Eight years after the premiere of the original film, Disney released Moana 2, the sequel to the story of everyone’s favorite wayfinder. Both movies follow Moana, the daughter of her island’s chief, who doesn’t exactly flow with the customs her people have established. Moana wishes to explore, leave the island, and get back to the roots of her ancestors as sailors, or, as they’re often called, wayfinders.
I am the original Moana’s self-proclaimed biggest fan. From the songs to the characters to the story, it’s utter perfection. Understandably, I went into watching this movie with high expectations and unfortunately, they weren’t exactly met. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good movie, just nowhere as fantastic as the first.
To start off, the songs were mediocre. I didn’t have any of them stuck in my head after the fact, and honestly, the only one I really remember at all is “Get Lost,” sung by Awhimai Fraser. In my opinion, the movie tried to follow the formula of the first one too closely. Moana starts off by singing a ballad about having to leave her home, as she did in the first movie with “How Far I’ll Go.” Then later, a villain-type character has a solo, Moana featuring “Shiny” (my personal favorite song) and Moana 2 featuring “Get Lost.”
Now onto the characters. Obviously, our favorites from the first movie, Moana, Maui, Hei Hei, and Gramma Tala make an appearance, as well as Tamatoa, the giant crab, in the after-credit scene, but of course there will be some new additions. I for one really enjoyed that Pua, Moana’s pet pig, went along on the journey this time around. Also, Moana’s relationship with her little sister, Simea, was super cute and I thought it added a bit of differentiation in Moana’s motives between the first and second movies.
However, I didn’t exactly love the others on the journey. Moana chooses three people from her island to bring with her on this expedition: Kele, a wise but grumpy old farmer; Loto, an inventor who must always be improving her creations; and Moni, an expert on Motunui (Moana’s island) legends and a superfan of Maui. To me, these characters got more in the way than helping Moana. Towards the end, they did a bit more to help, but still, not enough to be necessary on the journey.
Finally, the story was a bit lacking in my opinion. It was a good idea; I just don’t think it was executed in the best way possible. I think this could be because Moana 2 was originally intended to be a series on Disney+ instead of a movie, so they had to condense the story to be conveyed from multiple episodes into a movie less than 2 hours long. To me, the story didn’t flow as well as the first movie. It was a little jumpier, not exactly transitioning from scene to scene well.
Overall, I’d say Moana 2 was mediocre. It was entertaining, but definitely not as good as the first movie. However, my 78-year-old grandfather who only saw the beginning and the end, sleeping through the rest, highly enjoyed it. The singers were amazing and of course Moana and Maui stayed as the saving graces, but my final rating would be a 5.8/10.
