Disney has a history of making sequels to their most famous and successful animated films, and why not? Beloved as they are, many families enjoyed having further stories of their favorite characters even if the final product wasn’t as good as the original. And Disney knew this which is why films such as The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and The Return of Jafar were released straight to home viewing. They may not have been high art, but they were cheap and easily accessible. Not so much with Moana 2 which is nowhere near as magical as the first, and their insistence at releasing in theaters feels like and is an obvious cash grab.
Having put her days of adventuring with demigods behind her, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) spends her time exploring the oceans while looking for more people aside from those who live in her village. In a vision from her ancestor Tautai Vasa, she is shown that the storm god Nalo sunk the island of Motufetu to gain power over mortals, and that this action severed their ties to each other. Tautai also warns her that unless she can raise the island and break the curse, all her people on Motunui will fade away as well. Desperate to save them, she recruits a rag tag team of her friends, including of course, Pua and Heihei to venture out to save the day. Maui (Dwayne Johnson) also joins the crew as he has a score to settle with Nalo, and they set off to either save the world or die trying.
If anyone reading this plays video games, you know that oftentimes when a developer isn’t ready to make a full-blown sequel, they will release DLC – downloadable content. It will be a set of new adventures or stories that build upon the base game without having to redo it from scratch. They also generate a ton of money. In this light, it is easy to say that Moana 2 is not, in fact a sequel, but Disney DLC.
The story plays out almost beat for beat like the first one. Sure, we have new characters and songs (more on that in a minute), but the hero’s journey that Moana goes on to save the world feels exactly like it did in the original. It’s so apparent that you can probably even predict how each scene will play out, when they will burst into song, and even what type of song it’s going to be.
Speaking of which, the music is probably the most disappointing part of the show. Lin Manuel Miranda didn’t return to create them, and what we have just feels like filler. There isn’t a standout among them, and it’s almost cringeworthy whenever we hear someone start to sing. There is no majesty here, and it almost feels like they let ChatGPT write the lyrics and music.
That said, there are some redeeming moments. The animation, as always, is top notch, and Disney continues to show us that while they might not be setting the bar for the other studios, they hold their own against Dreamworks and Pixar. The voice acting is fine as well. It could have been easy for everyone to just phone in their lines, but all of them perform with gusto and develop and present their characters just as well as the first one.
Moana 2 is easily the biggest letdown of the year for me. The first is in my top 10 Disney animated movies of all time, and I really walked into this one excited to see what they could do. Instead, it felt like one of the sequels I mentioned above that should have been released directly to streaming, which in fact, it was originally supposed to do. But greed reared its ugly head and had them push it into theaters where it is guaranteed to make tons more money. Considering how good this should have been, it’s sad to see the series stoop to such a low point all in the name of money. Let’s hope the eventual third film will restore it to its previous glory.