Gomovies|| Moana 2 | Review

2024 best movie warmly received by kids and critics alike, Moana proved the perfect antidote to Frozen fever back in 2016. The long, icy shadow was strong but Musker and Clements’ sun kissed, Oceanic adventure provided both a brief thaw and the opportunity for parents to finally…let it go. You’re welcome. Decent box office returns didn’t immediately set the sequel train rolling, though. For all Disney’s market leading prowess in IP monetisation, follow ups have rarely been the animation studio’s modus operandi. Just three in a hundred years. It was the race for streaming content that commissioned Moana 2, though initially as a long-form limited series. Ostensibly, quality alone inspired the cinematic upgrade, although one suspects a financially disappointing 2023 played a hand. This one, at least, is going to be huge.

By and large, you’ll not notice the difference. Whenever it occurred, the transition is delivered almost without seam and to great success. Moana 2 is one more grand Disney musical for the shiny collection, boasting dazzling visuals, a winning score and heartfelt arc. What’s more, there’s a real sense here of developed maturity. In much the same way that DreamWorks aged Hiccup and company with each new entry in the How to Train Your Dragon series, Moana 2 finds its hero, and her family, three years advanced and with one eye on a horizon inching ever closer. The obvious intention for continuation beyond the sequel is curious. Certainly, it will be of interest to see how far they’ll go.

The passage of time moves both ways here, of course. A screenplay by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller, Disney’s first Pasifikan creative, leans more intently into the heritage of their hero, allowing for a more open relationship with the Polynesian context in which the film exists. It’s in a story anchored by ancestral expectation and a soundtrack far more Oceanic in orientation than before. It’s bold and beautiful to this end, with due time and attention devoted to a world that is realised in both expansive breadth and microcosmic detail – every grain of sand is rendered. Bush and Ledoux Miller paint a deeper canvas than before, one richer in communicating the experience of Motunui and the lives of its islanders. https://gomovies.org.uk/

There are drawbacks to this, mind, with the film occasionally risking dispersement of focus through a widening of its character rotisserie. When Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) sets sail this time – called by her ancestors to break the curse of Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea’i) and thereby reunite the peoples of Oceana – she does so with a crew of three, not to mention her rooster and pig. Broad sketch characterisation does well to endear the ensemble at pace but each struggles with an increasingly roll call of additions. Maui (Dwayne Johnson) only joins the crew halfway through, while Awhimai Fraser voices a fellow demigod with great potential but muddled execution. Her big number’s a zinger but doesn’t entirely add up. Perhaps more time was afforded her diversion in long form? It’s one of only a handful of noticeable casualties of the condensing. That and a certain certainty of plotting.

Such is not so when it comes to the film’s scope and vision. These impress on the big screen and would have startled on the small. The vistas are wide, warm and lush with colour, rippling across a world all too desirous of our visitation. Much as the arching journey is broadly the same as before, the dynamic shift of a team experience brings new angles for approach and individual development. Moana’s growth as a character shines here, intermingled with the insecurities that bolster her fundamental relatability. She’s an action hero, sure, but a touch goofy. Let’s not forget, her best friends are a cute but hapless pig and a dumb witted rooster. For what it’s worth, Heihei’s even more of a riot this time around. To watch this visit gomovies.

As before, the stakes are greater in their emotional terms than that which they threaten. It’s deceptively simple messaging done well, with the values of teamwork and hard work heralded. Delivered with such visual flair, such themes sparkle with the sea. It’s a gorgeous world full of stories to tell and enriched by the stories already told.

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