I've often heard it said that all stories participate in the grand narrative in some way. That they all have similar themes and elements. Whether it be the traditional Hero's Journey made popular by mythologist Joseph Campbell and George Lucas's use of the narrative in crafting the first Star Wars segment or some other scheme makes little difference. Leland Ryken makes the argument, and others have as well, that all good stories borrow from the grand narrative of the biblical narrative, the meta-narrative as my pastor calls it: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation, or some variation on that.
My family has watched Moana about fifteen times thanks to my 2.5 year old who has almost all the songs memorized. This is her "Frozen" as that craze died out a couple of years ago. Since I've watched it so many times, I've had opportunity to muse on it. It definitely bears out, though with Polynesian twists, the Christian narrative.
The beginning of the story has Moana's grandmother telling the "Creation" and "Fall" elements of the story, although these get reframed later in the story (which I though was an interesting twist and acknowledgement to how oral tradition works). Now there is no divine fiat creation account, merely a narrative about how the demi-god Maui stole the heart from the creation goddess Te Fiti and plunged the world into chaos. It is up to Moana, we learn, to rescue Maui from imprisonment and restore the heart to Te Fiti in order to "Redeem" the world and bring about the "Consummation" of Moana's people returning to their voyaging ways instead of being scared of the unknown on the ocean.
It is a fun story and well done. The cast have good voices and the songs are instant hits. And it goes to show that good stories are universal. We have been telling them for years. As Douglas Wilson and George Grant both have said before, "The Devil has no stories."
