Moana Turns 10 in November, and Auli'i Cravalho's Voice Is Still the Heart of It

Illustration: AI-generated with Pollinations (FLUX), free to use

Moana came out in US cinemas on November 23, 2016, so it turns 10 this month. Disney's story of a young navigator who sets out to save her island is one of the studio's strongest modern films, and it has aged better than most animated releases from that year.

Photo: Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Auli'i Cravalho, a teenager from Hawaii, gives Moana a voice that feels real and unforced. Dwayne Johnson is Maui, a demigod with a magic hook and a lot of pride, and their scenes together are the film's comic heart.

Photo: Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the songs with Opetaia Foa'i, and How Far I'll Go was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The music does a lot of the storytelling, and it moves the plot along without ever feeling like a break.

Photo: Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The animation is beautiful, especially the ocean. Water is hard to draw, and the film finds a shape for it that feels like the Pacific rather than a generic blue. Those waves are a big reason I keep coming back to it.

Photo: Miguel Discart, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which song do you sing in the car? I am mostly a How Far I'll Go person, but You're Welcome is the one my friends never let me forget.