Moana 2 opens in theaters Wednesday, November 26.
The stakes seem higher in Moana 2: After saving her home from ruin, the adored, titular wayfinder has a new mission, reconnecting with the groups of people scattered across the ocean by an angry deity. Yet, more than building on the world she previously explored, the follow-up plays like a by-the-numbers, beat-by-beat rehash. Moana leaves Motunui, has a couple of encounters with allies and bad guys, and then faces a powerful natural entity in a final showdown. And while stars Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson and writer Jared Bush are back on board for Moana 2, the original directing and songwriting teams aren’t, resulting in more of the same minus the first movie’s freshness.
Reuniting with the shapeshifting demigod Maui, Moana sets sail to the ancient island of Motufetu accompanied by a crew of her fellow islanders. Back home, her younger sister Simea awaits Moana’s return, adding to the emotional responsibility on the protagonist’s shoulders. Of the countless directions that Bush and directors David G. Derrick Jr., Jason HandDana, and Ledoux Miller could have taken the oceanic tale, they chose instead to reproduce the original blueprint with only slight variations to the story. There’s similarly not much of a visual departure from what legendary directors John Musker and Ron Clements and the animators of Moana accomplished with water effects and photorealistic vistas. There’s still some worthy spectacle in Moana 2’s most intense action sequences, particularly one where the group confronts a furious storm. But there’s no formal risk-taking as far as character design or the animation style. At least the filmmakers were able to come up with one, early standout segment, very briefly dabbling in evocative, dreamlike imagery while Moana has a bleak vision of things to come.
Moana’s adorable pet pig Pua gets to join the journey this time around, though he doesn’t have much to do other than pose for a few reaction shots. The same goes for the wide-eyed chicken Hei Hei , whose comic relief role has less impact now that Alan Tudyk’s frantic clucking is vying for screentime with a boatful of unremarkable human sidekicks. These new friends include an expert builder/designer, a farmer, and a muscly admirer of Maui with a talent for painting. None of them upstage the main characters, and they all remain on the periphery of the story, adding the occasional humorous one-liner and absolutely zero conflict.
But the central weakness of Moana 2 is the music, a lackluster collection of songs missing the spark of “How Far I’ll Go,” “You’re Welcome,” “Shiny,” or any of the other fan favorites Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, and Mark Mancina wrote for Moana. Even the brooding main tune, “Beyond,” rings anticlimactic. Miranda may have reached a point of overexposure in recent years, but his knack for an earworm – recall that he’s also responsible for Encanto’s chart-topping “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” – is sorely absent here. Making Moana 2’s forgettable melodies even worse are the movie’s desperate attempts at recalling the franchise’s past musical glories through dialogue: Characters repeatedly ask themselves about how far they’ll go; at one point, Maui drops a tongue-in-cheek “You are welcome.”
Originally envisioned as a Disney+ series before it was reworked for and redirected to theaters, Moana 2 bears the scars of a mangled conception. Its amalgamation of too many ideas and no clear vision is most evident in pseudo-villainess Matangi, whose introduction and swift dismissal are a squandered opportunity to provide Moana and crew with a memorable antagonist. There’s a suggestion that she has a history with Maui, and she gets a musical number that’s enlivened by the kooky bats who serve as her flying backup dancers. But just as suddenly as Matangi arrives, she vanishes, never to be seen again. Given the way Moana 2 primes us for future sequels, maybe we’ll see her sometime in the future.
Considering that a live-action remake of Moana (with Johnson reprising his role in the flesh) is less than two years away, Moana 2’s inability to tell a brand new story with these characters and this setting speaks to a sickness plaguing Hollywood studios: an aversion, even disdain, towards originality. Even if there are a few scenes that help Moana 2 float above an awful misfire like the Frozen 2, this sequel still doesn’t hold much water.
