After a chaotic month with a lot of travel and a lot of behind-the-scenes chaos I took time Friday night to sit down with my kids (who are all teens or older at this point) and watch the movie the youngest one has been talking about nonstop: Moana 2.
I approached this with some hesitation because I hadn’t heard a ton of great reviews about Moana 2. But… It opened well. The music was strong. The themes were clear.
And yet the ending felt a little off.
Why was that?
[SPOILERS AHEAD!]
In the first Moana movie the story is fairly simple: Moana wants to travel, she wants to explore, and she needs to restore the heart of Te Fiti. In so doing she comes to understand herself better and learns more about her ancestors. It works really well because it’s about a journey of self-discovery.
One of the fun things that everyone notices in that movie is the sidekicks: Pua and Heihei (the pig and the rooster). They’re there for comedic relief and don’t impact the story in any huge way. But they’re fun!
Repeating the Pua and Heihei situation is actually where Moana 2 falls apart.
Because Moana 2 isn’t a simple voyage of self-discovery, it’s meant to be a story about togetherness and finding your people.
The whole journey is Moana searching for other people on other islands. She’s eager to find new nations. She’s excited to go on this grand adventure to ensure a future for the people of her own island. She takes new friends with her… and treats them like Pua and Heihei.
This creates a conflict between the theme of the story and the main characters actions.
Moana is acting like she’s on a journey of self-discovery – and you can argue she is, up to a point – but the main storyline is about finding other people. The big story and the small, personal stories aren’t synching up.
In the song ♫What Could Be Better Than This?♫ Moana sings to her team and tries to get them excited about their voyage of discovery. But when the team runs into trouble they don’t have a team building moment. Moana goes off on her own and gets a pep talk from Maui in the form of ♫Can I Get A Chee Hoo?♫ and this feels wrong.
Why does it feel wrong?
Because instead of leaning into the team building themes and working with the crew she brought, Moana is having another self-reliance moment where she’s building herself up to do things. It doesn’t reinforce the main theme of finding connection with other people.
Is it bad? Not really.
Does it fit the narrative and character arc? Yeah, in a lot of ways it does.
Does it make the story feel cohesive? Nope!
The movie isn’t bad, but the disconnect between the major and minor storylines leaves viewers feeling like something is missing. When the ideas and themes aren’t reinforced at multiple levels, it creates a sense of disquiet. Which works well in horror and tragedies, because the lack of connection between the storylines makes a tragedy so tragic. It’s what brings the sense of unease and terror to horror.
Used correctly, the lack of connection between big themes and small themes can add value to what you’re writing. It can increase the dissonance.
So how do you make sure you’re using the idea of reinforced themes correctly?
Step 1 is to finish whatever you’re writing. Whether it’s a novel or a script, you need to have a completed piece before you can check. If you’re a Plotter and want to plan ahead, go ahead and pull out your synopsis, but do this check after you finish your rough draft all the same. Sometimes things get lost while you’re writing. Don’t stress it, the edits are when you can fix it.
Step 2 is to identify your major themes. You do that by looking at the change points in your story. Where is the call to action? Where does the character change things up? Where does the main character have their moment of despair where they feel all is lost? Where does your main character choose to stand back up and fight for their end goal?
What you want to see is the character not having all the tools to win the fight in the earlier scenes, integrating those changes when they change things up around the 50% mark, and then using those new skills to win the day.
In Moana 2 those scenes would look like:
Call To Action – Finding the pottery shard with the map
Big Change* – Assembling a team so she doesn’t sail alone
Moment of Despair – Wrecking on the outer island and finding her hero’s ship
Motivational Moment** – ♫Can I Get A Chee Hoo♫ sung with Maui to Moana alone
The Big Win*** – Diving into the ocean alone and raising the island
Just looking at that, you can see the disconnect.
Why assemble a team if they aren’t part of the Motivational Moment or the Big Win?
Realistically this could be because of anything from actor availability to last minute script changes. It’s something that can happen anytime to anyone in the industry. That’s a reality of script writing. Sometimes you have deadlines or complications you can’t work around.
Novels usually have fewer authors than scripts and you usually have more time to get the writing done. Which means that, if you’re writing a novel, you can make sure your writing doesn’t have the same problem. Go back and check. Make sure that the ideas and themes you’re introducing at the start of the book are in your climax. All those skills and hard lessons your characters learned? Make those the skills needed to save the day!
That gives your reader the emotional satisfaction that takes your book from Okay to Amazing.
Trust me, you can write this! And, if you want a little extra help, you can always hire me to help edit your book or walk you through the writing process.
* NOTES*
If we’re using the classic book writing themes then these are…
* Twist 1 or 2 depending on the story
** Twist 3 right after the Moment of Despair
*** The final victory at the 85-95% mark of the book