By Bob Garver
2016’s “Moana” is probably my favorite animated Disney movie of the modern era. I have plenty of nice things to say about “Frozen,” “Zootopia,” “Encanto,” and several others, but “Moana,” with its timelessly-relatable main character, sharp physical comedy, and multiple memorable songs, puts it just a coir above the competition. When an evidently-rushed sequel was announced earlier this year, I became nervous. What if the new film was so disappointing that it affected my opinion of the original? Now that I’ve seen the film, I’m happy to report that my enjoyment of the original is not tarnished by this underwhelming sequel.
The film takes place three years after the original, with Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) now her island’s premier wayfinder, or boat navigator. The community is thriving, and she’s gradually finding clues that will hopefully lead her to discover more islands with communities that can be joined. But she receives a vision that if she doesn’t find far-off island Motufetu very soon, everything she holds dear will be lost. She throws together a mission with a ragtag crew that includes overeager builder Loto (Rose Matafeo), grumpy farmer Kele (David Fane), oafish historian Moni (Hualālai Chung), pet pig Pua, and chicken Heihei, and sets off on an adventure with more self-doubt than she’s ever had in her life.
Along the way, she meets up with an old enemy: the tribe of sentient coconuts known as Kakamora. The two sides battle until they discover that they both need somebody to find Motufetu, at which point one of the Kakamora joins the quest as an enforcer. Not long after, the crew find themselves swallowed by a giant clam, which is home base for new villain Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), who has abducted Moana’s former ally, the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson). It turns out that Matangi needs Moana to find Motufetu as well, though her motivations probably aren’t as pure as the Kakumora just wanting to find their way home. With Maui now officially on the crew, it’s a race to reach Motufetu before unhappy god Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea’i) can stop them with his storm-conjuring powers.
Slowly but surely, the downgrades from the first movie come to light. New songwriters Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear try valiantly to give Moana an anthem as powerful as “How Far I’ll Go,” but “Beyond” falls just a bit short. “Get Lost” from Matangi isn’t quite as memorable a villain song as “Shiny.” And as far as Maui goes, “Can I Get A Chee Hoo?” is a fall off a cliff from “You’re Welcome” that matches Johnson’s own falling star power. His tired, somehow-mugging-for-the-camera-even-in-animation schtick is probably the worst thing about this movie, other than an inexplicable overreliance on gags that involve creatures excreting from various orifices.
The movie still gets a recommendation from me. Cravalho is great as always, the new characters are compelling enough, the jokes hit at an acceptable ratio, and there’s an overall agreeable tone for an animated adventure. There’s nothing here that makes me want to turn against the “Moana” brand, which is good because we’re going to be getting a lot more of it in the future. Supposedly this movie was supposed to be the first few installments of a television miniseries, and harsher critics will say that it should have been stuck on television. I don’t agree with that assessment, I think theaters are lucky to have “Moana 2,” even if it’s a step down from the original. But Moana’s journey is clearly far from over, and however it continues, I hope it doesn’t lose any more magic than it already has.
Grade: B-
“Moana 2” is rated PG for action/peril. Its running time is 100 minutes.
Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.
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