It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

Do you believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be true with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome back to The Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast devoted to a classic film and the way it's shaped our thoughts on a current release.

I'm Tasha Robinson, here again with Scott Tobias, Keith Phipps, and Genevieve Kosky.

In the first half of this conversation, we talked about Walt Disney Studios, Mulan, a mostly traditionally animated movie about a young Chinese girl whose family honor forces her to dress up as a man and go to war so her aging wounded father doesn't have to. Her society's traditions say that women can only honor their families by being quiet and pretty and marrying well, but she has to defy those traditions to protect her family, even though her parents would much rather she follow the rules than act out to save them.

That exact dynamic plays out again in Moana, Disney's latest animated feature, about the daughter of a chief on a Polynesian island protected by a reef and full of abundant resources.

The sea itself is a character in this movie, not just in an abstract, arty setting kind of way,

but in a water tentacle that does Moana's hair for her

and brings her presence kind of way. And the sea is calling Moana to leave the island and save her

people from a curse caused by a brash trickster demigod named Maui. But Moana's parents want her to

stay safe on the island and follow their longtime family traditions. Just like Mulan, she can only

save them by ignoring their wishes and

following a deeper cultural urge, one that takes her out to sea, first on her own, and then

with Maui reluctantly in tow. For this film, Disney drew from a broad set of myths covering

a lot of different Pacific Island cultures, and the studio built an extensive brain trust of cultural

consultants and caretakers, which they brought

together to explore the Maui legends at length. Then they ran their storyline through a vetting

system to make sure it would be accurate, respectful, and representational. The result is a

recognizable Disney story, but it still feels like something newly, freshly integrated with the

world that is portraying. And the songs, with lyrics by Hamilton composer Lynn Manuel Miranda, certainly don't hurt. We'll get into that for you in just a minute.

You're welcome.

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