Photo courtesy of Disney

Moana 2 official movie poster

In the vast ocean of Disney remakes, live-action films and sequels, Moana 2 sinks to the bottom. With confusing plot points and low-quality music, does this cement a new dark age for Disney?

Taking place three years after the first movie, the sequel begins when Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) returns to her homeland of Motunui with a new position, Wayfinder. She uses her new power to break the curse of Nalo, an angry god who has isolated an island that connects all the ocean tribes. However, Moana needs her trusted crew, including Maui (Dwayne Johnson), Hei-Hei the chicken and Pua the pig, in order to save her people. 

On her journey, they face detrimental storms, a new antagonist named Matangi (Awhimai Fraser) and the adorably mischievous coconut warriors, the Kakamoras, but Moana and the Kakamoras soon realize they have more in common than previously thought. With the help of some new friends, Moana is able to move past countless challenges and take on the power of Nalo.

One of the most confusing aspects of the film is the role of the villain. In the first movie, the villain, Te Kā, is clearly an antagonist, and her presence is apparent from the film’s beginning. However, in the sequel, the main villain, Nalo, is alluded to but never fully introduced. Audience members don’t know what he looks like, and there is confusion about whether he is a being or a force of nature. 

Despite the addition of five new characters, the film comes off as repetitive and a poor attempt to capture the magic of the original. This could be because the movie was initially pitched as a Disney+ series, according to Deadline. This switch led to several plot holes and confusion regarding certain characters in the film. Also, the new characters create an odd number of storylines, but more room needs to be given to allow characters to develop.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the songwriter for the original movie, did not return for the sequel. The new songwriters, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (known for their previous work in The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical), clearly attempt to recreate Miranda’s musical greatness, but fail to match his unique writing style. Instead, the songs come off as cheap remakes of the originals. Notably, the main song from Moana 2, “Beyond” is lame and expected and fails to have the same impact as “How Far I’ll Go” had in the first film. Also, Maui attempts to rap again with the new song “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” after the success of “You’re Welcome,” but the song comes off as AI-generated and makes viewers cringe. 

In typical new Disney fashion, Matangi is framed as the villain in the previews, but is unexpectedly revealed as a protagonist to audiences. This follows a recent trend in children’s movies where the villains aren’t really villains. Although this teaches kids a valuable lesson of never judging someone before knowing their whole story, it could cause viewers to turn on the other characters instead and judge the flaws of loveable characters.  

Overall, the film is a forgettable attempt to follow up on the original and is sometimes difficult to watch. Ideally, Disney will be able to rebound from this flop with the live-action adaptation of Moana, which is planned to be released in July 2026, but we all know how live-action movies go.