Good morning Monday! Anyone else excited over Moana? It’s the upcoming Disney “princess” film, with music from Hamilton’s Lin Manuel Miranda! Via the New York Times’ review:
Moana is the daughter of a chief and will someday inherit her father’s position, but she’s furious when Maui, a tattooed, muscle-bound demigod, calls her a princess. Moana (MWAH-nah) is not only part of a dynastic line but also a girl off on an adventure in the company of a cute animal sidekick (a dimwitted chicken named Heihei). So not just any princess, in other words: a Disney princess. She may be on a quest to save her island and restore ecological balance to the planet, but Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) is also upholding a brand.
It is, as these things go, a pretty good brand. The Disney princess tradition has held onto its charm as it has changed with the times, widening its cultural frame of reference and allowing its heroines to travel down paths other than the one leading straight to matrimony. Moana, bantering with Maui (Dwayne Johnson) like a rival sibling and borne on her journey by the spirits of the ocean and her grandmother (Rachel House), has no need of a prince.