Moana

This is either the 56th or 64th Disney animated feature, depending on how you count it. I go with the last figure, including films like Mary Poppins and Song of the South, which mixed live action and animation. I haven’t been actually disappointed with a Disney feature since Chicken Little back in 2003. I’d put this one somewhere in the middle range of Disney, which means it’s quite good, but not remarkable. (The cynical side of me wonders if the main reason for making this was to get a Pacific Islander to add to the very lucrative stable of Disney Princesses. Hey, we still don’t have princesses from Japan or India, or a real African girl from Africa. Get on it, guys.) The visuals are as stunning as we have come to expect from any animated film these days. There was a clever bit about the demigod Maui (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), whose tattoos came alive and illustrated stories being told. Other than that, there was no detail that really stuck with me. I’m glad I saw it, but wasn’t bowled over.