Disney's Moana
Disclosure: I was invited to an advanced screening of Moana. All thoughts and opinions are purely my own. Have you seen it yet? Have you?! What. Are. You. Waiting. For?!?
Last Sunday, we got a chance to see an advanced screening of Moana. And I do believe that I'm in love.
Where do I begin? Seriously. I fell in love with the characters, found a string that led directly from my heart to Gramma Tala (Moana's grandmother) and managed to find humor, happiness, a renewed sense of gratitude for the Universe and an appreciation of nature. All in one movie. Yup. Leave it to Disney, my friends.
Allow me to get existential here. You know I don't believe in coincidences. I felt a great connection to the movie as it presented lessons that continue to be reinforced in and around me.
I know a few Maui's. People that just want to be loved but do all the things to get those accolades (if this feels like it's you then, surprise! It is!). In Maui's case, He stole the heart of Te Fiti to give to the humans so that they too could create as she did. He is a demigod and shows his abandonment issues in his desire to be praised and worshipped by the humans. The heart of Te Fiti is basically creation itself. In the beginning of time, this heart allowed for the creation of life and islands. When that heart is stolen, well, all hell quite literally breaks loose.
In this case, it's in the form of Te Ka who awakens when Maui steals the heart and battles him for it only to have the heart lost at sea and Maui defeated.
What transpires next is what adventures (and Disney movies) are made of! The tales have it that once the heart of Te Fiti was stolen, those islands began to die. When something similar starts happening on Moana's island, it awakens something inside her.
You see, that ocean has already selected Moana as "the one". The heart of Te Fiti grazes her hands as a child and that moment defines her entirely life, though she does not know why. She longs for the ocean, much to her father's chagrin. And at 16, well...you know how that goes.
With her gramma's guidance, Moana is empowered with finding Maui and returning the heart of Te Fiti to its rightful place. Except that she has Maui to reckon with first and making him to forth to possibly battle Te Ka after he's been banished to a random island is no easy feat.
But, leave it to a determined girl who is aware of her purpose (Along with a few unforgettable characters that I know will keep you on your toes) to lead a demigod to a place where he does not want to go.
The rest, as they say, is the movie, of course!
We loved it! And we loved meeting Moana. You can find her at Hollywood Studios these days so if you stop by Disney World, be sure to stop by and take a picture, okay?
Have you seen the movie? What did you think? Tell me, tell me, tellll meeeee!
About those lessons:
You know your purpose. At times we don't see it because we are burden with obligations. It doesn't mean you need to be irresponsible. It means that you need to sit and figure out what your purpose is in a way that honors your existence and by extension, those around you.
There are signs everywhere that lead you to do the thing which you fear. Those signs and that fear all conspire to give you the desires of your heart if only you dare to walk that path.