Moana 2
Director: Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, David G. Derrick Jr.
Writer: Dana Ledoux Miller, Jared Bush
Sequel to: Moana
Cast: Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Hualalai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, Alan Tudyk, Jemaine Clement
Seen on: 6.12.2024

Plot:
Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) has found her place in her tribe, and it’s a place that often takes her on long trips, looking for other peoples like hers. But a curse still lingers that keeps all of the tribes apart. It’s up to Moana to find the sunk island Motufetu, the last piece to break the curse by the storm god Nalo. Maui (Dwayne Johnson), too, is trying to find Motufetu, but he has encountered his own set of problems.

Moana 2 was fun, beautiful to watch and quite engaging as long as it lasted, but it doesn’t quite have the same staying power as the first film.

I really enjoyed the first Moana movie, spending a lot of time listening to the soundtrack afterwards (although I am not that much a fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s music usually) and generally loving the vibes of the first film. Moana 2 shares a lot of those vibes, especially the respectful way it treats the Pasifica culture(s) and stories.

I also didn’t spend a single second bored in the film. It constantly gives us inventive creatures, beautiful images (seriously, the animation is amazing) and nice jokes (Maui’s tattoos alone!). And it nicely develops the relationship between Maui and Moana. All of this makes it a more than decent sequel, especially with the introduction of Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), a truly engaging character where I felt like the story hits some unusual beats in her actions that made me curious as to where things are going (they are going to another sequel, that’s where).

And yet, Moana 2 didn’t quite inspire the same amount of enthusiasm in me as the first film. I am listening to the soundtrack now, as I write this review, but I hadn’t listened to it before now. And I can’t even say why, the songs are really nice. Beyond gave me goosebumps, Get Lost is amazing and Can I Get A Chee Hoo? is fun indeed.

The new characters introduced – Moana’s new crew – are a little too much standard sidekick material, but they do get their jokes and provide enough levity. Maybe it was just that it was a sequel and therefore lacked the originality impact of the first film? Nevertheless, it’s still very much worth seeing – I definitely had fun with it.

Summarizing: maybe not quite as good as the first one, but definitely good.