It’s a conflicting time to be a Disney fan right now. Despite the corporation’s monopolization of the entertainment industry and the 100th-year celebration of its multi-media brand last year in 2023, enthusiasm for Disney has seemingly declined in almost every sector. The aftermath of the divisive Star Wars sequel trilogy continues to haunt Lucasfilm, a growing superhero fatigue amongst audiences has broken the MCU‘s success streak, Pixar is being mandated to produce more sequels at the cost of original stories, and even the lucrative Disney Parks are being criticized for valuing short-term profits over guest satisfaction.
Walt Disney Animation’s Wish (2023) was designed to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary but was a critical and commercial disaster. Instead of taking the right lessons from their failures, Walt Disney Animation’s big holiday release in 2024 is Moana 2, an infuriatingly safe sequel to one of the studio’s best-animated musicals in recent memory. Directed by David G. Derrick Jr, Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller (co-writer of the upcoming Moana live-action remake), it’s crucial to note that Moana 2 was originally conceived as a Disney+ sequel series, then later reworked into a theatrical release. However, on the surface, this doesn’t feel obvious — the animation quality is fantastic, and it’s easy to get quickly swept away by its beauty.
Based on the large-scale action set pieces and colorful musical numbers alone, you can see why Disney execs decided to give Moana 2 the proper theatrical format it deserves. Unfortunately, almost everything else about the movie falls under minor scrutiny, revealing a shocking lack of emotional depth, stakes, and memorability that made the original movie such a breath of fresh air. The result is a hollow sequel that begs the audience to get excited about the possibility of more installments. This is perhaps serviceable for a short season of TV aimed at children on Disney+ or a straight-to-DVD DisneyToon sequel, but not for the 62nd feature-length entry in Walt Disney Animation’s prestigious theatrical canon.
Picking up three years after the first film, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) is called to the sea once again after receiving visions from her ancestors. Moana is given a mission to finish what they started: to sail far beyond any wayfinder from Motunui has gone before and save the lost island of Motufetu from an angry god whose goal is to keep the people of the oceans divided. To prepare for her journey, Moana assembles a crew: a quirky mechanic named Loto (Rose Matafeo), the grumpy village farmer Kele (David Fane), and the charming storyteller/scribe Moni (Hualālai Chung). Along the way, Moana reunites with the shape-shifting demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and encounters a mischievous underworld goddess named Matangi (Awimai Fraser).
Moana 2 boasts a significantly larger ensemble than the first movie. However, it’s unfortunate for the refreshing cast of unknown voice talent that the sequel fails to juggle them all, reducing most of Moana’s friends and family to single character traits and blatantly abandoning some character threads to save for future franchise developments. Moana’s little sister Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) has been largely marketed, though it’s obvious that she’s here to add cheap pathos to the story.
In the first film, Moana bravely dares to become an explorer despite her parent’s fears about the outside world. Her compassion, willingness to take risks, and personal growth are the tools for her journey. In Moana 2, her call to action is met with drastically less resistance or stakes. Moana’s motivations and the severity of the situation are much more vague. In the first act, Simea begs Moana not to go on her quest. While she is cute, the sincerity of the moment rings hollow when we know so little about their relationship and are already familiar with the types of danger Moana has faced in the past.
As the second theatrical Disney sequel, Moana 2 curiously shares a lot of shortcomings with its older sister, Frozen II. While it’s interesting to see Moana balancing the personal responsibility of being a wayfinder and a leader, neither Moana nor Maui truly grows or learns anything of concrete value throughout the narrative. Any time there seems to be a problem for either character, it’s quickly resolved in the next scene. The lack of a traditional Disney villain also renders all conflict completely inconsequential. Bafflingly, there is a main antagonist, but they are not physically seen in the movie itself. What’s left is a series of unrelated vignettes that lack coherence and urgency.
If there weren’t beautiful vistas and oceans to distract you, it would be painfully obvious that the film’s four credited screenwriters are holding the plot together with strings. Also similar to Frozen II, the music in Moana 2 is a large downgrade from what was offered in the original. While composer Mark Mancina and singer Opetaia Foa’i returned to write the score and 3 new songs of their own, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda did not return as a songwriter. In his place, grammy-winning musical duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear step up to the challenge. The result is a mixed bag, yet it’s hard to solely blame Barlow & Bear, considering they had an extremely tough act to follow.
There are fun musical numbers in Moana 2, like “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” and “Get Lost,” that are moving and catchy enough at the moment. Sure, these few songs get the job done upon first viewing, but the rest of the songwriting and lyricism begin to feel underdeveloped after repeated listening, as though they are first drafts of the usual musical numbers expected from an animated Disney film. There is also a strange number of songs that reference Lin-Manuel Miranda’s iconic motifs from the original movie, almost asking to be compared to much stronger material.
The music in the original Moana often underscores important emotional beats, reveals vital information about our characters, or in the case of “Shiny,” is at least a sonically interesting and fun diversion. Sadly, Moana 2’s soundtrack feels superficial in comparison. The success of Encanto (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” made #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 charts back in 2022) should make it obvious that fans are craving animated Disney musicals that meet the studio’s high-quality standards, but Moana 2, like Wish and Frozen II before it, does not deliver.
The most frustrating thing about Moana 2 is that there are people behind it who are interested in making a good movie. Yet, poor narrative decisions make it hard to appreciate the larger picture. The creatives at Walt Disney Animation worked with an Oceanic Cultural Trust comprised of dozens of consultants from different Pacific Islander and Polynesian backgrounds, and their shared group effort leads to an incredible attention to detail on screen. The island of Motunui and its traditions are characterized by great authenticity and specificity to indigenous culture. The Indigenous voice cast is wonderful as well, adding much-needed dimension to the characters where the screenplay often falters.
As mentioned earlier, the animation is truly worthy of the big screen, and the animators’ efforts should not go unnoticed. But taking into account the film as a whole, it’s impossible to ignore that Moana 2 started life as a Disney+ show. Its initial purpose was not to tell an engaging story but rather to promote the brand and maintain audience interest in products such as the recent Moana attraction at Epcot, cruise ships, or Pua and Hei-Hei plushes. In the past, when Disney would cross-promote its IPs in theme parks and tie-in material, there was still a fresh and exciting story that justified its existence. Moana 2 is, by nature, as safe and unadventurous as a sequel can be.
Moana 2 hits theaters on November 27!
Release Date: November 27, 2024.
Directed by Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller, & David Derrick Jr.
Screenplay by Jared Bush & Dana Ledoux Miller.
Story by Jared Bush, Dana Ledoux Miller, & Bek Smith.
Produced by Christina Chen & Yvett Merino.
Executive Producers: Jared Bush, Dwayne Johnson, & Jennifer Lee.
Main Voice Cast: Auliʻi Cravalho, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Hualālai Chung, Rachel House, Awhimai Fraser, Gerald Ramsey, & Alan Tudyk.
Composers: Mark Mancina.
Songwriters: Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear, & Opetaia Foaʻi.
Production Company: Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Runtime: 100 minutes.
Rated PG.
