I hadnt heard too much fanfare about ‘Moana 2’ ahead of checking it out, which is usually a pretty good indicator that it likely wasnt to be as captivating as the original. Indeed my feelings towards this film only grew more concerning when I learnt that this film only exists *as* a film because originally it was intended to be a 6 part ‘exclusive’ Disney+ series, till the funding got cut on the project, and essentially they had to take what they’d animated already, mush it together into a playdoh style ball of scraps and animate a few bridging pieces to help smooth it all over into an ‘as consistent as possible’ feature experience.
The film returns us to ‘the island’ and Moana is exploring the unexplored as a newly minted ‘wayfinder’ only, while checking out the smaller islands surrounding her home, she stumbles on a broken pot with artwork depicting a massive island under the stars, on returning home she learns that this Island was previously a waypoint for all the other islands in the surrounding area to mix and mingle and share in the joy and joy and joyness of each other, before a vengeful god took his anger out on humanity, sinking the island and putting deadly lightning tornado storms in the surrounding area to prevent the various islanders from ever interacting again. Its said that if a human ever sets foot on the island again, that the curse of the gods will be broken and a new age of prosperity will reign.
Cue, Moana; who puts together a ragtag band of generically likeable eccentrics to go on a great voyage with her to find Maoi (whos been trapped by the gods), dredge the island back to the surface and restore the great collaboration of the islands. or die trying.
Honestly? this kind of smacked of ‘background movie’ fodder to me. Something that was inoffensive enough to have on in the background while your doing something more interesting, but absolutely NOT something you’d put your full attention into.
Across the board it just felt like they were simultaineously trying too hard to force a sequel that, at this point, I feel didnt need to exist, while banking HEAVILY on people remembering the last film fondly.
As such you have a script thats trying to force the feeling of adventure and whimsy, that ALSO just CAN NOT help itself in making callback gags, follow up gags to the first film, or just…flat out recycling jokes and references from the last film. and I felt at multiple points across the runtime of this film the cold clammy grip of a corporation on my shoulder trying to usher me into feeling charitable and ‘on board’ with something I had absolutely no such feelings toward.
The script itself feels overly generic, the pacing is wonky, with the opening act once again taking an absolute age to get going, only this time its into a 2nd act that feels like a rushed hodge podge of ideas and random vignettes that didnt feel particularly well curated, and then finally we get dumped into a finale that felt rushed, and reductionist by comparison to the previous film.
The characters all felt kind of closer to ‘tools’ that people, the old guy Moana brings along with her is essentially reduced to just being grumpy and mild comic relief, he does basically nothing else for the whole thing. Maoi feels a lot less central to the plot, as does Moana…in fact, thats probably a big issue with this film really, it feels less like the characters driving the narrative, and more like the narrative throwing things at the characters and them just neutrally being pulled through it. Theres no stakes, no real development, and the rewards our characters get after going on this heroic journey feel inconsiquential and kind of bizarre given that the stakes (in my opinion) were significantly higher in the last movie.
While the art direction and animation are still fairly strong here, theres nothing really that ‘one ups’ the first films style and creative flow, the performances are fine enough, but again have a slightly unpleasent corporate ‘we’re here for the money’ vibe to it, the songs arnt as catchy or memorable as the first film, and theres WAY too many of them and they drag on for WAY too long.
All in all? Moana 2 is a sequel. and probably the most sequelliest sequal it could have tried to be. While there are a handful of genuinely fun and sincere moments across the full runtime, they are painfully few and far between and in every other regard this film is poorer than the original. Definitely not essential, if you or your kids enjoyed the first film, this is basically just more of the same, but less good. If you think you can live with that, then have at it.
TYTD Reviews 