Moana 2 was released in theatres around Thanksgiving, but because it was recently added to Disney+, the movie is on people’s minds—yet it’s not getting people talking. Any publicity is good publicity, so producers would probably prefer to have an audience shouting from the rooftops about how bad the Moana sequel is, but that’s not happening. The movie isn’t a box office success, but it’s not awful either; it’s just average.
In the sequel, which takes place three years after the original movie, Moana is looking to find other tribes of Island people to trade with. The movie begins in the middle of an action scene as she races across an island with her pig, Pua, anxious to return home to her growing family. After she returns, her island celebrates her with a big musical number, but then she gets a vision from her ancestor, Tautai Vasa, which reveals why none of the people are connected across islands anymore. Desperate to help her island flourish, Moana gets a crew together to follow the stars to Motufetu, an island that people across the ocean could gather on, but has since sunk. Her crew comprises of chicken Heihei, Pua, ancient gardener, Kele, Maui superfan and historian, Moni, and overly enthusiastic engineer, Loto. Together, they must team up, find Maui, surface Motufetu, and connect people from all across the ocean- while keeping Heihei alive for another adventure.
Overall, this movie wasn’t a hit, but it also wasn’t unpleasant. All of the characters were humorous and enjoyable, but they had no depth to them. Especially comparing Moana from the first movie to this one, she lost a lot of character traits. In the first movie, Moana doesn’t want to become a leader and wants to travel the ocean, while making her family proud. This internal struggle led her to sing the power ballad “How Far I’ll Go”, which instantly became a Disney hit. Moana 2 tried to mimic this powerful song with “Beyond,” but it was unsuccessful. Maybe this is because the music in the sequel is written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, whereas the first soundtrack was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but that’s not the only reason. “Beyond” lacked the emotion and longing that “How Far I’ll Go” thrived in, and that is because Moana’s character as a whole lacks any deep emotion in this film. Even when difficult events happen to her, she doesn’t struggle but rather continues to lead as if nothing happened. It’s fine to have a character like that, but it’s uncharacteristic of Moana, based on the first movie, who struggled and cried and grieved. This lack of character depth was also apparent in the rest of Moana’s crew, which made it hard for viewers to relate to them.
The rest of the songs were also slight misses. During the movie, you could tell the songs were almost there, but not quite. It had an almost more Broadway-like feel to the songs, rather than Disney. Visually, it also felt that way, with big productions that felt off compared to the natural lead-ins to the songs the first movie had. For example, in the first movie, when Moana sings “Song of the Ancestors”, she is kneeling on her boat, wondering if she should give up when she remembers her grandmother’s words, leading her to turn that into a sweet song that grows in power. In Moana 2, every song had colorful lights, dances, and a fast beat that, once again, made it harder for viewers to relate to the characters like they could in the first movie.
The fact that the first Moana movie was such a massive hit, with flawed characters, a perfect mix of songs, and a touch of humor, made its sequel seem all the worse. Moana 2 wasn’t bad, but because the first one was so good, audiences had high expectations that the film just didn’t meet. It felt basic with nothing awful, but also nothing that made audiences feel. The characters were flat and inconsistent with the first movie, the songs had one tone, and the plot was fine, but nothing special. Maybe Moana 2 will be a hit for this up-and-coming generation, but people who grew up on the first one will leave disappointed without a new earworm.
