BEYOND members and Raw Rider Patrons can watch the Full Length Reaction HERE: https://blindwave.com/video/moana-movie-full/

One subtler thing I really appreciate about this movie: it's actually about a Disney princess FOLLOWING her ancestors.  Most of the time it's about her having to fight tradition or expectations.  Instead: her predecessors are actually PROUD of what she's doing.  The moment where she gets a nod during the 'I am Moana' song is so heartwarming.

Eric not instantly recognizing Temuera Morrison was surprising.

can we please add the dog to the main Blind Wave crew from now on. His insight on these movies is incredible

"It does not define you..." is such a beautiful and healing message to anyone who has gone through trauma 😥

@06:04: Eric recognized the voice of one of the most infamous bounty hunters.

As someone who grew up and lives in New Zealand (Aotearoa), seeing Maui and his myths brought to life like this was amazing. Obviously plenty of inaccuracies for the sake of a movie, but when you grew up on folk stories of Maui wrangling the sun, or raising up the island you live on, getting to see a portrayal of him like this was fantastic. In actual mythology he's not nearly as strong as this Maui - he had his brothers who he would fast-talk into helping him with the heavy lifting. He was more akin to a Loki-esque trickster, but on humanity's side.


Besides slowing the sun (by beating it with his fishhook made from his grandmother's jawbone until it couldn't move so fast), my favourite tale was his theft of fire. Mahuika, goddess of fire, only partitioned it out to mortals sparingly, being selfish with her power. But Maui was her grandson, and so she was generous with him. When he begged for fire for his village, she pulled out a fingernail made of it and gave it to him. He then put it out after leaving, and came back asking for another. He did this until she used up all her fingernails and toenails, and in a rage pursued him into the forest, which she set on fire.

The other gods put out the fire, but not before some of it was absorbed into certain types of trees which could be used to summon it without the help of a god - aka, trees that are easily flammable and used for building fires the normal way.

16:44 Eric Goldberg was in charge of the 2D tattoo animation on Maui and he was also an animator for Hercules. His most famous work is probably Genie from Aladdin

Moana splitting the ocean and walking towards fire tafiti is one of my favourite moments of any Disney movies

I love Obi reacting/growling at Hei Hei, it's so cute. 🤣

I am shocked, SHOCKED, that Eric didn't recognize Temuera Morrison's voice instantly.

I saw Frozen after seeing this and i remeber going, "why arent people as obsessed with this?!?!"

I love how the main songs for this and Coco have an opposite journey. Moana's gets bigger and louder as she gains confidence and Coco's gets softer as we learn it was meant for only the most precious person. Both fantastic and make me tear up for different reasons.

I sincerely think that out of every single CG animated Disney movie, this is the one that feels like a true classic. All the other ones are fantastic and some of them are even top tier, but there's something about this movie that feels like a Renaissance era Disney classic.

Versions of this movie have been released in indigenous languages like Māori and it's amazing how naturally the songs work in those languages as well.

There’s a hilarious clip on YouTube of Alan Tudyk recording his lines for Hey Hey the chicken and at the end he says while laughing “I went to Juilliard”🤣🤣

Obi barking at all the animals had me rolling 😂😂

I still get chills when she velts out "I AM MOANA!!"

The actress did such an incredible job playing the role

For context on Mauis backstory at least in Māori culture, our story is that he was born prematurely and his mother believed he was stillborn so in her grief she cut off her hair and wrapped him in it and set him down in the sea. Tangaroa (god of the sea) realized he wasn't actually dead and delivered him safely to shore where he was found, raised and named Maui Tikitiki. He went on to Fish up the North island of New Zealand (if you look at the north island it looks like a stingray upside down) and the south island is supposed to be his canoe that he fished from, also him and his brothers slowed down the sun to give us longer days etc. He was known to be very mischievous and his final act was wanting to give man immortality, so he thought if he could crawl back through the womb of the goddess of death Hine-Nui-Te-Po he could win it. Unfortunately as he crawled through her legs she woke and crushed him with her legs (thats the child friendly version of the story... the real ones a bit more graphic).

I love this movie. It's gorgeous, and the emotional beats still get me every time. That reprisal leading up to "I am Moana" always makes me want to stand up and cheer, and that sequence of slowly walking through the parted ocean..."they have stolen the heart from inside you, but this does not define you, this is not who you are..." leaves me in tears, always.

When I see tamatoa I just see Schaffrillas Productions now 😂