Moana 2 review – a tidal wave of joy on the big screen

When Moana pre­miered back in 2016, it made an instant seis­mic splash and became a true con­tem­po­rary Dis­ney clas­sic. Its gor­geous visu­als, unavoid­ably catchy tunes, and cap­ti­vat­ing hero­ine proved to be a win­ning com­bi­na­tion. Despite this suc­cess, many are going into the franchise’s sec­ond install­ment, Moana 2, with notable trep­i­da­tion. Most of this wari­ness stems from this sequel being orig­i­nal­ly devel­oped as a Dis­ney+ series before it was announced at the begin­ning of this year that the mate­r­i­al from the show would be reworked into a feature. 

The fact that the fol­low-up to such a hit project would be bound entire­ly to stream­ing was cause for con­cern in and of itself. After all, this prac­tice has become the mod­ern equiv­a­lent of the straight-to-VHS sequels from the late 90s and ear­ly 00s. That’s not to say that a cou­ple of those films weren’t my most rewound tapes as a child, but they were undoubt­ed­ly more hit or miss. Moana 2 is one of those few excep­tions where it doesn’t quite soar to the heights achieved by the first sto­ry but still stands tall in its own right. 

Since her pre­vi­ous adven­ture, which saw her restore the heart of Te Fiti and con­se­quent­ly revive the nat­ur­al vital­i­ty of her Island, Moana has right­ful­ly become hailed as a hero and is seen as some­what of a celebri­ty by her peo­ple. She con­tin­ues to embark on solo excur­sions attempt­ing to find islands inhab­it­ed by oth­er humans, but tends to keep them brief as she has yet anoth­er new title back home, big sis­ter. Her three-year-old sis­ter Simea rel­ish­es in the rays of Moana’s atten­tion and, like all the oth­er young girls in their com­mu­ni­ty, aspires to be her when they grow up.

When the spir­it of her people’s last great Wayfind­er bestows the duty of reunit­ing the peo­ple of the ocean onto Moana, she ini­tial­ly hes­i­tates. With three years of addi­tion­al wis­dom and a height­ened under­stand­ing of what is at stake, she now finds the prospect of leav­ing far more dif­fi­cult. Life on the island of Motunui is pret­ty per­fect and she could remain com­pla­cent, but ulti­mate­ly knows she would be mal­con­tent­ed liv­ing that way. Con­sid­er­ing the length of her impend­ing excur­sion, she puts togeth­er a crew of three eccen­tric indi­vid­u­als; Moni, Loto, and Kele, each who has a spe­cif­ic craft or skill. With the late addi­tion of Dwayne ​“The Rock” Johnson’s Maui, the crew must learn to work togeth­er as a team to pre­serve their safe­ty and com­plete their mission. 

Moana 2 pos­sess­es the vast major­i­ty of ele­ments that would be desired of this film; between grand action set pieces, comedic chem­istry between char­ac­ters, and call­backs that con­tin­ue to expand on the mythol­o­gy and lore of these islanders, there is much to be amused by. On a more pro­found lev­el, this sto­ry remains true to the essence of the first jour­ney we embarked on with Moana in high­light­ing that there is always more to uncov­er about our cul­tures and that our liveli­hood is phys­i­cal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly fun­nelled into us by our ancestors. 

It’s no sur­prise that Auli’i Craval­ho is once again the clear stand­out, who is utter­ly com­pelling and end­less­ly endear­ing as she repris­es the role of this beloved princess who jump-start­ed her entire career. Even though the musi­cal aspect will like­ly be what dis­ap­points audi­ences the most, Cravalho’s vocals are unde­ni­ably goose­bump-rais­ing. The lack of Lin Manuel Miranda’s infec­tious melo­di­ous touch can be felt, with only one song, titled ​‘Beyond’, being near­ly as catchy as the sound­track from the first film. 

There is no deny­ing that sequels are tricky and this one has a hand­ful of flaws, but it also repli­cates the deep pas­sion and care that makes the world of Moana so remark­able. The del­i­cate­ly craft­ed visu­al spec­ta­cle and deeply authen­tic rep­re­sen­ta­tion deserve the same big screen roll­out as its pre­de­ces­sor. Fol­low­ing Inside Out 2 becom­ing the high­est-gross­ing film of 2024 so far, it is a relief to see Dis­ney encour­ag­ing fam­i­lies to share a the­atri­cal expe­ri­ence rather than sen­tenc­ing Moana to a life­time of being watched exclu­sive­ly through an iPad screen. 

Lit­tle White Lies is com­mit­ted to cham­pi­oning great movies and the tal­ent­ed peo­ple who make them.

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