Originally developed as a limited series for Disney’s popular streaming platform, Moana 2 segued into a feature-length film — and a proper sequel — well into production. Unfortunately, the frustratingly middling results onscreen show every indication of being rejigged and haphazardly compressed into a sub-two-hour running time. Familiar characters barely receive any screen time, while those new to the franchise barely find purchase before they’re relegated to the background. Still others, like the first film’s co-lead Maui (voiced once again by Dwayne Johnson), oddly spend the first rambling hour mostly offscreen.
And that’s not saying anything about the underlying motivation behind Moana’s (Auli’i Cravalho) actions in the sequel: A clumsily introduced, hazily rendered vision of a far future where her island home, Motunai, has been abandoned by her people (or worse, forcibly removed by forces unseen and unknown). It’s meant to be more than enough for Moana, the eldest daughter to the island’s benevolent chieftain, Tui (Temuera Morrison), and his wife, Sina (Nicole Scherzinger), to seek out new life far away from the comforting shores of her home island.
Moana’s new goal doesn’t just involve setting sail for the high seas, using the night stars to guide her, and a friendly ocean to carry her. She’s propelled on after she learns of a long-lost, cursed island named Motufetu. If she finds and raises the island, sunk under the sea by the malevolent storm god, Nalo, she’ll find the missing connection between her people and the far-flung residents of Polynesia. They’ve been cut off from each for centuries, if not millennia. Presumably, finding other Polynesians will somehow save Moana’s people somewhere down the line. The how and why, however, never gets answered.
Before Moana can venture out on her new adventure, she needs a crew. Cue crew-finding sequence involving Loto (Rose Matafeo), the island’s hyper-active shipbuilder and designer, Moni (Hualalai Chung), chief storyteller and Maui’s ultimate fanboy, and Kele (David Fane), a curmudgeonly farmer chosen by Moana more for his comedy potential and less for what he can contribute as a crew member. It’s not Disney unless adorable farm animals are involved, of course, so Moana brings along Hei Hei (Alan Tudyk), the pea-brained chicken held over from the first film, and Pua, a member of the porcine genus with a slightly unfriendly nature.
Once Moana 2 finally sets sail, leaving the island and its inhabitants behind, the real adventure begins and Disney’s animators get to work, delivering one crowd-pleasing set piece after another. It begins, but doesn’t end, with the return of the first film’s minor league foes, the Kakamora (a.k.a. coconut pirates), and a monstrously vast clam larger on the outside than the inside. Sandwiched between the coconut pirates, the giant clam, and a spectacular third act practically worth the price of one or more admissions, Maui returns to Moana’s side, his reluctance fuelled not by his outsized ego this time, but by genuine concern for Moana’s safety.
With the singular emphasis on adventure and a vaguely defined goal, character arcs — specifically additional growth for either Moana or Maui — fall by the wayside. The Moana and Maui we meet at the beginning of their second go-round remain the same: She’s grown into young womanhood, confident in her wayfinding abilities (Polynesian seafaring), driven by her unabashed and unironic love for her family and community while Maui, less the shapeshifting trickster god here than in the first film, functions primarily as an aide to Moana and her mission. Apparently, he was given all the emotional growth he needed in the previous film.
While the visuals remain among the best Disney’s deep pockets can provide, the songs this time around are anything but. Lin-Manual Miranda’s absence as principal songwriter is felt keenly throughout the obligatory, music-oriented interludes. Despite the best efforts of co-songwriters Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (“We’re Back,” Beyond,” and “Get Lost”), nothing in the sequel comes even remotely close to matching the infectious energy of Miranda’s earworm-quality songs (e.g., “How Far I’ll Go,” “Where You Are,” and “You’re Welcome”).
Moana 2 is in theatres now.
