I’ve probably seen the first Moana at least 50 times. I can sing most of Maui’s ‘You’re Welcome’ song verbatim and can recite the punch lines of almost every joke. With two little girls in my house, it’s still in their top 10 movies they continue to watch. Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the film is really fun and it was a huge hit. So, Moana 2 was pretty much a no-brainer. And while this one is still enjoyable, there are a few, “why’d they do that?” moments.
Set a few years later after the original, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho, always good) is visited by a wayfinding ancestor, telling her that she needs to find a long lost island to help reunite members from long lost communities. If she’s not successful, her people will no longer exist.
Quickly setting out on the seas of Oceania, she’s accompanied by Loto (Rose Matafeo), Moni (Hualālai Chung) and Kele (David Fane), along with Pua and Heihei (Alan Tudyk), to solve the mystery and find the island. Soon, Maui (Dwayne Johnson, a welcome kick of energy) joins the crew, helping them in their quest.
One of the things that was great about the first movie is that Moana was the one who set things in motion. It was her story. When Maui arrived, even though he was a demi-god, he was able to help show the audience how strong she was, with or without his help. For some reason, screenwriters Jared Bush (returning from the first one) and Dana Ledoux Miller, decided that they needed more characters to help with her journey. But, they do nothing to further the story, they just get in the way and honestly, they’re kind of annoying. Moana is either helping to save them or trying to get them to stop causing damage to one thing or another.
There were one or two catchy songs, which were written by Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear, Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina, but the rest were mostly forgettable. I mean how do you top Lin-Manuel Miranda? It’s a difficult task. And even though Johnson can’t sing, Miranda realized that and still turned ‘You’re Welcome’ into one of the best songs of that film. The song he sings here, Mana Vavau, feels way off and out of time, like he’s trying to catch up with the music.
The animation does look fantastic. The water is crystal clear blue and the colors throughout the whole film pop off the screen. It’s almost photo-realistic and some of the best I’ve ever seen.
Moana now has a younger sister, Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) who is cute as a button and there is another set of characters called Kakamora who will no doubt sell like hotcakes at Disneyland.
The ending is satisfying, except that Maui and Moana don’t get an ending scene. There’s no goodbye or ‘smell ya later’, which I thought was weird.
But why take it from me, here’s what my daughters, Ella (7) and Sadie (5), had to say about it:
Sadie: I liked the little sister and the songs. The scariest part of the movie was when Moana fell into the ocean. And my favorite part was when Maui turned into a shark. It was really funny.
Ella: I liked everything about the movie. I liked that she went on a new adventure and I loved the songs and the new coconut characters.
