Jeanine’s Review: “Moana 2”

Coming to theaters on November 27th, Moana 2 takes viewers back to Motunui for another adventure with wayfinder Moana, demigod Maui, and Hei Hei, the chicken who marches to the beat of a different drummer.

Moana 2 shows us a slightly more evolved Moana, now settled confidently into her role as wayfinder for her people and big sis to her new little sister Simea.  The one thing that eludes her, however, is the matter of where are all the other people?  In her visions, she repeatedly sees a vast number of ships traversing the seas, so it seems logical that there should be other people out there from other islands.  When she finally finds evidence pointing her towards an island that may be a nexus for ocean travelers, she must gird herself to go further away than ever before to search for it, with the risks of dooming her people to eventual extinction if she doesn’t, or never making it back to her family and island again if she does.

Moana 2 does a nice job replicating the general look of the Ron Clements/John Musker-directed original film, with the highly detailed ocean and island environments contrasting with the slightly caricature-esque people.  The music by relatively new songstresses Abigail Barlow & Emily Bear is tuneful enough, if lacking the immediate catchability of the first film’s Lin Manuel Miranda songs.

Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson return as Moana and Maui with all the charm and humor and pathos they brought to their first outing.  Their characters are three years older and wiser, and now united from the start with a strong bond of friendship and respect that supports them both through their trials.

To help out with this long voyage, Moana is accompanied by a handful of villagers from Motunui–Kele, a farmer, Loto, an engineer, and Moni, a historian/storyteller.  While the characters have some nice comedic moments, particularly the curmudgeonly Kele, they aren’t really developed to any large degree.  This seems likely due to the film’s initial origin as a streaming series for Disney+ before it got retooled into a feature film–it is easy to imagine that in a series, each character might have gotten their own episodes with larger story arcs that simply weren’t possible in a more compact format.  Fan favorite Pua gets to come along on the journey this time, but sadly the cute pig isn’t given much more to do than he would have if he stayed home.  Even Hei Hei is more contributory.

Ironically, one of the elements I thought was the most unessential in the original Moana was one of the most successful for me in Moana 2.  The kakamora, who previously seemed present only to give Moana a chance to show off her fighting skills, are now given a backstory and motivation that is arguably more compelling than anyone else’s.  With no dialogue, the chief and Kotu, the warrior that joins Moana, succeed in communicating their story and emotions perfectly, in a classic example of the magic of animation.

At the end of the day, Moana 2‘s strength is probably the same as its weakness, which is that it doesn’t stray too far from either the first film or the sequel pattern you find from Frozen 2, in which the characters are torn between answering their new Call to Adventure and preserving the peace they finally obtained from their last adventure.  A sequel in general has a hard balance to strike–too different and it seems like a disconnect from the original, but too similar and you lose the point of making another one.  Here, fans can have one more entertaining voyage with Moana, accompanied by some old and new faces, and perhaps learn along with her that people are stronger together–surely a message for the times.

Moana 2:  

Voice Cast:  Auli‘i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Hualālai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David
Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temuera Morrison, Nicole
Scherzinger, Rachel House, Gerald Faitala Ramsey, Alan Tudyk
Directed by:  Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller, David G. Derrick Jr.
Produced by:  Yvett Merino, Christina Chen
Executive produced by:  Jennifer Lee, Jared Bush and Dwayne Johnson
Original songs by:  Abigail Barlow & Emily Bear, Opetaia Foa‘i, Mark Mancina
Original score composed by:  Mark Mancina
Rating: PG, for action/peril
Playing: In theaters November 27, 2024