Spoilers ahead!
The long-awaited sequel to Moana, arguably one of Disney’s most celebrated movies, made its way into theatres over Thanksgiving weekend. Moana 2 is an animated musical following the heroine Moana and her newfound quest to reunite the people of the ocean. Taking into consideration the hype surrounding the release of the film, the question is… did Disney deliver?
To preface this review, it’s important to note that Disney has a questionable track record with their sequels. Combined with the absence of Lin-Manuel Miranda on the movie’s soundtrack, I went into this with low expectations. Unfortunately, my suspicions were true and this movie fell victim to Disney’s lackluster sequel pandemic. Here’s why.
The plot is simplistic and scattered, and the pacing is all sorts of junk. It follows Moana as a newly-proclaimed wayfinder of her island, spending a brief moment to show the audience her thriving village and the idolization surrounding Moana for defeating Te Fiti in the previous film. We are then quickly thrust into the conflict as things tense around the island, Moana having sudden visions of her village failing to survive. Illusions of her past ancestors, the wayfinders, tell Moana that she must take action and reunite the people of the ocean to save her village. To do this successfully, she must find a cursed island– that doesn’t really have much significance except for the fact that it could reunite them– and pull it out of the ocean. The rest of the film consists of subpar side plots that rush you to the climax of the film (that seems to occur for all of a whopping ten minutes).
The movie also overuses poor comedy to make up for the lack of substance in the plot. Moana, upon her sudden revelation, is forced to put together a crew consisting solely of comedic relief characters. I felt as if they were being thrown in my face all in the span of a few minutes, giving me no chance to form any sort of connection to them. If I’m being completely honest, I couldn’t even recall any of the cast’s names besides the two main characters.
Then there’s the main threat, Nalo the storm god- another forgettable character. He’s not even shown until about halfway through the film. He is the reason that the ocean separates the people to stop them from thriving and rising to power. Despite the opportunity the writer’s had at making him some menacing, looming evil, he is pushed aside until the very end of the movie where a quick final battle occurs that renders Maui and Moana injured. Despite this climax opening up a great plot point to be explored, the writers reverse the consequences almost immediately. This effectively renders the events of the movies pointless because there is no real impact left on the story.
Another big turn-off for me was the soundtrack. Part of Moana’s glory was the catchy tunes that rng in everyone’s ears after their first watch, masterpieces such as “You’re Welcome” and “How Far I’ll Go.” Each song in the second film seems like a last-minute composition, again another component of the movie that fails to be memorable. You could blame this on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s absence, but I’d also say that this was the result of heartless work.
In conclusion, Moana 2 is a skippable sequel unless you’re looking to be disappointed. The film fails to have anything memorable about it, down to the cast, soundtrack, and overall plot. Compared to its predecessor, the movie falls short of expectations and wastes what could’ve been a thrill-filled sequel…having said, Cheehoo!
