Moana 2 (2024) is directed by Jason Hand & Dana Ledoux Miller and stars Auli’i Cravalho, Dawayne Johnson, Hualalai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, Alan Tudyk, Jemaine Clement, and Tofiga Fepulea’i. This sequel to the 2016 smash hit follows the titular hero (Cravahlo) as she embarks on a journey to save the magic island of Motufetu from sinking into the ocean. With the help of a ragtag team of local sailors and her old friend, Maui (Johnson), Moana once again embarks on a cross-ocean journey to save her people from sure doom. 

The performances from the returning cast are consistent with the first film. Cravalho provides Moana with a ton of heart while Johnson is once again effective comedic relief as Maui. The problem is, although their voice work is good, the characters are written much more poorly than in the first film. Instead of having realistic internal struggles, Moana is written to be annoyingly flawless. The only struggles she faces are external. Because of this, she never changes/develops as a character. It’s tough for a story/journey to feel meaningful when it doesn’t affect the characters. Concerning Maui, this problem is even worse. The script essentially just recycles his arc from the first film and relegates him to nothing more than comedic relief. Don’t get me wrong, Maui is great comedic relief, but jokes don’t feel like they should be his priority when considering that every character who isn’t Moana is also used solely for comedic relief. The cherry on top is that they don’t even include Maui (arguably the best character) until halfway through the film. 

I found myself enjoying the story element of Moana having to form a crew this time around; it feels like a natural next step in her sailing career. The problem is that the crew she forms consists of three characters who are either forgettable or unbearably annoying. I can’t for the life of me understand why the writers would think that characters this silly and stupid would be entertaining to watch. Supposedly these are the best crew members that Moana could find, but it’s hard to believe she couldn’t find one who isn’t mentally unhinged.

The film features a pervasively uplifting tone that’s grating even for a kid movie. For example, the film is scared to paint anyone as a true villain even when it feels natural. Every villain just has to receive their little redemption moment in ways that feel studio-mandated as opposed to crowd-pleasing. This feeling of corporatization also extends to the music, one of the best aspects of the first film. Although none of the songs here are particularly horrible, they’re not memorable either. There’s not a single track that made me tap my foot. It wreaks of songwriters who didn’t have enough time to write some true bangers. How these songs are integrated into the story also feels less natural. Again, it feels like a board or producers told the filmmakers they had to feature a song every 15 minutes whether it’s warranted or not. 

The animation looks great once again – the characters are effectively cute and quirky. The thing is, it’s not much of a step up visually from the first film which was released in 2016. After almost a decade, I expected the visuals to take a step up regardless of how good they were in the first movie. 

Overall, this is an extremely disappointing sequel that has little to offer other than shamelessly repeating the same beats as the first film. The songs are forgettable, the jokes fall flat, and the characters never change/develop. It’s inevitably worse than the first movie, but it’s action-packed and whimsical enough to satisfy most kids and diehard fans of that movie. Anyone else will struggle to overcome how much of a cynical cash grab it ends up feeling like. I don’t like it, but I don’t particularly hate it. In fact, I’ve already kind of forgotten it. C-