Moana is back — older, wiser, and dreaming bigger!
…So why couldn’t Disney also dream up a bigger sequel?
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Sailing a ship that wasn’t built to sail the big screen, Moana 2 struggles with a musical story originally intended to be stretched into six to eight episodes, crammed into a family-friendly runtime. Converting the series into a blockbuster to turn a bigger profit shaved down a potentially well-developed story.
Among Moana 2’s woes is the absence of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical touch — and his absence is certainly felt. Miranda, using Howard Ashman’s winning “I Want” song formula as gospel, wrote the inspiring banger “How Far I’ll Go” — and the equally beautiful reprise — for the original 2016 film. The music written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, a TikTok musical duo, however, falls short in comparison to Miranda’s original songs. If you’re hoping for another inspiring Disney “I Want” song that will take hold of your heart, “Beyond” is not that song. Much like Wish a year ago, the movie lacks memorable songs that will contribute to the great Disney songbook long-term.
(Thankfully, Opetaia Foa’l returned with three-time Grammy winner Mark Manica once again to compose music that truly served as the soul of the movie.)
The second Moana movie projected on screens for audiences this week is a less inspiring follow-up with lower stakes (of course Moana’s new crew won’t die!) and no drama or conflict to play with. This only draws attention to the fact you haven’t been bobbing your head to one of Miranda’s signature bangers. Even seeing the sequel take its first steps towards recognizing other Pacific Islander cultures in a brief scene — which the first film did not do — was not enough to deliver a moving moment.
© 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Going on more wayfaring adventures always made sense for Moana. Heck, the final flashes of the first film even left the door open a crack for a sequel. But converting a story written for a TV series and expecting an audience, who have been consuming streaming series for over a decade, not to be able to tell the difference is a big ask. Identifying the beats where the film would have been broken up into episodes is an easy game to play. And in a series, there would have been time to flesh out new characters, including brainy shipbuilder Loto, grumpy farmer Kele, overenthusiastic Maui fanboy Moni, and villains Matangi and Nalo. Instead, they all end up getting sidelined in favor of a one-hour and 40-minute runtime, and reduced to a single personality trait and quirk.
Still, the sequel is “see-worthy” in that it’s, once again, visually dazzling. That’s not to say that moviegoers weren’t robbed of a visually inspiring moment, akin to watching the flowers grow on Te Fiti for the first time in Moana.
It’s hard to blame Disney executives who decided Moana: The Series would be better as Moana: The Sequel. Why pursue a television sequel when a movie would turn a much higher profit?
In Marvel fashion, the post-credits scene sets up Moana 3, and it’s with high hopes that Disney develops a story a third time around that will once again inspire young moviegoers and Disney adults watching. As people love to criticize Disney’s recent fixation with producing sequels—and much of this noise comes from Disney fans themselves, we forget that sometimes sequels can live up to their predecessor films.(After all, Inside Out 2 did what Moana 2 failed to do: charm audiences with a worthy story as good as the first movie.).
Let’s just hope Disney answers the call to turn the boat around and get Lin-Manuel Miranda back on board.
