Film Review - Moana 2 (2024)

Moana 2 is the new Disney Animation film (though it was originally going to be a streaming series on Disney Plus before being retooled to become a film) and once again sees Auli Cravalho as Moana once again exploring the seas around her home island and one day she finds out about a cursed island that if freed from its curse could reunite the vast waters of her home and so with a gallant crew she sets sail to break the spell with the help of the Demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson.)

Moana 2 is not a bad movie per se but the more I’ve let it sit in my mind since seeing it it is also one that I wish was so much better than it is, the film has some good animation and action moments especially in the third act climax and Cravalho and Johnson still play off well together as Moana and Maui and there is some good humour in there as well.

But the films storytelling suffers from the change from a streaming series to a feature film as the first half of the film is a mess where it feels like so many scenes and character moments and storyline development is on fast forward as it goes by so quickly it feels like the film is rushing through all of this stuff to cram it all in under a 2 hour runtime and at times it felt like whiplash as the moments are here were clearly meant to be their own streaming episodes before being cut and pasted together in this movie edit version of the story.

Eventually the second half of the film finds its rhythm and pace much better but I also can’t help but feel that the second half probably would’ve been the last episode or 2 of that abandoned Moana streaming series as that feels the most coherent and connected in terms of its storytelling and character work and action climax.

And as someone who loves Disney Animation so much it feels disappointing that fans are served up this when other studios who for a long time I felt were the ones who were not delivering the goods like Disney used to with their films are now setting the standard I mean recently we’ve had:

- Transformers One
- The Wild Robot
- The 2 Sonic films
- The 2 Paddington films
- The Despicable Me series

And all of those listed above have set the standard in my eyes in family entertainment on the big screen and Disney between this movie and Wish and Strange World and Encanto just aren’t measuring up anymore and I can’t help but think that Disney as a studio has become so big that it can’t fail and also so fearful of upsetting anyone that their not taking the swings and the risks that a leaner and more tightly focused studio like Paramount and Universal and StudioCanal are and I know thus movie will probably make a lot of money but sooner or later Disney will no longer be able to play it safe and will have to start taking some risks and swings again.

And it also doesn’t help that this movie is opening only a week after Wicked which like the other family movies I listed above is delivering the kind of musical/family movie magic that Disney used to excel at and that film isn’t afraid to wear its politics on its sleeve, develop a proper villain, have strong musical numbers and work for young and old audiences alike as well as take its time to properly tell its story within a films runtime requirements and this movie just isn’t good enough.

And that is how I feel about Moana 2 it isn’t a bad movie but it’s simply not good enough anymore, CIC (Paramount and Universal’s umbrella holder here in Australia during the 80s and 90s) and StudioCanal are delivering much better in this space and Disney has to shed its bloated size and get back into shape if its going to get back on top again as this kind of “it’s good enough” mentality has to stop especially when movie going is as expensive as it is right now, 2 out of 5.