This Disney Sequel Almost Gets Lost at Sea

It’s tough to take a movie seriously when it doesn’t follow its own advice. In Moana 2, the title character gets an important assist from a mysterious sea witch named Matangi. The witch — Witch? Sorceress? Mutant bat lady? The film leaves this unclear — tells Moana that if she wants to truly earn the title of wayfinder, she will need to “stop playing it safe.” After all, she reasons, how can you get somewhere that’s not on any map if you don’t get a little lost?

Sound guidance — that Moana 2 resolutely ignores. This is a playing-it-safe sequel through and through, one that follows the path charted by its popular predecessor every step of the way. Brave island voyager Moana (voiced again by Auliʻi Cravalho) sets off on a journey far across the ocean in order to confront a mystical adversary and break a magic curse, with an assist from a shape-changing demigod named Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and occasional breaks for songs that could be described as “South Pacific meets the actual South Pacific.” Technically, the songs are different this time — and, somewhat fatally, they are nowhere near as good as the ones in the first Moana — but otherwise, the song remains the same.

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The variations between the two movies are almost entirely cosmetic, although instead of a two-hander between Moana and Maui on the open sea, the two leads spend the first half of Moana 2 on separate quests. While Maui mixes it up with Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), Moana and a whole crew of new sidekicks (including a quirky engineer voiced by Rose Matafeo and a grouchy farmer played by David Fane) sail for a lost island sunk to the bottom of the ocean by an angry god named Nalo.

This island used to serve the central hub of a whole civilization of sailors from across the globe. Without it, these various tribes were scattered across the ocean. After a prophetic vision from one of her ancestors, Moana seeks to restore the island and reconnect these disparate people once more.

That’s a much less personal (and far less engaging) set of stakes than the original Moana, where the title character fought to save her home from famine and possible extinction. Maui’s role in Moana 2 is even more vague; why he cares about this missing island and its angry god, or why he’s in conflict with Matangi were never clear throughout the film, at least to me.

Maui’s feelings about Moana also fluctuate constantly throughout the sequel. So does the quality of Moana 2’s songs. Moana’s musical numbers were its greatest strength; Moana 2’s musical numbers are its biggest weakness. The first film had the groovy “Shiny,” the toe-tapping “Where You Are,” and the soaring anthem “How Far I’ll Go.” Moana 2 includes tracks meant to fit into each of those categories, but none are catchy or memorable.

Maui fares the worst in this regard. His” You’re Welcome” from Moana was a show-stopping delight. His new tune, “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” is an inspirational ditty with raps and chants and eye-rolling lyrics like “Come on-a Moana / Come get your destiny.” Few sequels have ever missed an absent creator as much as this movie misses Lin-Manuel Miranda, who contributed to Moana 1’s soundtrack but did not return for the sequel. (The new batch of songs is by Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear, Opetaia Foa’i, and Mark Mancina.)

Without the musical heart or stirring adventure of the first movie, Moana 2 relies on a surprising amount of gross-out humor and meta jokes to keep audiences engaged. There are armpit fart gags, and regular showers of a assorted purple goos and green slimes, plus pop culture references so out of place in the context of an ancient water-bound civilization that the screenplay actually makes secondary jokes about their incongruity. (After one character, quips about making a “butt dial,” they quickly add “That will make sense in 2,000 years!” This character not only doesn’t have a phone — they don’t have pockets.) Some of the banter lands — once Moana and Maui finally reunite they reestablish some of their buddy comedy chemistry from the first movie — but a lot of the wisecracks wreak of desperation.

The true test of a kids movie comes not on the first viewing but on the tenth. Kids love to watch films endlessly; they find comfort in their familiar patterns and characters. By that measure, Moana is one of Disney’s best 21st century films; it holds up very well to repeat airings thanks to its amazing soundtrack, colorful adventures, and heartwarming message about persistence, bravery, and exploration. It’s one of the few films I never got tired of no matter how many times my daughters demanded to revisit it. Moana 2, on the other hand, played it so safe it lost me after a single screening.

Additional Thoughts:

-This film was originally developed as a series for Disney+, then reworked into a feature. While it does present a fairly straightforward narrative, Maui’s role is so superfluous that it did make me wonder whether his character was not originally in the TV series version (or perhaps only held a small supporting role), and when Disney decreed Moana the show would now be Moana 2, his part had to be beefed up with a lot of unjustified screen time. At the very least, he feels shoehorned into a story that doesn’t really need him.

-Matangi does at least look cool, and she slithers and swoops around with the most visually dynamic character animation in Moana 2. Unfortunately, her role is deeply muddled. Is she a villain? A victim? Does she hate Maui and Moana or want to help them? The movie leaves all of that unexplained in order to set up a potential sequel. I’ve no doubt the film’s box office total will justify its production. But after the extremely uneven quality of Moana 2, I’m going to be a lot less excited to see it.

RATING: 5/10