Moana 2 was never supposed to happen. In case you have not been made aware of the drama surrounding this film, allow me to fill you in on that, because all of this definitely influenced the way I watched this highly anticipated sequel to Disney Animation’s Moana today. Moana 2 was originally structured as a Disney+ limited television series. In February of 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced on an investor call, that this series was being reworked into a feature film sequel, to be released the week of Thanksgiving, that same year. He did this before telling any of the animators working on it, or contacting any of the original voice actors to inquire about reprising their roles. 

Many of the animators working on this, being paid to animate a television series rather than a feature film, no doubt being paid less, were now working on this insane deadline, under all kinds of public scrutiny and pressure from the Disney company. In case you are unaware, animated films typically take a lot longer to put together than the average film, and poorly paid animators working under a crazy deadline did not inspire confidence in me as a viewer. Meanwhile, a live-action remake of the first Moana had also been in active development at the Disney company, and is being filmed as I write this review. How did all of this turn out, considering these insane circumstances?

Moana 2 picks up three years after the events of the first, and the titular wayfinder Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) has just returned from a mission at sea. She gets to spend a few peaceful moments with her family and her young sister, before the Ancestors start calling out to her again. This time, they’ve brought her attention to a forgotten tribe of people that must unite with hers to restore balance and bring everyone together. She assembles her own crew, and sets off at sea, facing all kinds of obstacles along the way. She is eventually reunited with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) who must help her in her current mission.

The biggest problem we have with Moana 2 is that it kind of feels like the same movie all over again. It’s also a problem that our leading character kind of doesn’t learn anything over the course of this story. She ends the story in a very similar position that we find her in when it begins, and if that were an intentional choice, that would be one thing. I always think of the Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody film Young Adult, as an example of a great character study where our protagonist learns nothing over the course of the film’s events. This can be interesting if it’s intentional. But it kind of feels like the scenes where Moana has learned important lessons or has expanded her worldview in some way, were just cut for time in this one. Everything is happening in such a rapid-fire pace, we rarely get to just sit with a moment and nothing really ever feels emotionally important to the story being told here.

Another thing hurting the quality of this film is the songs. The songs are kind of bad this time around. There is not a single one that stays with you as you leave the theater, not a single tune you hum as you’re walking to your car afterward. Lin Manuel Miranda composed the music for the first Moana, and he does not return for this one. Instead, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the duo behind the independently produced and unofficial Bridgerton musical that went viral on TikTok during the pandemic, have been hired to write the songs for this film. And if I didn’t know any better I would have thought these songs were written using some kind of AI technology. They are so soulless and so nothing. They hit a lot of the same beats as the songs in the first, but give you nothing to take away from them, and they never hit you on the visceral human level that something like How Far I’ll Go once did. 

Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson still have a fun, snappy banter and good chemistry as voice actors. And many of the cast members from the original film are returning for this sequel. And there is still something great in the AAPI representation happening in every moment of the Moana world, shining a light on a part of the world that a lot of animated films ignore. And we do meet some new characters in this one that are quite fun, mainly in the group of characters who Moana decides to bring along with her on this film’s central journey. However, so much of it feels like an afterthought. A perfect example involves a villainous(?) character played by Awhimai Fraser, introduced early on as the film’s presumed central threat, who has the film’s closest thing to a song with an interesting idea, who afterward completely disappears from the rest of the film. She briefly reappears in a post-credit scene, presumably setting something up for a third Moana film. But I was so checked out by that point, it barely registered with me.

It is painfully obvious there was some reworking of this story here to turn this thing that was clearly meant for episodic television into a feature length film. And yet it feels like something bound to play on Disney+ as a companion piece to their most successful streaming title since the service launched. It’s something designed to keep your very young children entertained and quiet for an hour and a half or so. But the emotional core and genuine heart of the first Moana is kind of nowhere to be found here. This all just feels like very shallow, cynically driven entertainment for the least demanding audience possible. It is gorgeously animated and beautifully vibrant and colorful, and has lots of visual gags and nods to the first film. Maybe a few too many, as the film is constantly reminding you of the better thing that came before it, the better thing that this is not.

I spent much of Moana 2 feeling grumpy and feeling let down by what I was seeing. But then as I was leaving the theater, I saw lots of families in the theater lobby and lots of young girls who had clearly loved what they’d just seen. And it’s true that I’m not the target audience for this film, even though it would not have been hard to win me over. But if the children who this film was made for leave it in a good mood, that’s what really matters. Children will love Moana 2, and it will likely make a billion dollars. I just wish I felt like there was any one compelling reason for this movie to exist.