Since November 28, the animation musical adventure film «Moana 2», a sequel to the eponymous 2016 animated film, has been released in cinemas. Its trailer in May broke the Disney viewing record when the video was watched 178 million times in a day. In this review, we delve into how interesting it is to watch as the seafaring girl confronts coconut minions and apocalyptic twisters.
Pluses:
an unusually beautiful cartoon; the adventures of the characters are exciting enough to make you not regret your time; the rooster Heihei;
Minuses:
a standard plot with a number of typical characters who do not develop much; musical numbers somehow pass by; lack of an adequate villain;
«Moana 2»
Genre animation, adventure, comedy, musical
Directors David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller
Voice Cast Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Halisi Lambert-Tsuda, Rose Matafeo, David Fein, Hualalai Chung, Rachel Haus, Awhimai Fraser, Gerald Ramsey, Alan Tudyk
Premiere cinemas
Release Year 2024
Website IMDb, official site
The sun on the Polynesian island of Motunui is still shining brightly, the ocean remains pleasantly warm and blue, and the rooster Heihei is still as funny and silly as ever. Moana has grown up a bit, but remains as joyful and ready for new adventures. And these adventures do not take long to come, as wise ancestors point the girl towards a path that could lead her to the mythical island of Motufetu, which once connected the islands and, accordingly, their tribes.
However, the evil god Nalo has flooded Motufetu and cursed it, thus severing a valuable link, which risks turning into catastrophic consequences. To rectify this glaring injustice, Moana assembles a team, which definitely includes a cute piglet and the aforementioned rooster, and embarks on a perilous journey. During the mission, the protagonist, of course, encounters her old friend the demigod Maui, who has his scores to settle with Nalo. But will they be able to defeat the powerful enemy together and build a bridge for a ceremonial reunion of the tribes?
After the success of the first part, the appearance of a sequel was just a matter of time. Initially, Disney Animation intended to create a series, which they planned to release on streaming last year. However, those plans did not come to fruition, so the audience is now presented with a full-length continuation of the 2016 film.
The creators of «Moana 2», who are absolute debutants in directing, David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, do not intend to reinvent the wheel (or in this case, the improvised boat), and try to follow the successful formula of the original.
Picturesque oceanic landscapes, thrilling sea adventures, whimsical creatures, a pinch of humor (Heihei is as incomparable as ever), and, of course, songs — here they are held together by a superficial plot with conditional mythology. But this is not a big deal, as the journey goes smoothly and there is hardly any boredom. So, there is just enough local zeal to have a good time at the cinema with the kids.
Indeed, adults may have to endure the first half-hour, during which songs prevail on the screen, and even those are hard to call impressive. But then the story gradually picks up adventurous turns, there are fewer songs, and coconut pirates appear on the horizon, playful in the style of Dwayne Johnson flexing his pectoral muscles as Maui.
Overall, this character adds the necessary energy to the action, and it’s easy to fall for his charm, making it intriguing to see Johnson in a live-action adaptation of the animation, planned for release in 2026. In fact, paparazzi have already photographed the actor during filming, and The Rock himself admitted that his muscular tattooed torso owes to a special bodysuit.
So, when the characters fully plunge into a whirl of adventures, before you know it, you find yourself glued to the screen. However, don’t expect any revelations from the story and characters — they are all absolute clichés, incapable of stepping outside their functional roles. The problem is that the episodic rooster Heihei manages to entertain far more than Moana’s secondary assistants combined, except perhaps the grumbling of the old farmer still looks tolerable.
The rather standard plot, which doesn’t even have room for a fully-fledged villain, is also unsurprising. However, all these gaps are not critical within a children’s animation, and its visual beauty and adventurous spirit offset the authors’ creative helplessness.
Among other curiosities, besides the aforementioned coconut men, the heroes will encounter: a jelly-like funny creature, several worm-like monsters, one of which, following the example of a xenomorph, spits some nasty acid, a mollusk-kaiju, powerful tornadoes from relevant disaster movies, as well as giant waves from Nolan’s «Interstellar».
Overall, this colorful adventure has enough resilience to captivate kids for an hour and a half, and along with them, allow adults to dive into a vivid oceanic journey and escape from the grim reality. Perhaps the plot constantly tries to trick us, but for every dubious grunt, there’s another prank from the relentless rooster.
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