Disney's Moana

                              

I had seen most of Moana before.  I can’t  say that I had properly paid attention to the whole thing each time I had seen it though.  As my children have gotten a little older, and my daughter not being a stereotypical little girl who is into princesses, we haven’t been watching as many animated movies lately.  That being said, Moana had been one that both my daughter and I had enjoyed because the main character wasn’t the typical princess. Moana didn’t wear frilly dresses.  Quinn never wears dresses.  Moana wants to do what the boys in her tribe do.  Quinn wants to play football and kickball with the boys.  I thought it was a good movie for us to watch and have her see a Disney movie with a lead more like herself.   When it first came out, my son refused to see it (he was too cool to watch an animated Disney movie), but now that we have been able to see it at home, he’s okay with it.  So we hunkered down to rewatch it. Both kids (Chase, age 12, and Quinn, age 8) were excited to help me with my school work.  Chase just finished sixth grade and was eager to show me the kind of work he had been doing in school.  And Quinn even got out paper to keep her own notes.  I thought this was going to be a piece of cake!   We were barely 15 minutes into the movie and it had already been 45 minutes!  I actually thought that we’d never get through the movie if we kept at this pace.  Yes, I admit, I had for a while lost sight of the purpose of this work. They were constantly asking me to stop the movie to tell me their thoughts about the characters, the symbolism, the traits.  I couldn’t keep up with their words.  There is so much to think about in regards to gender, power, and intelligence.  It led to some really great discussions about what they were hearing from this movie and what we actually believe. It pushed my kids to prove why they thought what they thought.  If Chase hadn’t said to me (jokingly) that I ruined Moana for him, I’d like to do this again with another movie.  Perhaps, maybe, they will start to do this on their own with any movie or advertisement.  Just maybe.

On the surface, Moana is not the typical princess in the ballgown waiting for her prince charming to come save her.  She appears as the strong girl who sails off to save her island village.  She is brave.  She was groomed to be the leader.  But this is only because she was the only child of the current chief.  They hadn’t ever had a female chief. This is something my son pointed out to me.  At the beginning, she was the only girl in the class.  She was the only child who was not afraid or who did not faint at the teacher’s stories.  She was the one who was curious about what was beyond the reef.  But early on, she learns that “if I can satisfy, if I can play along” she will be successful.  While her dad,Tui, is  grooming her to be the next leader, it is clear he has the ultimate power.  When Moana has a suggestion to solve the village’s problem of not enough fish, her father dismisses her. She tries to fight back, but he throws away the oar and stomps off.  He asked her for her thoughts and dismissed them as unworthy when her answers weren’t to his liking.  He is showing here that he is the decision maker and he holds the power.

Moana’s grandmother, Tala, is an interesting character.  She is the wise one who quietly watches Moana and encourages her to hear her own voice.  But she relishes in the fact that everyone thinks she is the “crazy lady”.  She says she drifts too far and dances with the water.  Moana sees her in a different light.  She hears the messages her grandmother has been teaching her: “Once you know what you like, well there you are”  and “The voice inside you is who you are”.  While on her mission, she repeats over and over again, “I am Moana of...”  just like her grandmother empowered her to do.  But again, the message to us is that she is just an old crazy lady who just happens to be the chief’s mom.

The theme of power, and specifically, male power, is one that really resonated with me.  Moana finally realizes that she is called to the ocean to help her village.  But she must first find Maui who stole the heart from Tafiti.  She finds him and he brushes her aside, time after time. Maui introduces himself as hero of man, and woman, hero to all!  He constantly interrupts her when she is talking.  He rephrases what she says by saying “What I believe you were trying to say is…”.  He trivializes her by saying “You don’t even know how you feel.  It’s adorable.”   He doesn’t believe that a little girl can do anything meaningful.  He thinks she is a princess.  He says, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you are a princess.  You will never be a wayfinder.”   In order for him to even agree to help her, she must stroke his ego to convince him that she can’t do anything without him.  The whole song “You’re Welcome”, while being quite catchy, is really quite condescending.  

When he finally agrees to help her, his power continues.  She doesn’t know how to sail, so she needs him to teach her.  When, as a mortal, she needs sleep, he chastises her by saying “Did you enjoy your beauty rest?  A real wayfinder never sleeps.  Muscle up, buttercup.”  I think both of my children almost fell off the couch at this part. 

We watched the movie on Saturday morning and I knew I wasn’t going to write about it until Sunday.  I needed time to let all of our discussion and my thoughts set in.  On our way to our friend’s house later in the afternoon, I asked Chase what he thought about the crab, Tamatoa.  Neither one of my kids said anything about him while watching the movie.  I was trying to ask in an open ended way so as not to lead him.  His initial reaction was that he thought Tamatoa was funny.  And then he asked why I was asking.  I asked him what he thought about him liking sparkly things.  He thought the crab just liked nice things.  He asked again why I was asking him.  I explained that some might think the crab was gay.  He seemed confused.  He said that there are some kids in his school who just like to dress up and they aren’t gay.  He kept talking aloud.  I wonder if he was being honest in his young 12 year old mind and saying that it really is okay for anyone to like shiny sparkly things because that is what he has been taught.  Or if he was trying to almost protect me from knowing that he understands some of society’s prejudices and stereotypes that men who like shiny sparkly things must be gay.  This surely provided an opportunity for us to have another interesting discussion about our culture.  We’ve been having more and more conversations about such social issues given our climate.  It is really amazing to hear how insightful 12 year olds can really be.  

Reading Christensen’s Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us and doing the work in class has opened my eyes to the extent of sexist stereotypes that Disney movies promote.  I don’t think I will ever look at a Disney movie again without thinking about this class.  As I said earlier, my son said I ‘ruined’ Moana for him (it’s kind of how I felt about Beauty and the Beast).  I did explain Dr. Bogad’s “pleasure vs. critique” to him so that he felt that he had permission to sit back and enjoy it as an entertaining movie.  But I am glad that my kids and I were able to engage in this activity together.  We learned a lot about our values as individuals and as a family. The opportunity to have an in depth conversation about such important topics was a gift that I didn’t realize I was receiving.