Disney’s Moana 2 stitches fragments of a cancelled TV show into a lackluster unit-of-entertainment

Courtesy Disney

Let’s start here: Moana 2 was initially meant to be a Disney+ series. This is helpful context to have in mind as you watch the sequel to the 2016 original, if only to temper your expectations. The follow up to Moana has nowhere near the same musical, dramatic and thematic richness of its predecessor, but it’s fine as bright, energetic entertainment for kids.

Following her adventures in the first movie, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) is now a wayfinder for her people, sailing around the ocean looking for evidence of tribes on other islands to connect with. When Moana finds evidence of an island hidden by a vengeful god, she sets out to break the god’s curse end her people’s isolation with the help of Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and three new crewmates — brainy shipwright Loto (Rose Matafeo), grumpy farmer Kele (David Fane) and eager bard Moni (Hualalai Chung). 

Visually, everything that made the first film distinct is still here, from elements that celebrate Pacific Islander culture to itty-bitty details like stray hair tufts hanging out of a ponytail that add stunning texture to the frame. The new character additions are fun and charming, particularly Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda as Moana’s plucky baby sister Simea.

Unfortunately, everything else here is relatively flattened and unmemorable. That’s what you get when you decide to turn a TV series into a movie simply by editing together the parts and smoothing over the seams. Moana 2 shows this the most in its episodic plot, with shortened arcs and simplified characters that work fine for a series of 30-ish minute episodes, but for a film feel truncated. 

Our heroes meet an intriguing bat demigod (Awhimai Fraser) who, after interacting with Moana and her friends, drops out of the story completely. A run-in with the first film’s Kakamora crew ends similarly; there’s a conflict, a quick resolution and then a side character who joins the quest. Apart from Maui and Moana, none of the other characters are very complex: Loto is smart and chatty, Moni is a Maui fanboy, Kele is scared of water. 

The songs are tonally similar to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s numbers in the first film, but none of them make the same impact. Instead of an emotional song like “How Far I’ll Go,” about yearning, potential and overcoming uncertainty, we get “Beyond,” a more confident song about pushing boundaries. Instead of “You’re Welcome,” a fun, jaunty introduction to Maui, a character who has to learn the value of humility and vulnerability, there’s “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” a lackluster tune that’s unironic in its muscular ego-boosting.

Courtesy Disney

Those songs point at another issue with Moana 2, one that adds to its sequel-y feeling and further belies its origins as a perfectly fine TV show turned into a film simply to make more money. Moana had such a strong impact because it was about a young woman gaining confidence, claiming her identity and testing herself with the help of strong connections to family, friends and cultural tradition. Moana 2 has a confusing relationship with independence versus interdependence, and our understanding of progress and growth. 

We’re told Moana’s island of Motonui must reconnect to the islands around it or it will die. We’re never told why that is (I suspect it might have something to do with inbreeding, but that’s not exactly Disney-appropriate). That all leads to an overall message with an uncomfortably Corporate America flavor: that humanity must keep advancing at all costs for its very survival. Were this a proper movie instead of smushed-together episodic adventures, we might have deeper, less troubling explorations of those ideas. 

Moana 2 is mostly benign family-friendly entertainment. However, it’s nowhere near the enduring quality of its original version, and its shortcomings are evident. Kids will notice none of the things I’ve mentioned above, and adults probably won’t care that much either. But not caring enough is why we have the world we have — one where we push bleakly ahead toward some unknown goal, leaving destruction in our wake. We deserve art that makes us stop and be present in our appreciation of it. Moana understood this. Moana 2 is just here to fill time.