The Distance I'll Traverse

I'm having way too much fun with this blog naming thing. In case you haven't figured it out, this blog entry is about the song How Far I'll Go from Moana. Here's a link to the lyrics if you need one.

The story of Moana is somewhat classic Disney. Our main character is a little misunderstood, called to something greater, and has do be a bit rebellious against the system (and her parents) to save the world. This song happens at the turning point of her life, when she decides that going against her father's instructions is worth it.

Critiques

That's the biggest critique I hear about this movie. Moana's father explicitly tells her not to go into the ocean and instead to focus on her future as ruler of their people. Moana disregards her father's orders and sets out to find Maui and return the heart of Te Fiti.

There are two aspects to why she does this. Te Fiti's missing heart is causing disease to spread through the coconut crops and the fish to vanish. If someone doesn't do something quickly, Moana's island will have no food. The second facet is Moana's feeling of being called to the ocean, confirmed by her grandmother telling her that she has been chosen to restore Te Fiti's heart.

Since Moana is a coming of age story, we can't look at it as a disobedient child who's following her heart to all the wrong places. Yes, her father told her not to go, but her father has also pretty much said that she's ready to be chief of the island. If she's ready to be the leader of her people, she's ready to make her own decisions as an adult. That still doesn't excuse the fact that her father is the current chief, and she disobeyed him. Even adults have to follow the chief's orders. I think Moana gets a pass on this because of three reasons: 1) she is trying to solve a crisis that could end life on their island, 2) she tried to talk to her father, but he wouldn't listen, 3) she takes counsel from others who are older and have experience in leadership. Only then does she go into the ocean.

The real problem is that Disney emphasizes (and this is a pattern) the "I feel like I have to do this" narrative over the "this is the logical and reasonable thing to do" narrative. If you focus on that, you'll wind up in trouble. Moana had really good reasons to go sailing beyond the reef, but her feeling pulled to the ocean trumped those reasons.

Positives

Moana, and especially this song, appeals to young people because it details so well the transition from parental authority to having to know for yourself if something is right or wrong. That's hard, for us and for Moana. We have to learn how to respect our parents but not feel obligated to do everything they tell us, how they tell us. We have to go from assuming they're right to thinking through things for ourselves and taking into consideration the motives behind their advice. One of the reasons Moana had to go against her father was that his decisions were based in fear rather than fact. At the end of the movie, he realizes that he's been wrong and reverses the ban on sailing beyond the reef.

Conclusions

I like this movie. That may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I am a die-hard for fun accents. Other than over-playing the "this is my destiny" narrative, I think Disney did a good job showing the difficulties in growing up and becoming independent of your parents--especially when your parents don't realize you've grown up. And let's be honest: the chicken is HILARIOUS.