It’s somewhat surprising, given the studio’s history of exploiting their own intellectual properties for all they’re worth, that sequels to their animated features haven’t been a staple of Disney’s theatrical tradition (with the notable exception of 1990’s The Rescuers Down Under). Of course, Disney has produced a great many direct-to-video sequels to its animated classics — but you didn’t see The Return of Jafar or Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp’s Adventure in a theater near you. That’s changed somewhat in recent years, perhaps due to the success of Pixar sequels like Toy Story 2, 3, and 4, Finding Dory, and Monsters University, and certainly due to a larger trend of IP regurgitation.
The wildly successful Frozen was the first of Disney’s animated musicals to receive the sequel treatment with 2019’s Frozen II, a surprisingly strong follow-up that both expanded the world and deepened the characters without simply giving viewers a retread of what the first film had already delivered. The runaway popularity of Moana (2016) made it the next logical candidate for a sequel, especially considering the wayfinding spirit of its protagonist. Unfortunately, Moana 2 falls far short of both the original and the recent standard for Disney musical sequels set by Frozen II.
Moana 2 actually began its life as a Disney+ series — and those streaming origins are fairly apparent. The quality of the animation is undeniably strong, but the songs this time around are bland and unmemorable — far from the same quality as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s offerings in the original Moana. This time, the story follows a familiar trajectory, as our titular heroine (Auliʻi Cravalho) reunites with demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) to follow a mysterious call from across the waves. Their destination: yet another strange island that Moana must free from the curse of a vengeful god in order to reunite the peoples of the ocean.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because the whole of Moana 2 is a nearly beat-for-beat retread of the original. This might be enough to keep the film’s target audience of kiddos entertained, but adults are more likely to find the blatant laziness of conceit dull and unimaginative to sit through. Had Disney stayed in the streaming series lane with this, the project would have likely been just cute enough in its limited form to cut the mustard with audiences of all ages, but in its promotion to the big leagues of silver screen feature filmmaking, Moana 2 feels woefully out of its depth. That said, the film will likely still be a massive hit — Moana remains a popular property, and this sequel just scored the biggest opening weekend for an animated film ever, so clearly, Disney’s move from streaming to the big screen was the right one financially. Both films dropped into theaters with the enviable Thanksgiving release date, but where Moana offered viewers a pleasing, filling meal, Moana 2 is very clearly that film’s reheated leftovers. Both the franchise and viewers deserve better than these scraps.
DIRECTOR: David G. Derrick Jr., David Hand, & Dana Ledoux Miller; CAST: Auli’i Carvahlo, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Tudyk, Nicole Scherzinger; DISTRIBUTOR: Walt Disney Pictures; IN THEATERS: November 27; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 40 min.
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