The original Moana is a near-perfect movie, unquestionably my favorite Disney animated film of this millennium and possibly my favorite of all time. Even though I’ve seen it many times, I always get swept up by it and there are several parts where I fight back tears (a losing battle). It’s just a perfect capsule of joy with wonderful characters, a gorgeous and imaginative setting, lots of humor, terrific music, and a very deep emotional core.
So a sequel has a lot to live up to.
And, well… it doesn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it quite a bit and it’s in no way a disaster like Disney’s 90s glut of direct-to-video sequels (or their current glut of live action-styled remakes). It might even be the best Disney sequel this side of Pixar. But a down-the-middle return – which would be perfectly acceptable for, say, an Ice Age or Garfield movie – feels very disappointing for Moana, a tale of such intense vitality and passion that it still tugs at my heart every single time.
On one level, Moana 2 is a fun return to a beloved world and it’s hard to shake off the residual charm of the original. Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) is still that adventurous spirit that we loved, and she has a scene-stealing baby sister who is totes adorbs, serving as a callback to the toddler version of Moana we’ve met before. Maui (Dwayne Johnson) does the shark-head thing and makes boat snack jokes. The pirate clan Kakamora have an expanded return, and are a major highlight. Most critically, Moana’s connection to her grandmother and ancestors remains of the few aspects that still feels emotionally invested. Overall, it’s a fun adventure movie that my family enjoyed, and while I don’t doubt it’ll enter the rotation of movies my kids like to watch, it succeeds merely as entertainment.
Flanked by a small crew of friends from her island of Motunui, Moana, now settled into her new life as an explorer and wayfinder, sets off on a new quest to recover a lost island – with Maui’s help, if they can find him. According to their old lore, in better days the island once served as the hub of maritime traffic, creating a larger oceanic community sharing in commerce and friendship. It was buried beneath the sea by the jealous god Nalo in order to scatter and disunite the peoples of the many islands.
There’s nothing necessarily bad about Moana 2, it mostly just feels a little detached, in part because it seems they held back on some critical aspects to save them for a potential third film.
Providing Moana with a crew was a solid idea, and her newer friends (who audiences may find either fun or annoying) add an important change-up to the mix, but the expansion of heroes comes at the cost of a bizarre near-absence of villains. The plot exposition sets up another godlike antagonist (similar to Te Ka as the foe in the original), but he doesn’t really make an appearance – the film climaxes with our heroes just fighting the eternal storm he created, which feels less crucial or personal.
Similarly, the fan-favorite monster crab Tamatoa was a very fun secondary villain or “miniboss” in the first film. His return seemed guaranteed but surprisingly he’s not brought back (outside of an easily missed cameo). A new character, the batlike demigoddess Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), seems to have been intended to fill that void, but her confusing actions and motivations and come off as flat and muddled. With all the barely-there villains, it feels like they significantly stunted this movie in order to stack the deck for another sequel.
But perhaps the most palpable loss is that of Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose undeniably catchy earworms were arguably the first film’s most readily defining trait. He does not return as the songwriter this go-round, and while that doesn’t necessarily spell doom, the fact is I struggle to remember anything at all about the several new songs that pepper the sequel.
Perhaps I’ll feel better about Moana 2 when it’s afforded more meaning as the middle part of a completed trilogy, but at present it seems like an entertaining but somewhat hollow expansion to one of Disney’s all-time greatest achievements.
I’ll say this much: even though I found this sequel a bit deflating, I’m WAY more invested in this animated continuation of the franchise, warts and all, than in the idea of a completely unnecessary live-action remake. If Disney wanted to make a live-action remake using the animated cast, they missed their shot with The Emperor’s New Groove.
A/V Out
