REVIEW: Moana 2

Despite its flaws, Moana 2 isn’t a terrible movie, but it isn’t one I can recommend

I can be a pessimist when it comes to criticism.

I have an interest in narrative and storytelling, so my reviews tend to be scathing. I want stories to be the best they can be, even if the objective of the movie is to provide simple fun for young audiences — which, other than money, is the sole purpose of Moana 2.

Of course, there are counter-arguments to the proposal that kids’ content doesn’t need deep narrative beats, and Moana 2 is in the same vein as other Disney sequels. These follow-ups don’t really add anything to the franchise but provide fun entertainment for young fans who don’t care about the storytelling and just want to see their favourite characters on screen again.

I’m going to play fair and criticise the movie on its home turf of ‘dumb fun’.

There are a couple new characters introduced this time around, but they add virtually nothing to the experience. Moana’s crew are useless and bumbling, and the only value they add is through the charm of the old man, and through the engineer’s altering of the raft which allows them to survive the events of the final showdown. The little coconut people are fun, and the one that joins them is one of only two welcome secondary characters. Other than that final act with the engineer, the crew could be cut from the movie completely and no narrative value would be lost. In fact, there’s a chance their absence would have benefitted the movie, because it would give the titular characters more screen time, which includes Maui and his stint with the other welcome new addition, the Bat Lady. And yes, I’m omitting their names because the movie makes no effort to make sure the audience knows what they are.

The Bat Lady was a curveball — a pseudo-villain that turned out to be a neutral-good catalyst for Maui and Moana to once again team up. However, this plot point is undermined because their reunion didn’t bank on anything other than pure luck. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t understand the shooting star… thing that led the crew to the coconut people, and subsequently to the Bat Lady. Granted, she was fun, but she feels wasted as a character, and was by far the most interesting addition to the movie — even more so than Moana’s annoying little sister (who vacuumed all the empathetic value out of every secondary character) and even more so than the main villain.

Nalo as the villain was completely a non-entity. And yes, they foreshadowed him enough to make his name memorable. He was nothing like the lava monster from the first movie, and was just a purple maelstrom with no anthropomorphic qualities. That isn’t bad in itself, but that’s really all he was. The final showdown wasn’t even portrayed in a cool way despite the potential for a flashy scene, and just felt wasted even with the mediocre foreshadowing. And the fact we’re only now finding out about his existence doesn’t make sense. If this god is the one keeping the people of the ocean separated, why are we only now learning of him? Why are these events only happening now? Shouldn’t this have been covered in the first movie?

Another problem is that the villain and the events have virtually nothing to do with the first movie. Even the other straight-to-DVD Disney sequels had events that connected them decently to the first entry. Scar has a secret son. Jafar’s lamp is found. Mulan and her (memorable) crew have to deal with the lingering threat of the Mongols. For Moana, the only thing of substance that happens is when Moana becomes a demigod. The whole ‘find an island to connect the people’ plot feels flimsy, and offers no satisfaction to the audience. After all, Moana is sailing around the ocean and the people on her island are happy. There are no tangible effects of what will happen if Moana doesn’t connect the people of the ocean, other than the spirit telling her that so-and-so will happen if x and y. There’s no impact, and the only thing viewers are looking forward to is the moment when Maui and Moana reunite and are given more screen time together. I’m a firm believer that if you’re going to make a dumb fun movie, go all the way, but if you’re going to make a narrative, you can’t half-ass it or it ruins both the fun and the story.

Now onto Moana herself, who is a demigod now. When Nalo attacked Maui and took his demigod powers (somehow), I fully expected Moana to become a demigod while Maui became human. After all, she’s already treated excessively like a demigod by her own people. I know she’s a hero and all, but the only charming thing about her is that she’s modest and cares about others, which are redeeming qualities modern writers like to leave out of their female protagonists. She’s not an offensively bad character, but she’s completely overshadowed by Maui, and, embarrassingly, by her mascot-like companions. If you’re more interested in a chicken and a pig, that’s probably not a great sign.

Despite its flaws, Moana 2 isn’t a terrible movie, but it isn’t one I can recommend. You’ll miss nothing by cutting this film from your to-watch list. But if you do watch it, be sure to stick around in the mid-credits for an appearance from Jemaine Clement.