Moana 2: Will Disney Learn All The Wrong Lessons From This Lackluster Sequel?

Will the success of Moana 2 lead towards a dark moment for Disney Animation?

I have seen every single Disney theatrical animated movie. The Disney canon is one of the biggest reasons why I even got into film in the first place. Movies like Fantasia, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King are genuine pieces of art. Movies that aren’t only for kids but families, movies that anyone from any age can resonate with. The best Disney movies are the ones that you understand the older you get. This is why the notorious phrase Disney Adult even exists in the firs place. People like Disney because at their best, their movies make you feel good and challenge you to be better.

There has been a trend of people, specifically in the last few years that have started to turn on Disney as a company. Some for notorious political reasons but others for believing that Disney is selling out, caring more about its profits than the films they create. I always thought people over exaggerated this aspect of the Disney company, that is until this year where I started to see the trends as well. With massive pushes to a streaming service that lost them millions of dollars, Disney is pushing so much content in our face to make up revenue that they are participating in quantity over quality. When you cannot generate buzz for a new Star Wars show when just nine years ago The Force Awakens became the top grossing domestic movie of all time, you know there’s trouble.

Moana 2 follows up two of Disney’s biggest animated bombs in recent history. Wish and Strange World are subpar Disney, bottom ten in their film canon in my opinion. Neither one of these movies engaged audiences or critics and have been mostly forgotten about at this point. CEO of Disney Bob Iger at this point wanted a guaranteed hit. This is where Moana 2 was born. Moana 2 wasn’t an idea of a movie until this year, where this Spring we got poster saying it would come out in November. People were pretty baffled by the fast turn around. That is when it was discovered that Moana 2 was supposed to be a straight for streaming TV show that was condensed to become a theatrical feature film. This isn’t the kiss of death for a movie. Toy Story 2 was originally supposed to be a direct to DVD sequel that then got brought to theatres after it’s strong test screenings. David Lynch’s surrealist opus Mulholland Drive originated as a failed ABC TV Pilot (also canned by Bob Iger when he was the head of ABC in the early 2000’s). While I remained skeptical, maybe there was a chance that Moana 2 would be the movie to get Disney back on their feet again. With the successful and very good Inside Out 2 coming out just this summer - maybe Disney did know how to craft a meaningful sequel to a recent classic.

The movie is about another quest Moana must go on, to go to the far seas of Oceania when being called to do so by her way finding ancestors - for some reason. She has to build a new team, for some reason, to join her on her quest. Also, for some reason, Maui is back as well. If you can’t tell from the way I’m describing this plot, this movie is incredibly clunky. What Moana 2 suffers from is a terrible screenplay. This movie has rising action, a climax, and falling action and resolution in its barest form. Things simply just happen to get you there, with no real substance along the way. There’s talent on the screen here. Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson reprise their roles and are good at what they do. The animators here are the true stars of the picture. The movie looks absolutely gorgeous, it’s some of the most beautiful and color CGI animation I’ve seen on the big screen yet. Some of the shots are just breathtaking, and then a character opens their mouth and ruins the moment.

The first Moana, one of the last truly great Disney films in my opinion, felt like a sprawling epic in its own right. It had swelling music, genuine scale, heart and moments where the characters grew as people. It had moments of reflection - quiet moments that took in the beauty of the world the filmmakers had crafted. It seems like in Moana 2, they decide to get rid of any of the awe that made the first Moana so compelling and make a movie just to entertain kids for ninety minutes. At least in Strange World and Wish, they were trying but failing to emote. Moana 2 is the first Disney theatrical movie I can genuinely say was made for the same intentions they make Cocomelon, to distract kids. It is not in any other way engaging to an older audience, which is such a disappointment.

Moana 2 introduces us to a bunch of new characters. Early in the movie, Moana’s mother insists she needs to build a crew to go with her on this adventure. In this single moment, her mother’s advice ruined the movie. Every character on this crew is a comic relief and that is it. There is no deeper pathos written for any of them. Not only that, the comic relief they provide is more tedious than funny. I don’t think a single moment in this movie made me laugh. Bua, a fat pig, introduced in the first ten minutes of the movie is the one thing in the movie that made me chuckle.

Lin Manuel Miranda did not return to do the songs here and it shows. No disrespect to the people who did the music for the film here - but the songs feel like shallow renditions of the originals. The power ballad, Beyond, and Maui’s rap in the film have almost the same chord progressions as How Far I’ll Go and You’re Welcome, songs from the first film. They also make references to the original songs throughout the movie. There were moments in these songs I just fully expected them to bail on the new song and refer back to the original, because it’s close enough. I’d argue in Frozen 2 the song Show Yourself, while not the phenomenon that Let it Go was is actually a more powerful and complex song that builds upon themes of the original film.

There is a case study to be made here. When I first watched Frozen 2 I wasn’t a fan of the film because I didn’t like the ending of it. While I still have issues with the ending of that film, I’ve come to love the rest of the film. I’d genuinely say it’s one of the better Disney films to come out of recent memory that actually raises the stakes of the first film and have our characters grow and evolve as people. You know - basic storytelling stuff but done so effectively well. Moana 2 has none of that. Moana is brave and cool now and she ends the movie brave and cool. She doesn’t have anything resembling an actual arc. There’s a random musical number where a woman sings about her “getting lost to find her way” that I thought might have led to something interesting thematically but that plot thread gets lost in needless slapstick and uninspired action set pieces. It feels like an extended episode of a TV Show, because that is exactly what it is.

However, despite my critiques the film is doing quite well financially. This scares me. As I’m writing this, it was said that it made 13 million dollars on its opening night. This is a record for Walt Disney Animation and only second place for animated movies overall after the 18 million opening of Incredibles 2 back in 2018 (another movie I didn’t care for). It’s not that I don’t want Disney to succeed, I do. I just don’t want Disney to take the wrong lessons away from the success of this film and continue to make lackluster sequels that create revenue on brand name alone.

We will see as it competes with the much more acclaimed and buzzed about Wicked how it continues to perform at the box office this holiday season. It looks like Disney will make the money it wanted to, which makes this a success in their eyes. As a piece of art however, I think it fails to truly engage in any way. It’s watchable and kids will be entertained by it. I expect more from the bare minimum from Disney at this point. Especially when their competition at Dreamworks are making movies like The Wild Robot and Puss in Boots The Last Wish, movies that are masterfully crafted, engaging for all ages and resonate on an emotional level. As a lifelong Disney fan and supporter, it feels weird to live in an era where I’m more interested in the filmography coming out of Dreamworks than I am of Disney. I just hope and pray that maybe when Disney feels like they are more financially stable (whatever that means for the multi billion dollar conglomerate) they will take chances on ambitious original films again and pay their workers better wages. One can hope.