This is truly a very good movie in every aspects but its most beautiful and important one is the concept of respect. I can't imagine a better way that teaches everyone why and how to respect what they are and what others are. The music is great, cinematography is amazing and the story is very interesting. However it needs a little patient for one to fully enjoy it. Watch it , it will be an excellent experience.

Whale Rider is a really good film, to rate this film, I will give it an eight out of ten. It is very impressive that how Paikea has the courage to conquer the ill whales. Although it is dangerous, Paikea still chooses to save the whales and impress his grandfather. This minority style of life is very unique, it's culture can not be find in any other place in the world. How the chief of the tribe is inheriting is also interesting. From this film, the audience can get the global perspective of how a minority group live in New Zealand. However, the reason why I am giving this movie an eight out of ten is that I feel there is way too much descriptions about how Paikea's grandfather does not like to give the role to her, but too less about how Paikea is solving the problem with those stranding Whales. I feel the director should add more descriptions about how Paikea get the trust from his grandfather and how she becomes the inheritor of the minority group. Anyway, these are all my personal ideas. One of the main themes in this film is gender. This was also a major theme in the United States in the past --- men are more superior than women. This is relevant to this society's culture in the film because the chief of the tribe is usually inherited to male, but the main character Paikea is a female, causes a lot of issues. Paikea is a good evidence to support gender equality.

Whale Rider had a slow start at first, but I really enjoyed the story and became invested in the main character, Pai. Though the movie did have whales as a cultural aspect of the film, I thought the movie was going to be mainly about whales. I was presently surprised to see it was about a little girl, Pai, who wants to be the next tribe leader. However Koro, her grandfather and current leader, believes that it is only a man's position to lead the tribe. In my eyes, Koro's value in tradition was grater than the his relationship with Pai. That made me sad. She was desperately trying to get her grandfather to notice her and at least take her into consideration as the next leader. On another note, while I was watching Whale Rider, I could not help but compare this movie and Disney's Moana because they both have Māori influence. Watching this movie helped me understand some of the costumes in Moana and Moana helped me better understand the ending of the movie. To be honest if I had not seen Moana, I would have been really confused during the last clip.

I did not like this film very much. This movie seemed to force a gender issue, where there was not a real need for one. I liked the concept of the whale rider, and how the Grandfather would raise the youth of the area into a whale rider. I thought the grandfather not allowing his daughter to train and practically banishing her was excessive. The grandfather was quick tempered and only wanted a grandson, so the entire movie was based around the grandfather's disliking of his daughter. In my opinion, this movie was too focused on the subject of the daughter not being the person that her grandfather wanted her to be, rather than it focusing on what she wanted. Some people could view this movie as a break from social and gender norms, but I saw it as a girl that couldn't do anything to break her gender norms until she risked her life to save the whales. Overall, this movie was not very enjoyable for me, mainly because of the dull plot and sub-par acting.