Moana 2 Review: A Disappointing Sequel to a Beloved Classic

Leo Josse ’28 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer 

Ugh. This is a disappointing one. It’s not at all unexpected, but it still stings. Moana 2 is just simply put, incredibly mid. It technically hits all the points a good narrative should hit, but it does that all so shallowly and without much clarity. It lacks all the charm, creative flair, and originality that the first movie just oozes with. 

This is not a surprising disappointment for me for a multitude of reasons. But the biggest reason is that this movie was not supposed to be a movie. It was originally being developed as a Disney+ original. But after the recent box office failures of movies like Strange World and Wish (which I didn’t see because I heard they were not good), Disney panicked and decided they needed a safe money maker. So they saw this Moana TV series being developed and were like, this! People love Moana! This will make lots of money!! So they took that TV show and squished it into a feature-length film. 

Their box office expectations are coming to fruition. Moana 2 is a box office behemoth, affirming the studio’s intentions to continue manipulating art to make the most profit, regardless of quality. I feel bad rooting for this movie not to do well because many hard-working people put their blood, sweat, and tears into it, but it mustn’t do well for the benefit of our movie business. Money talks, and we must tell Disney that this lack of care for proper artistry and storytelling will not be tolerated. 

The music has caught a lot of flack on the internet, and while yes, it is nowhere near the quality of Lin Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece that is the first movie, it’s not all bad. I quite like the villain song—I don’t even know if this character can be considered a villain but I’ll get into that later. It had a bit of a unique flair that gave it some personality. I also liked Moana’s I Want song— though it’s unclear what she wanted. The two versions of that song that played in the film were ok at best, but I did enjoy the end-credit version. Maybe that’s because they released it a few weeks before the movie came out and I’ve been able to get used to it, but I would be lying if I said that version of the song isn’t on my Disney playlist. When it comes to the rest of the soundtrack, it’s not great. I don’t want to blame Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear for this—the songwriters who took over for Miranda, as I don’t believe it’s on them. The songs aren’t good because they sound like they’re desperately trying to be Miranda’s songs. My guess as to what happened is when Disney couldn’t get him to work on this movie—likely because he was already knee-deep in Mufasa: The Lion King—they turned to Barlow and Bear, who are relative newcomers that they felt they could pressure into just trying to replicate Miranda’s style. “Can I Get a Chee Hoo” is the perfect example of this problem. It sounds like it’s trying to be the new “You’re Welcome,” but it doesn’t have the authentic feel that makes “You’re Welcome” so effortlessly charming. I hope Barlow and Bear can focus their next project on identifying their unique musical sound. I haven’t listened to The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical but I’d be curious to hear what they did there. I’m always rooting for new artists to uniquely define themselves, not just put into the boxes of the people who came before them. 

Spoilers ahead.

Here’s where we get to the catalyst of this movie’s issues. Because the story is a crunch of a television show, the plot and characters feel very underdeveloped. This film decides to introduce many new characters, and I couldn’t tell you any of their names or anything about them—besides maybe one basic trait for each, as that’s all the movie gives you. It’s clear that in a 10-episode arc, each character would have space to be fleshed out, but here they feel like caricatures designed to sell toys. I mentioned the villain song, and how I couldn’t determine if this character was a villain. At the beginning of the narrative, she’s played very much as the villain, and even when Moana meets her she’s still played this way. It isn’t until during/after the song that it becomes a bit more up in the air, which would be fine except the movie never returns to her—until a mid-credits scene that doesn’t do any explaining itself. She had the best song and even was a slightly interesting character, and the movie just completely gives up on her after acts 1 and 2. I didn’t even find Moana or Maui compelling here either. I could only connect to them because I already had in the first movie. Both characters are stripped of their personal drive that the first movie perfectly baked into the narrative. In the first movie, not only are there world-ending stakes, but Moana has a personal connection to the water. She wants to explore. She wants to see how far she can go. Here, all that personality is stripped completely, leaving only the world-ending stakes to remain. Maui too, only joins the clan around halfway through the movie, and he also has no clear individual motive. The movie tries to have emotional moments in its climax, but none of the emotion lands because there aren’t any characters to build it off of. The best we get is Moana having a sister and wanting to protect her, but it’s not strong enough because her tie to her sister wouldn’t be affected any differently by her actions in this movie. Maybe it would be cliche, but if the movie reframed the plot where in the beginning, because of Moanas new role as a Wayfinder, the gods capture her sister and Moana is forced to go on a journey to rescue her, this movie would have been 10 times better. Sure, the story may be cliche, but there would be emotion. There would be personal stakes outside of this world-ending threat. Also, on the topic of stakes, this movie uses the fake-out-death trope three different times. First, it’s with one of the random crewmates, then Maui, and finally Moana herself. I audibly laughed in the theater when they tried to convince us Moana had died because after two fake-out deaths already—the Maui one having happened not even a minute before, the stakes had completely evaporated. All the time spent grieving Moana felt completely pointless. 

This movie leaves us with some interesting places for future Moana installments. At the end of the film, Moana becomes a wayfinding demigod—she gets powers and tattoos and is off to continue her search for others after having found a few moments before. It’s unfortunate that the most interesting aspect of this movie is what it sets up for the future. Franchise movies need to stop worrying so much about what’s coming next and return to focusing on what’s happening now. We’ve seen it with Marvel, Star Wars, and practically every modern franchise. 

Moana 2 is a disappointing sequel to a beloved classic. I am still very invested in the world of Moana—although I’m not very optimistic about the upcoming live-action version. If—and knowing Disney, when Moana eventually arrives on the stage scene such as Broadway or the West End, I will be first in line. But looking to the future of this story, if Disney wants to make a Moana 3, I say go ahead. But don’t greenlight it until there’s a solid story with a solid emotional drive—that doesn’t start as a TV show. Also, sorry Barlow and Bear, but let’s bring Lin Manuel Miranda back.