Film Analysis: Moana

Many film production companies have started integrating multiculturalism in their films, but there is controversy about whether these films truly are multicultural. One example of this is the movie Moana. Moana is about a Polynesian girl, seemingly from an area in the Pacific. The movie follows her through her adventure to save her people and her seeking freedom to travel the sea. There was controversy about whether Moana is actually multicultural and whether it accurately represents Polynesian culture, which the film seems to mimic in the setting as well as the characters. Moana isn’t by definition multicultural because the film doesn’t introduce other cultures that interact with Moana’s tribe and the movie also used stereotypes that inaccurately

However, Moana only introduces that one tribe of people, and the film doesn’t integrate other groups, which shows no coexistence of cultural diversity within the movie. As an island, they are completely isolated from world and live independently on their own. A major part of the plot is Moana’s father, the chief, unwilling to explore the world and leave the island. This would make it nearly impossible for any other culture to be integrated within the movie. In the end, Moana and her tribe do end up attempting to explore the world, but it never shows them meeting a new society of people. They also, in the movie, end up traveling to “The Realm of Monsters,” otherwise known as Lalotai. But the realm doesn’t seem to have any societal organization or culture because the monsters essentially do as they

In the movie, for example, they show the tribe that Moana belongs to primarily eating coconuts and fish, which are commonly associated Polynesian cuisine. But they failed to display the fact that Polynesians eat many other foods and dishes. “Dishes tend to use relatively few spices and often include coconut milk, ginger, lime, vanilla or tamarind. Fish and shellfish are prepared in numerous ways.” Another example is how Disney portrayed Maui. “Traditionally, Maui has been depicted as a lithe teenager on the verge of manhood. But the Maui character of this film… is illustrated as a huge buffoon and comes off as sort of stupid. Critics have noted that this depiction of Maui ‘perpetuates offensive images of Polynesians as overweight.’” Also, while they do integrate cultural myths, they convey them almost completely inaccurately. Teresia Teaiwa, a senior lecturer in Pacific studies at Victoria University of Wellington, said, “If Disney really wanted to be culturally correct they would have paired Maui with a female deity, as he is in most legends, and not with a