I'll try not to spoil it too much but… I recently watched Moana and I loved it.

I don't have the conversation around modern female protagonists often. If you have had this conversation with me, then you'd know this: I hate most of them. Especially the ones in movies. I often feel they're one-dimensional and only are interesting if they're in a love story. They often exhibit traits like strength and stubbornness in a way that a male traditionally would. They're not allowed to be smart and likeable at the same time. There are tons of videos on YouTube about this, so I won't continue to rant about it. My issue with it is this:

Most of them don't appeal to me because they are not me.

But that's where Moana comes in. She is, in a nutshell, how many of my friends and I have grown up: full of love and cognizant of the life outside of our supportive homes. Coupled with her curiosity and resourcefulness, she's a really solid character. None of these traits are as important as the fact that Moana is ready to learn and grow.

That's where the story takes us.

But the story goes there with a lot of care and authenticity in researching and developing a story outside of the traditional Disney story arc. They consulted scholars in the Pacific about the cultures they've studied and continued to actively through the story making process. Some story elements were concepts that my friends and I recognized as part of our experiences.

The mythologies were reflective of the region without being a retelling of a story that already exists.

I've always had a fascination with mythology. Like most people, Greek and Roman mythology was my genre of choice, and I have read multitudes of their stories since childhood. There were often overlaps in the anthologies I had read, but I studied anyway. You know, just in case I had missed a small story on the side. I moved onto Norse mythology after college, but finding comprehensive collections continued to be an obstacle. The difficulties I faced in my search nagged at me, but it also saddened me.

The old gods and old stories are dying. It's an idea that explored in reading of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The idea is this: We’re replacing them with media that is more easily accessible and readily consumable than reading or talking. The specifics of our stories are disappearing, as are our histories, and consequently our traditions.

If you think about how stories got passed down, it was first often through oral tradition. A community comes together and learns and shares the stories with each other; from elder to child, teacher to student. The responsibility of preserving this oral tradition is given to someone equally capable of doing the telling. Once a written language is introduced, the story gets told on paper. You no longer need the community to share the story, just someone who can point you in the proper direction. With the advent of movies, you don't even need that. It's just a screen where you can passively engage with a narrative.

Think about when your friends do something, anything. They tell you, their captive audience, their experiences. Some of your friends are decidedly better at telling stories than some of your other friends, but it's ok. Storytelling is a communal experience; it's shared and savored with all its participants. It builds bonds and strengthens relationships as we invest our time in each other. But storytelling takes practice, and sometimes we need to give each other that.

Most people don't know the old stories, so maybe they're not as invested in it. Think about when your friends repeat the same stories; "I heard this already" is the immediate response. You don't want to hear old stories, especially if you already know them. Hollywood does this a lot with its multitude of remakes. Movies are fun but also predictable. People like stories that keep them engaged and encourage them to ask questions.

Disney went to those linguists and anthropologists and practitioners and choreographers and became their captive students. Each shared their own stories and objected when necessary. Instead of retelling the stories, they created a new one together. They made it right where it needed to be and took liberties where they could. Storytelling is a way of connecting with people now and with generations past. It's a way of experiencing a perspective that possibly may have been unknown to us before.

Moana didn't have a love interest, and she didn't have to. She realigns with her cultures' traditions to grow and move forward. Disney did the same. Sometimes, we have to look behind us in order to forge ahead. It's hard to find the way without conversations with people who know differently from us. These conversations are important if we ever want to get them right. I hope Disney continues to take this direction with its movies; by continuing to consult people who are immersed in the preservation of their histories. Hopefully that inspires people to see how truly wonderful other cultures and their stories are.

Imagine where we could go once we recognize how far we've come.