Moana 2

Release Date: November 21, 2024

Watch Date: March 15, 2025

“Walt Disney Animation Studios’ epic animated musical ‘Moana 2’ reunites (voice of Auli’i Cravalho) and Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson) three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.”

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We had to watch this as soon as it came on Disney+ because our daughter is a major Moana mood right now, and honestly I think the Moana from the first film is probably one of the better Disney princesses to emulate, if you’re going to emulate one, so why wouldn’t I encourage us watching a second Moana?

But, it was kind of disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong, our daughter loved it. Loved it. Obsessed with it. Wanted all the songs on her Spotify playlist, and that’s awesome, I’m so happy for her. She deserves to have a princess that she loves, much the same way I felt with Ariel and Belle. And Moana is a good princess. She’s self sufficient, she sees the best in people, she loves the ocean (which is points for me), she’s kind to animals (though that’s really all princesses), she’s a great leader and she doesn’t need a romantic love interest to come save her or be her foil. If your daughter is going to obsess over a Disney character, there’s worse ones to pick.

But the songs weren’t as good as the first one, where every single one was a banger. The plot isn’t as compelling. The character that should be the villain ends up not being the villain pretty quickly, and the true villain isn’t really felt or seen or appears to have much impact at all until the final scenes and the after credit sequence (and who needed an after credit sequence in Moana, why are we making this a trilogy?)

My biggest complaint, really, is the additional characters. I get it, you need to bring something fresh and new to a show. But they don’t get enough screen time, they don’t add enough to the plot or enough friction to make them motivations for Moana or Maui, not really. Other than Moni, I don’t even remember their names. And Moni isn’t even my favorite, the old guy was. One of my favorite things about the original film is how it wasn’t afraid to show empty to space. To have large chunks of the film where dialogue was between two characters and all that was on screen was them and the ocean and the sky. There’s none of that bravery in this film. It’s all colors, it’s all movement, it’s all quips from background characters.

Like I said, however, the kids loved it. They loved all of it. Maybe I’m aging out of Disney princess movies, or Disney princess movies are aging out of me?

By no means I’m not saying don’t give this a watch, it’s not a bad film. it just doesn’t feel like it has the magic of Moana any more, and if that was something you found really special, like I did, you’re bound to be disappointed.