Moana 2 finds itself all at sea.
With all the shimmering splendour you’d expect from the House of Mouse, Disney’s Moana 2 opens with a kaleidoscope of dazzling colours, swirling waves, and a lead character who remains as effortlessly engaging as ever. Moana herself, voiced with the same warmth and resolve by Auli’i Cravalho, is still the heart of the story, embodying that irresistible blend of courage and charm that made her debut so memorable, and, of course, Dwayne Johnson is back as Maui as he continues his attempts to shore up his waning box office prowess. But while the oceanic animation splashes magnificently across the screen, the storytelling leaves a far less impressive ripple.
Moana 2 picks up with Moana leading her people as Wayfinder, only to face a new threat: the vision of her ancestor Tautai Vasa, who reveals that the storm god Nalo sank the legendary island of Motufetu to gain power over mortals. Moana learns that this sunken island once connected the islands, and its loss caused the people to drift apart. Tautai warns that Motunui’s future is in peril unless the island is raised again. Resolving to avert this fate, Moana assembles a crew of colourful new action figures characters: Loto, a clever craftswoman (Rose Matafeo); Moni, an eager historian and Maui devotee (Hualālai Chung); and Keke, a curmugeonly elder farmer (David Fane). Alongside her loyal animal companions Pua and Heihei (Alan Tudyk), and the unexpected support of a Kakamora warrior, Moana charts a course across the ocean, following the trail of a comet towards Motufetu.
Where the first film brimmed with mythic resonance and a powerful personal journey, Moana 2 often feels a little adrift, carried along by the currents and eddies of familiar callbacks and reprises of the first movie. The addition of Moana’s younger sister Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) adds a familial dimension, but as she’s left behind for the duration of the adventure even she feels more like laying the groundwork for a Disney+ spin-off rather than an organic or necessary part of this story.
Perhaps most disappointing is the drop off in musical magic. The first Moana gave us a soundtrack that practically begged to be sung at full volume in the shower—a heady mix of anthems of self-empowerment and irresistible bops. But here? The songs, composed by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, feel trapped in the shallows. There’s a workmanlike quality to them, as though the strategy was to attempt to reverse-engineer Lin-Manuel Miranda’s iconic lyrical and musical flair to replicate the songs from the first one, only without quite grasping what made the originals soar. One track attempts to capture the boldness of “How Far I’ll Go” but feels more like a pleasant footnote than a showstopper and “Can I Get A Chee-Hoo” is a cravenly milquetoast reprise of “You’re Welcome”.
It’s hard not to be reminded of the late-nineties and early-2000s Disney sequels—those straight-to-video follow-ups that rarely retained much of the aesthetic flair of their predecessors and invariably never captured their soul. Moana 2 is certainly prettier and more polished than those bygone budget affairs, and it benefits from the return of its star-name cast, something its predecessors rarely had, but it shares their unmistakable sense of narrative downgrade. It’s as though the film is content to coast along the safe shipping lanes of familiarity rather than brave the unpredictable and uncharted waters of bold storytelling, especially when you’ve such a rich tapestry as Polynesian mythology to navigate. And with Moana 3 all but guaranteed by the mid-credits sequence, let’s hope Moana and her creative team can chart a bolder course next time around.
