Moana Is Disney's Best Female Hero And This Small Moment Proves It

The audience is told from the beginning of the film that Moana is next in line to be the Chief of her people, and she doesn't spend one moment wringing her hands about whether or not she deserves to be in charge. Perhaps more importantly, no one in her village is suspect of her abilities. It's almost as if they were raised without gender bias beaten into their brains.

Moana doesn't do everything perfectly - she is a young person, after all - but in the face of adversity, rather than folding it up and going home or asking someone for help, Moana simply figures out her own way to get sh*t done. Sailing a boat? She's got it. Fighting a giant demi-god crab? Don't worry about it. Communicating with the spirits of her people to learn their past in order to decide what they should do with their future? She's got it taken care of, y'all!

Through the nearly two-hour run time of the film, there isn't a single moment where a character notes that Moana can't do something because she's a girl. In fact, the one character who views her gender as a hindrance, Maui, quickly learns how wrong he is. It's wonderful to see this subtext in a children's film. Regardless of your genetic makeup, you can still sail across the ocean to fight mythological beasts and save the world.

This film is not about Moana falling in love with her co-star, the demi-god Maui. This simple narrative decision shows viewers of all ages that women don't have to stumble head over heels for every muscled hunk who uses a magical hook to turn into an eagle and assist her on her quest. Keeping Moana's friendship with Maui strictly platonic not only changes the way audiences view young women, but it's (sadly) a revolutionary way to view a female protagonist in a Disney film. 

Synthesizing every piece of feminine symbolism in Moana is a fool's errand, but the overall narrative of the film essentially follows the main character's journey in becoming a grown-up - who, in this case, happens to be a woman. The story (Joseph Campbell's traditional 'Hero's Journey,' but in an alternate universe where we don't just think of men as heroes), thrusts Moana into the great unknown where she literally has to sink or swim. It's the same figurative journey that every young woman faces when she becomes a teenager. In the film, Moana immediately accepts this new way of life and begins to find out who she really is. You don't see this kind of acknowledgement of the female journey in many other major films, let alone an animated film produced by Disney.

Maui is the film's lummox of a sidekick who's on his own hero's journey - though it isn't really as important as Moana's because it's about reclaiming a lost phallic symbol (srsly). In any case, there is a very short moment in the film where Maui is singing to Moana and refers to her as a girl, then literally stops his monologue to tell the audience it doesn't matter that Moana is a girl, and that he's simply using that word because that's how she identifies. WHAT? High five, Disney.