The Media Man Reviews: Moana 2

It still baffles me that I'm actually in this situation right now.

Like everybody else, here I was, minding my own business one day when suddenly, Disney comes out of nowhere and announces without warning "Hey, we're releasing a Moana sequel! Come watch!" And all I could say was "Say, whaaaaaaaat?!"

Yeah, back in February, the world was taken by surprise when Disney announced, with practically ZERO hints that such a thing was happening, that a sequel to their 2016 cult classic Moana was coming out. Needless to say, that threw us all for a loop. Just who was expecting a Moana sequel anytime soon, let alone this year?

What's crazier still is the story behind this sudden sequel. Apparently, Moana 2 started off in production as a TV series, but was then re-worked into a theatrical sequel instead. Great, now we're back in the age of direct-to-video Disney sequels in where we had ideas for TV series that got re-worked into movies such as Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World and Atlantis 2: Milo's Return. That's definitely not a sign we're in for something mediocre, right guys? :/ Goes to show the more things change, the more things stay the same...

For those who may be curious, I have seen Moana. I was there watching it back in 2016 when it come out in cinemas. While I don't think Moana is the best movie Disney has ever made due to a very formulaic story that makes for a relatively uninteresting plot, the gorgeous animation, the charming characters and the infectiously catchy soundtrack makes it enjoyable to watch in spite of its weak story, and it's easy to see why Moana has become one of Disney's most beloved movies they made in the 2010's decade alongside Wreck-It-Ralph, Frozen and Zootropolis. While Moana wasn't the box office giant that Zootropolis was in 2016, the film's popularity really grew over time, especially on streaming, and now Moana is often hailed up there with the Disney greats such as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, Snow White and many more. It's especially been featured a lot in Disney on Ice shows. So as sudden as this movie was, I think we should've seen it coming in hindsight.

So, did Moana show how far she'll go in this movie? Or did she end up lost at sea trying to find a good sequel to tell her story in? Let's ride the waves and sail into Moana 2...

Section 1: The Story

The story is about everyone's favourite sea-fearing Wayfinder, Moana, as she travels the ocean to try and find signs of life outside of Motunui. However, just as she gets promoted, she sees a vision from her ancestor that tells her she needs to break the curse of the god Nalo so that people of the ocean can find each other again. With a ragtag group of seafarers by her side and her demi-god pal Maui, Moana has to brave the waves once again, or else her people's story will end...

When I saw the trailers for this movie, the first thing I noticed is that the plot is incredibly similar, if not outright the same as Frozen II. What do I mean by this? The plot involves our heroes receiving a call from somebody that brings them into new territory where they have to face dangers in order to bring peace back to their people and end a curse that was placed on the land they visit. Hell, the antagonist of the movie is a force of nature just like in Frozen II! It's staggering how much the plot is a copy-paste of that movie, which is a bad idea because the story was Frozen II's weakest aspect! Of all the movies to rip-off, you rip-off the sequel to Frozen that didn't even have a good story to begin with? Why?! If you're going to copy another movie's plot Disney, then pick a good one!

OK, so the plot's copy-pasted from another movie, does that make it bad? No, of course not. It's all about execution. Lots of movies have similar plots, and yet some are better than others because of how they're handled. So how was this movie handled? Not very well. Not only is the story note-for-note the same as Frozen II's, but if you take that out of the equation, it's not a good story in its own right. The biggest issue I have with the story is how it feels like it was written by an overly passionate Moana fan. What do I mean? The film is INFESTED with constant call-backs and meta humour relating to the first movie. It's like the most recurring joke the movie tells us is "Hey, remember this from the original?" Yes Disney, we do remember it, referencing the original doesn't make your story any better! It just feels like Disney has no faith in the movie to handle its own story and thinks relying on nostalgia pandering and little nods to its predecessor will distract the viewer from how poor the writing is and make them think it's good because "Hurr, hurr, it's like in the original!". Well it didn't work on me Disney. I can still see that the story is mediocre. =P

I also hate how the movie keeps having characters act like antagonists, only they turn out not to be antagonists after all. The Kakamora and Matangi are the guilty culprits of this. Both of them have scenes where they show up, antagonize our heroes and are clearly meant to be the villains our heroes have to face, only they turn out not to be villains and actually aid our heroes in their quest instead. So, all this does is have me screaming in frustration "THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL THEM THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE INSTEAD OF ACTING NEEDLESSLY ANTAGONISTIC TOWARDS THEM?!" It's like Zinnia in the Delta Episode of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in where she causes unnecessary conflict for our heroes by acting like the villain of the story, only for it to be a "surprising twist" when it turns out she's actually a good guy, it's just terrible writing and makes your story seem confused over if these characters are meant to be the villains or not! JUST MAKE THEM VILLAINS OR DON'T! It's not rocket science...

Another problem with the story is how unlike in the original movie, these characters don't really have an arc. Moana kinda does, but it's essentially a repeat of the first movie in how she has to learn to be a great Wayfinder and save her people. Literally the exact same arc she had before. Everyone else? Nothing. Even Maui doesn't have an arc in this movie, he essentially exists to be Moana's cheerleader and the big guy who does most of the fighting now. It makes for a very unengaging watch as a result in where I find myself caring very little for what's going on because there's barely anything to these characters and their struggles. The worst example I can give is how Moni nearly dies at one point and is seemingly shell-shocked over the near-death experience. What comes out of it? NOTHING! Instead, it's an excuse for Moana to have a pity-party to herself so Maui can have an excuse to have a musical number to prop her up later and next time we see Moni, he's completely fine. Where's HIS story? Why are we not focusing on how HE feels about such a traumatic event and why does it have ZERO impact on his character afterwards? It's a joke how little an effort the writers put in giving these characters any actual substance.

And on a minor note, the movie is also staggeringly unfunny too. Moana had a lot of funny moments in it and some clever jokes that took advantage of the setting and the sentient ocean character. Here, the jokes mostly miss and as mentioned before, the most recurring one is basically the movie saying "Ha, ha, remember this from the original?", which isn't funny. It's just annoying. It also doesn't help how the comedy feels ramped up compared to the original, so now the tone feels overly comedic to the point it's more annoying than funny and it stops the movie from having any real tension to it. Seriously, because of this annoying tone, I never once felt like the characters were in danger throughout the movie, thus making it a pretty dull watch.

So yeah, the story sounds like a disaster. Is there anything good about it? Well...not much. I can at least say that it has better pacing than Frozen II did when comparing their stories, the cast are better used than in the latter movie and it does get exciting to watch during the action scenes. But if that's all the praise I can give Moana 2, then that shows how weak the story is.

Remember how this was supposed to be a TV series? Well maybe it should've stayed as one. I bet a TV series would've given us a better story than this mess...

Section 2: The Characters

The characters are back, and sadly they didn't make lightning strike twice with this one.

Let's begin with our main character, Moana (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho). Moana is the exact same character she was the last time we saw her. She's our brave, feisty, good-hearted protagonist who will do anything to save her people, and that's it. While it's nice to see she retained her character development from last time and is depicted as wiser and more experienced, the writers really didn't seem to know how to handle her in this one. As mentioned, she barely has an arc and what little arc she does have, it's mostly the same as last time, so it doesn't feel like this character is being explored, more like she's just repeating what she did before. It really doesn't make her a very interesting protagonist, and that's disappointing for Moana was great last time, so she should've been great here.

Another character who feels blander than before is Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson). Like Moana, Maui's character development has thankfully stuck from last time and now he's depicted as wiser and more experienced, but once again the writers didn't seem to know what to do with him. It's like they thought "Well the two leads pretty much had all their character development, so what else do we do with them?" In Maui's case, they pretty much made him Moana's cheerleader and the bruiser of the group. While it's nice to see a bit of role reversal in where Maui gets to prop Moana up during her down moment, it just feels like we're retreading familiar ground again.

As for other returning characters, there's not much to say about them. Moana's parents are as wasted as they were in the original and Heihei (voiced by Alan Tudyk) and Pua are just pointless. Somehow, the movie made Heihei feel even more pointless than he was in the original and Pua's non-existent role just proves why nothing was lost by leaving him on the island in the original.

The new characters aren't much to talk about either. We have Moana's crew consisting of Moni (voiced by Hualālai Chung), Loto (voiced by Rose Matafeo) and Kele (voiced by David Fane) in where their characters can be summed up by describing their single character trait. Moni is super gay for Maui, Loto is the quirky inventor and Kele is the grumpy old farmer. Neither of them have arcs or anything of interest to them and in Kele's case, his role makes no sense in the movie. He says he can't swim in one scene, yet in the climax he swims in order to help Maui after he falls into the ocean! No, I don't care that he was wearing makeshift armbands at that moment, that shouldn't magically help him swim! If he can't swim, then he can't swim, simple as that! It's like saying Batman hates guns and then having him use a gun in the climax of a Batman film, it just doesn't add up!

Moana also has a new sister named Simea (voiced by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda). Just like Heihei and Pua, she's pointless and was an unnecessary new character to add to the movie. It feels like she exists just to have a cute kid character, even though Moana doesn't need that. Take her out of the story and nothing changes.

Now for the new character who feels like the biggest waste of space ever, Matangi (voiced by Awhimai Frase). I will never understand who thought it was a good idea to have this obviously villainous character act obviously villainous when she first appears and set her up to be the obvious villain of the movie...and then do nothing with her. She's not a villain despite being set up as one and after giving Moana advice on how to get to her destination, she just vanishes from the movie until the mid-credits scene. What a damn waste! Why did they set her up to be an antagonist if she's not actually an antagonist and wasn't going to do anything in the story aside from give Moana directions?! It's like how in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's DLC expansion where Briar was set-up as an obvious antagonist and nothing came out of it, thus making her feel wasted. She SHOULD have been the villain of this story, or else she shouldn't have been here at all!

The characters are a testament to the movie's sums on how poor the writing is here. The returning ones have nothing new to them to explore new sides to them and the new ones feel like pointless new additions that could've been dropped without missing anything. Huh, when you put it that way, it really is like those old direct-to-video Disney sequels...

Section 3: The Animation

I have a feeling Moana is going to be one of those franchises where the writing is consistently its weakest asset while its animation is consistently its strongest asset.

Moana had absolutely beautiful visuals, and the sequel is no different in that regard. The animation is still as gorgeous as ever with its lush, colourful environments, beautiful lighting effects and realistic looking textures everywhere from the grass on the islands to the sand on the beaches to the wood on the canoe and of course, the ocean itself. The world of Moana consistently looks inviting and beautiful and kind of makes me wish I could live in it too. I especially love all the scenes that take place when the sun is out as they always look nice, and they manage to make the sunlight look and feel warming. The scenes on Motunui especially make me feel like I could just lie on the grass and sunbathe all day, and I'm sure the rest of you feel the same way. And of course, the way water is depicted is nothing short of breathtaking. They manage to make the ocean look so real here, like you could really go swimming in it, and just like in the first movie, they're able to make the ocean sentient and move about like its a living creature, and it still looks convincing. While it doesn't do so as much in this one, it's still nice we see it still do those movements like before.

And before you ask, yes, we still have the 2-D animations on Maui's tattoos and just like before, it's as seamless a combination as ever with the hand-drawn tattoos blending in perfectly with the 3-D animated Maui. How they pulled it off, I'll never know, but it's so cool to see these two animation styles fuse together like so.

The character designs are still as top notch as they were before with the familiar characters looking as great as ever and the new ones look like they fit right in the same universe as everyone else does, so nobody stands out or looks out of place. Matangi was especially a fascinating new character in terms of appearance and animation. She's given a somewhat vampiric appearance (she even has a cape) and when we first see her, she's constantly in the shadows and flying about everywhere with the help of her bat friends. It's too bad that they ruined all that by not making her evil, but it still looked cool when we saw her at first.

And just like in the first movie, they really take advantage of the ocean setting when it comes to the action scenes. The ocean is a dangerous environment after all, and it's depicted as such with our heroes having to face enormous waves, huge creatures, the weather and even the power of a god that really pushes our heroes to their limits when we get to these scenes. If the tone of the movie wasn't overly comedic, then these scenes could've been more effective, but I give the animators props for trying anyway.

As beautiful as the animation is, the one problem I have with it is the fact that we don't really see a lot of new things here. We mostly just see what we saw last time with only the giant clam being anything close to unique for this movie. Even the climax is essentially a repeat of last time with our heroes fighting a godly creature in a stormy black sea. They really could've given us more unique things to see with this movie and been more creative with its animation, but alas, we mostly get the same old, same old with this one.

Still, while the Moana movies seem to struggle with their writing, the animation is nothing to sneeze at by any means. If their stories could be as excellent as their animation, then we could truly have something special with this franchise...

Section 4: The Songs

Lin Manuel Miranda didn't return to do the songs for this movie, so how do they fare up this time around? I honestly expected the songs to be a downgrade and that they'd not measure up to the original. Yet surprisingly...they were pretty decent overall. Still not as good as the first movie's songs, but still one of the movie's highlights. As is, the biggest issue I have with the soundtrack of this movie is that a lot of the songs essentially feel like re-treads of the previous songs, or fill the same kind of role as the original songs.

To start with, we have "We're Back" which is the typical Disney village song that begins the movie. It's like this movie's equivalent of "Where You Are" from the first movie in how the song is all about Moana, her people and the island they live on. It's alright, but it's not as enjoyable as "Where You Are". Still, the lively tune does help in getting the audience hyped up for the movie and sells the currently joyful status quo that our characters are currently living in.

Next we have the best song of the movie "Beyond", which is this movie's version of "How Far I'll Go". Lyrically, the subject matter is pretty much identical to "How Far I'll Go" in where Moana's singing about the journey ahead of her. While it's not the most original musical number, it's still the best song in the movie for me for the great vocal work and how it has that same epic feel that the previous songs in Moana had. If there's any song I could imagine fitting into the first movie as seamlessly as this one, it's easily "Beyond".

Then there's "What Could Be Better Than This?", which is the worst song of the movie. Not only does it feel like it exists just to pad the movie out, but it came off as more cringeworthy than enjoyable and it's not even a particularly memorable song either. It should've been dropped entirely if you ask me.

Next we have "Get Lost", which would've been the villain song of the movie if, you know, Matangi was actually a villain like she was set-up to be. The song gives us the most colourful and creative visuals of the movie and the vocal work is great, but sounds a little too generic pop music for my tastes. Matangi's singing voice even reminds me of other singers out there, thus making her sound generic and like she has no voice of her own. Listening to this song without context, I would've assumed it was a song I'd hear on the radio rather than a song from a Moana movie. Still, it is pretty enjoyable, if nothing spectacular.

Then finally, there's "Can I Get A Chee Hoo", which is essentially this movie's equivalent to "You're Welcome". Not only is the tune very similar, but it's a musical number by Maui, hence the comparison. The song lacks the enthusiastic energy that Dwayne Johnson put into "You're Welcome" and just isn't as enjoyable or as memorable as a result.

While this soundtrack isn't terrible by any means, it feels like a rehash of the original's soundtrack a lot of the time and while Moana had great songs all around, this movie only has one great song, several decent songs and one bad song. Just goes to show how much of a difference Lin Manuel Miranda makes when he's working on the soundtrack, because the drop in quality is staggering between these two movies....

Overall

Moana 2 was going to be a TV series, and it should've STAYED as a TV series, because this thing was NOT movie worthy.

Moana 2 is another example on how Disney does NOT do sequels well. The story is a rehash of Frozen II, the characters aren't interesting, the humour is weak, it's too overly reliant on callbacks and references for the fans and it overall just felt dull and annoying to watch. If it wasn't for the pretty animation and surprisingly good soundtrack, this thing wouldn't have been worth watching at all. As is, it's far from the worst Disney sequel out there. I'd take this over Mulan 2, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, The Fox and the Hound 2 and many more any day. But it's still not a good sequel in and of itself. This was nothing more than a mediocre follow up that was better off being a TV series instead of a movie. If Moana ever does get a TV series, it'll hopefully be better than this movie...

And that's it for this review. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Do you like Moana 2? Do you not like it? Do let me know.

Join me next week as I count down my 5 Favourite Christmas Carol Adaptations. See you then media fans!