Movie Review: Moana 2

According to data recently released by Nielsen, Walt Disney Animation’s original Moana is far and away the most streamed movie of the last year. Not only that, it’s also the most streamed movie of the past FIVE YEARS. Across ALL services. It’s a charming film with wonderful music by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and it was certainly a hit when it released back in 2016, though not the studio’s biggest, which makes its recent surge in popularity a bit of a surprise. It does however explain why Disney decided to take their planned sequel streaming series and convert it into a theatrical film. If kids were spending that many hours watching the first movie over and over at home, surely they’d head to the movies to watch a sequel, an assertion that has proven overwhelmingly correct.

Moana 2 picks up three years after the events of the first film, and Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) has fully grown into her role as her tribe’s wayfinder, spending her days exploring the nearby islands and sending out signals in the hopes that one day other people might respond. After being struck by lightning she has a vision in which one of her ancestors tells her that she needs to find and raise the lost island of Motufetu, which once functioned as a central hub that connected the various peoples of Oceania and is now cursed by the angry storm god Nalo. With her tribe’s blessing, she assembles a crew and heads out to sea, following a shooting star as the vision foretold.

Meanwhile, Maui (Dwayne Johnson) is being held captive by Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), but resists calling for Moana’s help for fear that she won’t survive the encounter and instead tries to work out an escape on his own. But fate and plot necessities have different plans and soon enough their paths cross once again.

Much like the first film, Moana 2 is stunning to look at, filled with vibrant colors and lush tropical imagery. The voice cast once again do great work, fully bringing the characters to life and committing to the songs. Unfortunately, aside from a pair of exceptions, said songs can’t really live up to Miranda’s work in the original. Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa’i give it their Broadway best, but the lyrics are largely mediocre and the melodies, while not bad, only feel memorable in “We’re Back” and “Beyond”.

The script is equally middling, sometimes borrowing ideas wholesale from the original, but perhaps its most egregious sin is the introduction of Moana’s terribly selected crew who serve as more of an irksome hindrance than anything else, so much so that Maui even comments on it in one of the few jokes that actually works. That said, it does all come together in a thrilling finale sequence that is pulled off so spectacularly that many of the story’s flaws are quickly forgotten.

This one is firmly made with kids in mind, and they will have a blast with this movie. It’s not the best family film of the year, but it gets the job done, with enough thrills, juvenile humor, and sweet moments to keep the little ones glued to their seats, while also smartly throwing in a character for the youngest audience members to relate to in Moana’s little sister Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda). It doesn’t quite capture the magic of the first movie, but few sequels ever do, and it’s certainly good enough that it will wind up on repeat in many households over the coming years. ★★★