BEFORE: Up early again today because I had to go check in with my jobs counselor at the Dept. of Labor, this time I kept track of all the jobs I applied for over the last month using their web-site, and she was able to see that I have been busy. No interviews in the last month, despite my best efforts but you know what, I re-emphasized to her that I HAVE a job. Sure, it's a temp job, and some weeks I work four or five days and other weeks I work one or zero days, but that's the gig. I'm sticking there for at least a while longer to see if a staff job opens up, and if it does, well then all this job-hunting's been something of a waste of time, right? No, seriously, I did apply for two jobs last week that I felt qualified for, and I think my chances are good, but technically still just waiting to hear. I can coast for a little while longer, just not a long while.
Alan Tudyk carries over from "The Electric State".
THE PLOT: After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she's ever faced.
AFTER: I think there was a strong story here, so my first impulse is to say "No notes" and leave it at that, but I think maybe if I delve into it a bit deeper I may find some things to take issue with, we'll see. This one took a couple of attempts to finish it this afternoon, but I think it was a sleep deprivation thing - I only got four hours last night, then I had to take a bus back across Queens this afternoon after straightening out my unemployment benefits account. What was holding things up was that the school typed my SSN wrong on my W-2 form, and now I've got to get in touch with the H.R. department and somehow get that corrected over the last three years of employment, so I'll get my proper Social Security benefits when I retire. If I can ever afford to retire, that is - not looking so great at this point in time. But that's a problem for another day.
Sending characters on a quest is fairly standard, "The Electric State" tried to do the same thing, but it was SO damn confusing, the parameters were so poorly defined, the ragtag group of characters was racing toward a place with really no idea what to do when they got there. Maybe that's why "Moana 2" seems like it has such a great story, because I just watched two movies with muddy storylines. "Damsel" kind of started in the same place, too, with a princess traveling to do something in order to save her realm, but you know, getting married, fighting for her life, teaming up with the dragon, it was all kind of off-the-cuff yet still felt too by-the-numbers. Remember, too, that Maui sort of started off like a villain in "Moana", but Moana traveled to see him, they worked it out, so of course now he's firmly in the hero column.
Honestly, it's been eight years since "Moana" came out, so I don't remember all the details of that film, I didn't remember these coconut pirate characters or what exactly Moana did to get Maui on her side. Really, I should have re-watched the first film before watching this sequel, but who has that kind of time? Only three years have passed in story-time, though, with Moana now traveling to other nearby islands to search for traces of other people from their culture who live on distant islands. But she's been unable to find any, and apparently it's by design, there's an evil god named Nalo who created a giant storm that sank the island of Motufetu, which was kind of the central point for people from all the other islands to gather and connect with each other. Moana has a vision in which one of her wayfinder ancestors gives her the mission to raise Motefetu, otherwise the people on her island will go extinct.
So Moana puts a ragtag crew together to help her sail across the ocean and follow a comet that's conveniently pointing in the right direction - Moni is the historian with muscle, Loto is the ship-builder and craftsperson, Kele is the grumpy farmer who can somehow grow plants in the lower deck of the boat, and of course her pet pig and rooster, because every Disney film needs at least two animal sidekicks. Nobody's seen Maui in a while, but you know, the chances are good that they'll probably encounter him somewhere along the way. (He's kind of working on the same problem, but from another angle, that is if you can count being captured and imprisoned as working on the problem.)
The ragtag crew first encounters those coconut pirates, the Kakamora, though, who need help defeating a ginormous clam that's keeping them from reaching their home island. If you're following along in your quest handbook, this is the part where the heroes encounter a primitive race and have to perform a task to win them over and gain their help. Pay attention, there will be a quiz later, and this also ticks the box about entering the "belly of the beast" because they end up inside the giant clam (which is not symbolic of anything sexual at all, not in the least, and also Loto's not an overt lesbian, she's just a woman with shorter hair who's very good at carpentry.).
Anyway, the giant clam is the stand-in for the descent into the underworld, or a stand-in for the Death Star, whichever, because even though the team gets separated there, they manage to find Maui there and his help is sure to come in handy later.
Together they all teleport-travel to set up the big boss battle, which is a bit too convenient, but hey, probably cuts out 10 minutes of screen time that would have just been spent sailing on open seas, which, come on, is quite boring. Maui reveals that he didn't want Moana to come save him or help him defeat the evil power, because most likely she would die in the battle to come, and her friends and pets too. Still, they persevere and re-design the boat and come up with a game-plan, however it's with the idea that Nalo's going to see them coming a nautical mile away, so they'll have to keep switching tactics and improvise, the best idea seems to be to get the evil storm god to focus on defeating the humans on the boat so that Maui will have at least a chance to raise the island from the sea with his giant hook.
Well, this is going to be a close one, what chances do a few humans have against a god while Maui's off doing the other thing? Nalo can also strip a demigod like Maui of his powers, it turns out. So it's going to require a lot of trickery to outwit the god and some ability to think outside the box, and a total willingness to sacrifice themselves, but gosh darn it, that may be just what it takes to get it done, with a little help from the ancestors again. As long as the island gets raised and diverse island people of all races, shapes and sizes are able to get together again, really, that's all that matters in the end.
Speaking of diversity, probably this is the last film where Disney will be able to present such a wide array of ethnicities, races, and non-specific gender identities, as DEI programs suddenly getting cancelled all over the place due to our prevailing political climate. Who knows, maybe Disney is the 800-lb. gorilla that can continue to do whatever it wants, and tell stories about defeating the evil power with help from your platonic lesbian carpenter friend and your non-human sidekicks, and if they do, more power to them. But since Paramount already caved in to our Cheeto-colored Commander in Chief, I think maybe stories of the indigenous peoples and their non-Christian gods are maybe going to be back-burnered for a while. I hope I'm wrong, because I think this is an example of a sequel that came out better than the original film.
Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand & Dana Ledoux Miller
Also starring the voices of Auli'i Cravalho (last heard in "Ralph Breaks the Internet"), Dwayne Johnson (last seen in "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island"), Hualalai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane (last seen in "Next Goal Wins"), Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temuera Morrison (last seen in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom"), Nicole Scherzinger (also last heard in "Ralph Breaks the Internet"), Rachel House (last seen in "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"), Gerald Faitala Ramsey, Jemaine Clement (last seen in "People Places Things"), Tofiga Fepulea'i, Jasmine Johnson, Tiana Johnson, Ata Maivia Johnson,
RATING: 6 out of 10 Moana-bes (and this is EXACTLY what fans of Moana should be called, BTW)
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