[Movie Review] Moana 2 (2024): A Visually Stunning New Voyage with Expanded Cast

Moana (2016) is one of the best and most critically acclaimed cartoon movies in recent Disney history. This success can be attributed to it’s tribute to Polynesian Mythology, bright animation, compelling story, catchy musical numbers, and interesting protagonists with Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho), a brave yet unsure daughter of the village chief as well as Maui (Dwayne Johnson), a cheeky demigod with playful tattoos that hop around his large body.

As such, making a sequel worthy of its predecessor’s name is a difficult task, even though it is more or less to be a guaranteed box office success.

The premise of Moana 2 is that Moana, now 19, has set out on solo trips as a wayfarer, hoping to find and meet other people of the ocean. She then finds out about an island named Motufetu, once a meeting place for civilisations across the ocean, but now cursed by a spiteful god.

She then decides to set out to find Motufetu along with a few new companions.

While the set-up isn’t half bad for an adventure, it still falls short of the original. The quest is less urgent, the songs are catchy but less relevant to the characters and situation.

Visually, “Moana 2” is a feast for the eyes. The animation surpasses its predecessor, with breathtaking depictions of the ocean’s vastness and the intricate details of island life. The storm sequences, in particular, are rendered with such intensity that viewers can almost feel the sea spray.

With the original songwriter, Lin-Manuel Miranda, passing on his songwriting duties to TikTok sensations Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, despite the new songs having the essence and sound of Moana, they lack the same wittiness and charm of the original soundtracks. Nonetheless, the new songs perhap carry a different appeal to the TikTok generation.

Moana 2 also had too many characters that were not given sufficient depth. This could possibly be attributed to how it was first conceived as a television series to be released on Disney+, and it was only this February that Disney’s CEO announced it to be reworked into a movie.

This could account for Moana’s gang of sidekicks, consisting of Loto, a perfectionistic, quirky shipwright (voiced by Rose Matafeo), Moni, a Maui fanboy who draws fanart of him and Maui (voiced by Hualalai Chung), Kele, a grumpy old farmer brought along to provide food for the crew (voiced by David Fane), and one of the goblins from the first film who wear coconut shells for armour.

These characters could be seen being useful over the course of a series, but their use and purpose in the story is unable to be truly fleshed out in a film.

Compared to the original, the structure of the story is haphazard, with the plot hopping from gods, ghosts, spirits, monsters, magical portals and a giant clam. It does not have the same focus Moana had, with the villain only being properly shown in the end credits of the movie to set up a Moana 3.

However, it’s still a high-quality movie, a movie that most kids are sure to enjoy, with all its Disney magic and bright colours, so it is still worthwhile to bring your kids over to the cinema for a wholesome family outing.

Moana 2 is now showing in Singapore cinemas.