Hope everyone had a great holiday!

For today’s update I’m trying something different and I’m going to talk a tiny bit about a movie I saw on Friday while everyone else was at the mall. The latest Disney flick, Moana.

It’s no secret that my heart belongs to Disney. Growing up in the 90s, I got to experience the Disney Renaissance where the company was at its peak. Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and most prominently, The Lion King ruled my childhood and I found myself re watching them over and over. However, by the late nineties to early two thousands Disney wasn’t turning out the classics I remember, and was overshadowed by Pixar (which Disney eventually bought) and Dreamworks. Recently it’s been getting better with movies like Tangled, Frozen and Zootopia. However while I admired those movies from a critical perspective, none of them really enthralled me like those movies from the early nineties (also, unpopular opinion: I think Zootopia is overrated). That all changed on Friday when I saw Moana.

This movie, out of all Disney’s latest creations, comes the closest to resembling the movies of my childhood. Part of that has to do with the fact that the directors, Ron Clements and John Musker, are in fact responsible for my beloved childhood films, since they were the directors of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Hercules and The Princess and the Frog, my favorite of Disney’s latest efforts. In addition, the music is catchy as hell, for which we have Hamilton genius Lin-Manuel Miranda to thank. Plus what I think sets this movie apart for me is that I, and I think many others, can really connect to the story of a young woman (who is the daughter of a chief, NOT a princess, though she will doubtless be added to the Disney Princess official lineup) torn between what she knows is the logical and technically “right” thing she should be doing with her life and what her heart and gut tell her she is meant to be doing.

Moana is a phenomenally good film and a wonderful throwback for those of you who remember Disney’s golden years. If there is any justice, this film will make a killing at the box office.

–Lizzy

*Image owned by Disney.