Moana 2

Review: The sequel to 2016’s hit film is now streaming on Disney+. So me and the family sat down and watched it (in four sittings because we were watching with a one year old). This one doesn’t quite have the same sauce as the first, but there are things to enjoy. The songs were decent, but weaker than the first. The vocal work of Auli’i Cravalho & Dwayne Johnson was still very good, along with the rest of the supporting cast. This film was originally intended to be a Disney+ series, and I think that it is incredibly apparent that that was originally the case.

High: The third act of the film was very strong. It gave several characters their ‘hero moments.’ Moana was given a cool little arc, as was Maui. They also left it open enough for another sequel, with the mid-credits scene reaffirming this intention.

Low: There were just a lot of jokes & things that felt out of place. Several of Maui’s jokes were meta (fourth wall breaking) and they just felt a little silly. Sometimes jokes like that work in an animated film (like with the Genie in ‘Aladdin’), but I just didn’t think they fit in here. There were other things I didn’t think fit tonally, like the big green goofy looking blobfish. It just felt very out of place.

Rating: 6.5/10