Moana’s Message: More than Just “Follow Your Heart”

Hopefully, last week’s post showed that Moana has some deeper and more complex concerns than a typical Junior Knows Best, Follow Your Heart kids’ film. By looking at the foils, Maui and Tala, we distilled the theme of approval. Through a close reading of the evil crab’s song, we saw that the film also plays […]

Very Belated Thoughts: Moana

When I first saw Moana, I ranked it as typical Disney. It was better in some ways; Moana’s primary relationship is with family, not a boyfriend, which is a refreshing change, and she is athletic and does stuff. But once I saw the same old “Junior knows best” and “Follow your heart” tropes at play, […]