One of the annoying things about being obsessed with writing is that sometimes, even with a fantastic movie, you can't stop thinking some little, minuscule flaw that bugged you. I really loved the Moana movie. Wonderful characters,
beautiful cinematography, catchy music, and one of the funniest, most cleverly
choreographed animated movies I’ve ever seen. It was brilliant! My favorite part
was where the ocean hits Maui with a poisoned dart to force him to teach Moana
about wayfaring. It was such a perfectly crafted scene, one of the best setup and payoff
moments in the movie.
But as much as I loved the movie, there was something
missing. A tiny little piece that was all the movie needed to be enshrined in
my personal “world’s greatest movies” category. It had to do with the theme. The theme of
Moana was, ‘know who you really are, and be who you truly are.’ Knowing
yourself is such a powerful and beautiful theme. I was excited to see what the
movie would do with it. And for most of the movie, it worked really well. Moana
discovered the secrets of her ancestors and explored her identity as a
wayfarer. But at the last second, during the climax, as Moana puts the heart
back into Te Fiti, the theme stumbled. Here’s why:
The movie emphasizes that Moana’s identity comes from her
ancestors. Family history is very important and helps us learn more about
ourselves. Our ancestors are an important part of our personal identities. I
loved seeing a movie that talked about family history. But I felt like the
theme was saying, “Be who you really are! Who you really are is your
ancestors!” And…that was it. The movie never took that theme any further. Yes, who you really are is definitely influenced
by your ancestors. I totally agree. But…that is not ALL of who we are. In act
two I kept thinking, “Yeah, cool, identity, ancestors, and…? I kept waiting for
the second half of the equation. Ancestors was the first half of the
identity equation and I was SO excited to find out what the other half was.
My heart sank at the climactic moment. Moana holds out the
heart of Te’fiti, saying, "This is not who you are...I know who you are...” And when they touch
foreheads, and she opened her mouth to speak again, I just knew, this was the
moment I’d been waiting for, the moment when the movie was going to say the
other half of the theme, the missing piece, the solution to the equation! But
Moana repeats the same idea. “Who you truly are.” And that was it. And I was like, "But how do you KNOW who you truly are?! How do you figure that out?!"
I was crushed. This brilliant movie had been building up to this
ONE MOMENT. Not just this moment, but this single line of dialogue…and for me, it kind of failed. I felt bereft, like a lone wanderer in a desert, searching for the answer to the
secret of identity, the secret that Moana had teased me with, but never
answered. I was so disappointed. The movie was still successful, it earned
loads of money at the box office, and nobody I talked to seemed to notice anything
missing. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Moana had presented a deep,
abiding question…and never answered it. What was the other half of the equation
of identity? The truth Moana should have said, but never did?
Eventually, I found the answer in the LAST place I expected:
an episode of the new Voltron series on Netflix. They didn’t even have an
entire movie to address the question, they answered it in 23 minutes, an amazing feat. I’ll
get into that in part two of this post.
