jamaican accent, you'd totally help me. You would. You know you would. That's so silly.

Very meta. Yeah. I was going to say during that sequence, there's a couple of parallels to Zelda, which is fascinating to think about. I didn't think about it at the time, but in Zelda Wind Waker, there's a whole section

where you're under the ocean, but it's dry. It's like Hyrule under the water kind of thing. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And the recent ones, here's of the kingdom, there is a whole underground section

with a bunch of crazy monster. and shit. So it's a combination of the two in this movie. The Ocean was an interesting character because it kind of helped a la carte. It was like, Joe was at random when it decided it was going to pitch in. It's like, you know, you've got to own your keep a little bit, you know? You can't just help all the time. Otherwise, how are you supposed to learn?

She's on this adventure to learn. And, like, ultimately, Maui does help her and teach her a lot of things when she's able to take back to her people. Maui doing Maui's thing doesn't ever. ever bother me in terms of how much Maui assists. I'm not even bothered. I'm just pointing out that the ocean is very inconsistent. It's fine. I still enjoyed the film and had a lot of fun and it's delightful and beautiful, etc.

All the positive things I could possibly say about it. But I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the fact that the ocean is like weird. There's a lot of help it could be doing. And it's like, it's the ocean. It has so much access. And it just doesn't sometimes. I'm like, I don't know. I kind of, it would be neat if they somehow define that the ocean character is like a lot smaller.

How would it be smaller? Because when it, it's the representative of the ocean character was small comparatively. It's not the size of the ocean. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Because that would be overwhelming. It's almost like a spirit that sort of just lives in the ocean would be, what I'm saying is already convoluted and it would be too difficult to convey in film. So I don't know. They did it the best way they could. Sure. This is the short of it.

I really dig. I guess ever since I was a kid I really dig that whole parting of the waters thing like Ten Commandments It's very biblical Yeah and there's something really cool about that And I feel like there was a scene like that

In one of the Pirates films That was kind of cool as well Not that that's relevant to this But it is Disney I think it was the last one That as the films got on People stuff They like them less and less

But yeah There's something neat about that I guess it's because it's like this inaccessible thing Yeah You know It's like when would that ever happen Yeah

in real life would you ever be able to see it? And I think they represented that so well in this movie because, I mean, first of all, the water around the islands and everything were stunning, right? Like, just everything was so clear. And so I actually really liked it when you could see all the fish and stuff just around. And that also made me emotional too, because I was just like, this is so beautiful. You know, like when you go on an incredible hike somewhere, when you're out in nature and then you look out and you see the beauty of the world and you're like, wow, I feel like I touched God, you know? Yeah. And it's like a spiritual experience. Like sometimes it's seeing

these images. I was like, oh my gosh, this is just beautiful. What an amazing, wonderful, beautiful world we live in and you know we have this goddess mother nature if you will who provides for us and who takes care of us and then we treat her like complete and utter garbage but the movie's message yeah i was wondering if there was like an environmental message to the whole thing yeah i couldn't maybe if it was it was a lot more subtle than you might get today what is the moral of the story for moana for moana Yeah. What is the moral, like, what is the message, you think? I think mainly the message is to find yourself, be true to yourself, and get out there and live your truth, even if it means upsetting people in your life, because ultimately it's the right thing to do. I mean, it took all of me to resist imitating James Earl Jones and being like, remember who you are.

But it is, right? No, I think it is. And I think it's really beautiful as well, because there is this love. lovely combination of her, her history, her heritage, her ancestry, and still loving her people because that is a massive part of her character, because she loves her island, she loves her people, she loves her family, but also having the faith and the confidence in herself to go out there and go on this adventure and save her people, even if they think that it's the wrong thing for her to do. You know, this film didn't have enough of though? Chickens?

Coconuts. I just needed more coconuts in this movie. I love coconuts too. Yeah. I mean, they established the whole coconut thing at the top. Never came back. What's up with that? Well, they had those, like, creatures that wore the coconuts.

They all died. They were just trying to, like, improve their lives. They all got murdered. I can't believe that you're taking their side, Jabby. I can imagine the comments, like, why is Jabby rooting for them to live when they were trying to kill her? They're trying to kill her. They're trying to kill her. They weren't trying to kill her, though.

They just wanted the stone. But the stone wasn't for them. They don't know that. Yeah, maybe she could have had a conversation with them, but I don't think they were there for reason. I think they were there to get their shit and go. But, you know, there was a fun little, like, weird detour in the movie. Just like this random bunch of, you know, coconut characters.

It was just like, I, we want it. They were, like, cute and scary at the same time. It was, like, I can't think of too many instances in, film where you see something like that other than Galaxy Quest where you see these like cute little alien creatures and they're like oh and then they're like these teeth yeah really scary yeah you don't that's that's funny um I like them I would I would totally buy a funco pop of those guys I mean I thought those coconut guys were more memorable than the pig and the chicken you know I can only imagine just like how wild that chicken toy sold like this ugly chicken that looks like bonkers

the pig is cute though I would buy the pig I don't know. Y'all tell me in the comments, especially those of you who have got kids. Like, I'm guessing that the chicken sold like hotcakes. The chicken is crazy. The chicken is deranged. What are you looking forward to in Moana, too, then? Like, how do you continue this story? Honestly, I don't know. I just really enjoy the world. And I like Moana. I think that she is incredibly brave and resourceful.

We did a trailer reaction, right? Kristen and Vivian did. Oh, okay. So I haven't seen it then. You might not have. Okay, cool. So I have no idea what we're in for. Okay. Yeah, I don't even remember.

So I'm more excited for Moana 2 than I am for Moana, the live action. Even after seeing How to Train Your Dragon live action trailer? Yeah. Okay. Because like I said in How to Train Your Dragon, the live action teaser trailer, I'm like, well, it looks good and all. But like, I can watch the cartoon and see all of that. I don't need to see a frame-by-frame recreation of an animation that I loved. in live action unless you're going to give me something that's like a little bit different

than what we get in the animation. Yeah, but some people are allergic to animation. They can only watch real people. Well, like, what's wrong with you? I don't know. I think animation is magical. I think animation is beautiful. And there's something about animation that can touch my heart oftentimes in ways that a live

action film will not. You know, what was great in Finding Nemo, another great, that's something I've watched over and over again. Love finding Nemo. Okay. See, that's it. That's an example of a film, like, I will go back to you again and again. And I didn't watch it as a baby. I watched it as an adult.

Yeah. And, like, I really love that movie. In Finding Nemo, there were, I think even came with a DVD. You had these moments in the film that were, like, screensavers. It was, like, beautiful, just like, you could just hold on that. And I kind of wish that they had some moments like that here. And maybe... What are you talking about?

Well, moments were just holds for a second so I can, like, have that as a loop of some kind. You know what I mean? I see. I see. Because there were certainly, like, images that were really, really beautiful. That's what I'm saying. Oh, like, it was so gorgeous. Like, maybe they, maybe that's something you can download.

What I'm saying is with finding, I guess with the Finding Nemo was a little bit different because it was the first film that broke that barrier of, like, yo, when animators, like, did their test and they presented the live footage with the animated footage, people couldn't tell it apart. Yeah. They were like, and so they actually had to do. dial it back a little bit because it looked too real. Too real. And so I really appreciated the fact that, you know, when they sold the DVD and stuff like that, because it looks so good, you could just access the screensaver mode.

I don't know if they have that. Disney Plus certainly doesn't have that. What the hell? Shame on you, Disney Plus. They're trying to bring back the special features, you know. I notice they do that with Amazon or something sometimes, especially with Disney, where you get the options of how you watch it, and then you can have like the behind-the-scenes looks at stuff. That's cool. Yeah.

That's cool. So now we just need the mow on. screensavers you you properly like burst your load early in the movie i did like because it was so beautiful beautiful things make me cry i know but it was just like it was such an awkward moment because i was like wow like this is like really touching my oh my god like god dang is this the end of the titanic i mean oh my god don't get me started on the end of the titanic but yeah i was really touched It's like family things really make me cry. And so, like, her connection with her grandma and all of that.

And the fact that her grandma can see her in a way that her own parents perhaps don't. I think her mom kind of sees her as well. But her dad certainly, he rejects that. I think it's probably because she reminds him so much of himself, a younger him. And so he's like, no, I don't want you to hurt. And it's like, no, you got to let them go. you have to let them go out Okay, I'm so glad you brought that up

I'm so glad you brought that up At the end of Moulon There's this moment that always messes me up Where she shows up Her grandfather's just waiting chilling Because he got nothing better to do He's old, right? Her dad

Sorry, her dad Yeah Grandma, okay So she goes home to her She goes to her dad She's got the sword She's got the pendant Right and she goes

Look dad I got the pendant from the emperor I got the sword of the pawns And he takes it He just drops it He goes all I care about is my daughter, and he hugs her, and I'm like, ah, and I just start bawling.

Yeah. Every time I see that, and I didn't get that here. What's up with that? What's up with you? It missed it. It missed it. Are you serious? Just delete the movie.

No part two, no live action, no moana ride, we don't need it. They missed it. They suck. No. No, I'm just joking. At the end, there was an opportunity to have a moment between her and her dad, and it just, the film needed to get quiet for us to achieve that. And it's just like, it was like, we got to get this movie over.

We got to get them on the ocean now. They need to go. You know, because like, we need to be optimistic. Yeah. They need to learn some skills, get out there and find who they are. Yeah. It would have been cool maybe, but this is for the live action, I suppose. If somehow her people's going to have gotten involved to help her out,

would that be too much? Why would they? I don't know. Just take it to the extra mile because you get all the people rallying together because she was right. all the people who are like we don't know how to sail we don't know where she is the ocean could just swoop them up and move them why don't they even need boats at this point yeah just ride away i don't even know why they need to hunt the water can just chuck fish onto

the beach well as we know the sea will help you when it feels like it or the ocean will help you when it feels like it but i see the ocean only helps you if you help yourself. Okay. There you go. Well, on that note, you guys, I'm going to help myself out of this video. Thanks so much. I'm jabbing away this is. A char, I cook. Peace out. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Make another smart choice with AutoQuote Explorer to compare rates from multiple

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