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Go behind the scenes of Moana 2 with Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson
Featurette: Walt Disney Animation

Moana 2
Directed by David G. Derrick, Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller
Rated PG
Sailed 27 November 2024
#Moana2

In her second big-screen adventure, Moana sails through a decent, fairly witty story. But the songs are all wet.

Get Lost

It’s never really encouraging – as a moviegoer – to hear a studio is excited about a new movie going so well in production they’ve decided to shift it from being a streaming series to a full-blown theatrical release. Examples of this strategy working are rare, with Toy Story 2 being the pinnacle of game-changing creative and commercial success. Instead of going direct to DVD, as originally intended, it became a major turning point that led to a milestone series of Pixar features with a fifth installment, nearly 30 years later, currently in the works.

Moana 2, on the other hand, was set to stream on Disney+ and then was elevated to theatrical status, with the added bonus of being pegged as Disney’s big Thanksgiving weekend release. Once upon a time, Disney ruled Thanksgiving – year after year – with huge box office successes. The original Moana overcame the challenge of being a wholly new world of characters and achieved something even better than a big Thanksgiving weekend opening: it earned enduring appeal.

Well, Moana 2 isn’t all that. It isn’t a total bust, but it gets lost in that perilous journey from small-screen sensibilities to big-screen ambitions. There’s some really good stuff here, but there’s also a creative limbo that introduces some clunkiness to the theatrical experience.

Let’s start with the small-screen angle.

Sure, Auli’i Cravalho is back as Moana, along with Dwayne Johnson as Maui. But a huge creative driving force is absent: Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer of Moana’s original songs, as well as co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker, the powerhouse directors who contributed to Disney’s new Golden Age with the original animated versions of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.

Instead, there’s a trio of directors making their feature debut, David G. Derrick, Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller. And the songs? Well, they’re primarily written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. Who? C’mon. You know ‘em. Barlow and Bear, the Grammy-winning dynamic duo behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical. (True story.)

The songs are where this sequel shows its biggest weakness. When they don’t sound like streaming-friendly Disney songs, they sound like they’re trying to imitate Miranda and Hamilton.

They took their shot, but this was a production with streaming in its sights and it was being made accordingly. The pivot to the big screen needed a better wayfarer than Bob Iger.

What Lies Beyond

But all’s not lost. There are some elements that are still big-screen worthy.

The story’s not bad. Thankfully, Jared Bush, Disney Animation’s Chief Creative Officer and the scribe behind Moana, Zootopia and Encanto, is back. This time, he shares screenplay credit with co-director Miller, who’s also making her feature screenwriting debut with Moana 2.

Focus on the story that is, as with the first movie, the result of a collaboration with Disney’s Oceanic Cultural Trust, which helped preserve and respect the culture and traditions of life in Oceania. Enjoy the (mostly) sharp animation. And, perhaps most importantly, consider the movie’s message. Those are the things that keep Moana 2 afloat as it drifts to a mild recommendation.

In the first installment, Moana was held back by her family, who were afraid of leaving the friendly confines of the island of Motunui and taking to the seas in the spirit of exploration and adventure. Their world was small, isolated. This time, having proven herself as a wayfarer, Moana’s encouraged to tackle a new mission that will show her tribe how far they can go. The goal: find more tribes and expand their world. It’s a nice spin; it’s good character growth.

Cravalho has commented on how Moana is the first Disney princess to actually age. Granted, the original Moana was released at Thanksgiving 2016. That’s already eight years ago. But, with the lead talent providing vocals behind the scenes, the sense of age is harder to appreciate in an animated world. Is Simea, Moana’s little sister, really eight years older? At least Moana certainly seems more mature. And she’s entrusted with far more responsibility than the traditional Disney princess.

To that end, the gods don’t fear Moana’s unspeakably handsome boyfriend. She doesn’t have one. She doesn’t pine for one, either. The gods fear her for her very own abilities. That’s kinda cool in its own right.

Chee Hoo It!

Inevitably, Moana is reunited with Maui, who is first seen ensnared in a trap sprung by Matangi (Awhimai Fraser, who – fun fact – voiced Elsa in the Māori version of Frozen). Matangi is a mysterious bat lady who’s got her own troubles doing the bidding of the god of storms, Nalo. Once upon a time, Nalo thought he could increase his power and dominate people by separating the tribes. Nalo wants to keep the tribes divided and he wants to prevent anybody from reaching the lost island of Motufetu, which would restore a gateway enabling a reunion of the disparate peoples of Oceania.

From this strange trio of Moana, Maui and Matangi comes a valuable life lesson. When the plans devised by the big shot, shape-shifting hero, Maui, go south, it’s time to rethink the strategy. And with that, Moana rises to the occasion.

It sounds overly simplistic here to say the message is "think different." (Then again, it worked great for years as a central marketing campaign theme for Apple.) There’s always another way, a different path to take, even if you have to get lost to find it. It’s a key theme to Moana 2 and it’s a key element that holds the movie together.

Throw in a few good zingers from Maui, including a somewhat out of place joke about a butt-dial from the gods, and Moana 2 starts to gel as a standalone experience. Maybe it just needed more time to complete the bridge from stream to cinema.

Regardless, it’s clear there will be more adventures with Moana. It feels a little slapdash, a little tacked on, but a post-end main titles tease plays with the dynamic between Matangi and Nalo and promises there are more challenges to come for Moana and the tribes.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.