Meet Moana
Disney’s next princess movie is scheduled to hit theatres in November 2016, but here’s why you should get excited NOW. Moana (Mo-a-na) is a film that, according to Disney, is set thousands of years ago with a spirited teenage girl (Moana) who sets sail for an island,on her ancestors’ quest. While she’s at it she encounters exciting things like sea creatures and underworlds.Aladdin 1992), Pocahontas (Pocahontas 1995), Mulan (Mulan 1998) and Tiana (The Princess and the Frog 2009), Moana will bring not only foreign culture but darker skin and Polynesian features to the big screen – major win for persons of colour that’ve longed for more diversity from Disney’s line of princesses.
If the graphics turn out to be as good as those in Disney’s 2010 flick Tangled, it’ll be amazing for sure. But even better is the fact that Moana will be the fifth non-white Disney princess! Following Jasmine (
But it doesn’t end there. Despite all Disney princesses to date being aged somewhere between 14 and 19 years old, all the women who voiced these characters were adult women. Moana, however will be voiced by newcomer Auli’i Cravalho who is now 14 years old.
In the spirit of authenticity, Auli’l is Hawaiian herself and her co-star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, despite being born in California, had spent years of his youth and schooling in Hawaii.
With Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, sea creatures and a Hawaiian adventure flick, and a Disney princess with more true-to-life body proportions than we’ve often seen on screen, what’s not to love?