“Moana”

Rated PG (1:53)

Review: 3 stars

Opens today

There are Disney movies that stand the test of time, that are as captivating now on DVD or Netflix as when they were first in theaters.

“Mary Poppins” is forever magical. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is always charming, and that witch is always terrifying. “The Lion King,” a favorite of University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich, never seems outdated in its message or its motivation.

Then there are the Disney films that have been all but forgotten, and rightly so: “Treasure Planet,” “Brother Bear,” “Pete’s Dragon” (both versions) — only a die-hard fan would seek them out.

The destiny of “Moana” leads somewhere in between. It is a pretty movie and certainly one that many people will enjoy, but it has the mark of this era, a time when Disney is concerned with growing its cadre of moneymaking princesses while at the same time trying not to make it look like it’s rolling out a princess of every skin color; a time when parents demand strong female protagonists who don’t need help from a man; a time when the Disney empire is engaged in producing movies that tie in to its resort properties worldwide (next comes a live-action remake of “Mulan” to promote Disney’s new Shanghai resort park).

Those fretting over the authentic depiction of Polynesian cultures in “Moana” shouldn’t trouble themselves. Directors John Musker and Ron Clements and their creative team toured the South Pacific for insight and inspiration and formed an “Oceanic Story Trust” of experts to consult during production.

Though careful to be realistic about some elements, the movie is not realistic. It’s fantasy. Everything is magical in this Pacific island world. There’s a cave of magic canoes that can be summoned by a magic drum. The anthropomorphic ocean can indicate its intentions by gesturing. Maui’s expressive tattoos are magic and serve as his Jiminy Cricket, reminding the demigod to do the right thing.

In the win column, Auli‘i Cravalho does a wonderful job as the voice of Moana. The 15-year-old Kamehameha Schools student brings depth and heart to a character that could otherwise be just another stock Disney plucky girl. Dwayne Johnson is always entertaining no matter what he’s doing. The Maui character is problematic in many ways — too many ways to list — but Johnson’s performance saves it from being odious. He’s as funny as Eddie Murphy but with a wider acting range and greater emotional depth.

Moana’s conflict is that she feels the ocean is calling to her, but her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), forbids her to set sail (then why did he name her Moana, the Hawaiian and Maori word for ocean, right?).

Suddenly, the nearshore waters of her island have no fish, and coconuts on the trees become infected with a creeping blight. Moana’s magical Gramma Tala (Rachel House) mysteriously falls ill, and this finally makes Moana jump on a canoe and set sail. Her quest includes finding Maui, returning a green stone heart to a creation goddess, learning how to be a wayfinder and stopping the blight on her home island. It gets confusing.

Maui, meanwhile, needs to get his magic fishhook back. We find out later that what Maui really wants is for mortals to admire him for his wondrous feats — shape-shifting, raising islands from the sea, snaring the sun, rediscovering fire, gracing humankind with coconuts and so on — which he boastfully rattles off upon first meeting Moana via the peppy tune “You’re Welcome.”

The soundtrack includes Moana’s anthem — and every Disney princess has one — the stirring “How Far I’ll Go,” penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame.

Ancillary characters are usually something Disney does extremely well. Think of the animated dishes in “Beauty and the Beast” singing “Be Our Guest,” or Nemo’s tank friends. In “Moana” there’s a cute pig that shows promise but gets left behind when Moana sets sail and an addled chicken, Heihei, who pretty much steals every scene it is in.

Other than those two, there is the giant bejeweled crab Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement), whose musical number “Shiny” has all the psychedelic weirdness of the “Pink Elephants on Parade” drunken-dream sequence in “Dumbo,” and little coconut-headed bad guys called Kakamora who confront Moana from a rope-and-pulley-rigged pirate ship that looks like something built by Ewoks.

It sounds crazy to describe it; it doesn’t make more sense seeing it.

The last third of the movie basically turns into a video game where Maui and Moana work their way up to fighting higher levels of monsters, from the coconut heads to the shiny crab and then the scary lava demon.

The story falls short of “Whale Rider,” the 2002 live-action movie that also tells the tale of a young girl called by the ocean to save her people. That amazing Maori film based on the book by Witi Ihimaera is both heartbreaking and incredibly uplifting.

Indeed, the last scene of “Moana,” where the heroine leads her people across the ocean in festooned canoes, seems inspired by the similar final scene in “Whale Rider.”

When the movie ended at an advance screening at Ward Stadium 16, there was a respectful round of applause. Nothing thunderous or overwhelming, but not negative either.

I turned to the man seated next to me. He had been so chatty before the show started. I asked him, “So, did you like the movie?” He paused a bit, as though deciding whether he could be candid with me. I suppose he concluded that he couldn’t.

“Yeah,” he said, and gave a careful smile.

The children sitting with him were more effusive: They all really liked the chicken.

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Correction: The last name of Auli’i Cravalho was misspelled in an earlier version of this story and in the Wednesday print edition. Also, “Whale Rider” was released in 2002, not 1992, as previously reported.