A Charming, Family Friendly Feature That Tries To Do Too Much LIKES:
Animation
The Songs Are Cute
The Message Is Strong
New Characters Are Interesting
Humorous
Very Brisk Pace For Kids
Voice Acting
Funny/Fun
Clever Humor At Times
Summary
Disney knows how to make an animated feature, which Moana 2 continues to show off. Their big budget has brought beautiful design and animation to the silver screen in that same style that captured our hearts long ago. Updated wardrobes, an expanding island, and the magnificent expanse of the ocean. Moana and her group have got more of that high-definition edge but never lose the cute style that we fell in love with Walt Disney Animation. This style is maintained through all the sailing, falls, and fights, always keeping the pulse on family-focused but upping the game a bit to have a little more bite than a mythological "epic" should have, as Riordan has proven in his books.
Past the obvious, Moana 2 is loaded to the nines with entertainment value for most audience members to enjoy. The songs are cute, styled in peppy pop numbers at one point, comedic pep raps at another, and almost that sea-shanty vibe at other times. Most of these are going to be drowned by the powerful ballad that has already flooded the airways, but they all work in some way to "advance" the story. It's humorous, loaded with plenty of comedic jokes and styles to appease a wide audience, with most adult humor very above most young audience members' heads. Those clever moments were my particular favorite, especially those breaking-the-fourth-wall jabs the writers got in at times, while I also enjoyed the references to the previous movie and the nostalgia it brought with it. Though the comedy is much of the backbone of this movie, there are still elements to help balance this film from being just another messy joke fest with limited story elements. There is a strong message of motivation and bravery against insurmountable odds and finding the same strength to find ways to solve problems. Sometimes, this movie hits that moment perfectly, the written dialogue and delivery with the timing to score that knock-out punch to deliver the full message. Ingenuity, lore expansion, and the modern-day messages are all trying to find their way in the water, but they are all there to help expand the characters somewhat to better avatars for facing the Disney adventures. The new characters introduced were... engaging enough and held potential from when they were recruited into Moana's journey. All of this fits within a very brisk pace that is perfect for those with short attention spans and a short run time alongside it.
Finally, the voice acting is spot on when you get time with the character. Cravalho has quite a range this time, even more than her first time in the waters, with fierceness, doubt, vulnerability, and motivation where it counts, delivering that same inspiring tone with engaging ferocity, confident words, and, at times a, relatable tone that offered comfort. Johnson may not have the same rivalry and showmanship in this role, but he replaces it with tenacity, emotional depth, and a surprising exposure that, at times, gave me the chills. Fortunately, he still has his shouting abilities to cut through the emotional times. As for Tudyk, he's got animal sounds down well and still knows how to give Hei-Hei that human quality that pairs well with the animation and planned stunts of the adaptable chicken (whose idiocy is still a running joke). The rest of the group did well when they got a chance to speak, and the little community of misfits had enough merit behind their voices to help draw attention to them and earned a few chuckles.
DISLIKES:
Some Jokes Got Stale
The Songs Are Okay
The Preachiness Gets Heavy-handed
The Impasses Are Again Kind Of Lame
New Characters Are Very Underdeveloped
The New Baddies Are Kind Of Lame
The New Little Sister Is Pure Kid and Cuddliness
Too Much In One Movie For The Short Time
Summary:
In a kids' film, jokes are going to be overused, and corners are going to be cut to help get the giggles out. Some of the running gags lost their edge with me by the fifth iteration, and some of the other jokes were just not my style and lacked the creativity or placement that the other films did. The fun factor helped blunt this for me, and the brisk pace is more than adequate to minimize your exposure to the jokes.
The jokes are not the only thing that lost some of the shine. Moana 2's songs are, at times, fun and cute, but they lack a lot of the same spirit and wow factor that the first installment brought with the songwriter's talents from that film. A change in the musical direction was not killer to the movie, but the songs didn't have the best use in this movie nor the same pop that I had hoped would be present. Ironically, these are the moments that integrated the new characters the most, with the remainder split between comedic quips and the occasional actual skill set they were chosen to apply in the voyage (with the latter saved primarily for the end). This brings me to my next limitation with the movie: the characters. Moana was brilliant in limiting its characters to three main protagonists that the secondary characters worked with instead of against. Moana 2 pushed the envelope, with too many characters introduced and their application very limited and often pointless on most levels outside of humor. I was bored with them and their stale jokes, with character development as juvenile as the intended audience who will not care. Yet, with such a promising story and mythology to base that story around, I expected more integration and fewer shortcuts to just load the movie with that superficial flash in the pan. Even the new antagonists are a waste in this chapter, with only the last fifteen minutes bringing any impasse to the quest that is supposedly much harder than the first quest. Technically, they weren't right, but all the buildup was rushed, and the solutions diluted down to mere jokes or shallow incorporation of a plot element to get to the next phase. Even the little sister is limited to a confined niche of humor, with her cuteness and sassiness being adorable and a great medium for love, but not much past that. It's not that I'm heartless to such tactics, but I know there was more they could have done, but I felt shorted for the interest of time and making the message preachy in that Disney way. A strong message is present, but at times, it gets blasted in our faces by that same direct and overemotional method that Disney has become a fan of since about the mid-2010s. It's not the worst movie to do this, but I get tired of such antics when they are present in so many movies these days.
The VERDICT:
Moana 2 is another beautiful dive into the Polynesian culture that blends Disney magic with the mythology of the culture. It's fun and mostly family-friendly (though cautious with sensitive children and loud sound delicate) that takes the familiar jokes and cuteness and loads it into the short run-time. The movie introduces enough new things to hook you in and make those motivational moments hit hard the way that Disney knows how to deliver. And as I have said, I did have fun and found that there was enough of the showmanship to be entertaining. However, the movie is not the masterpiece I had hoped it would be and felt very much like a Disney+ series condensed down into a short time limit. The characters are not as adequately used; the villains have more shimmer than bite, and the impasses are still too rapidly cleared due to the fast pace. It was way too much in one film for me, never hitting the most potential nor having the same wow factor and breathtaking value its prequel had. So many characters felt like gimmicks, reduced to mere comedy or song tokens before being overshadowed by the main two again. We have some foreshadowing and a mid-trailer teaser to show what is to come, but this movie felt very chopped up into a setup film that is semi-self-contained but shakily for this reviewer. Is it worth a trip to the theater? Yes, if you are the target audience and don't mind a very cramped and simpler family film. Worth 3-D? To be honest, it has potential with the way the scenes are designed, the colors, and some of the more exciting parts enough that 3-D could be enhanced by the glasses. With all this in mind, I give Moana 2:
Adventure/Animated/Family/Comedy/Musical/Family: 7.5
Movie Overall: 7.0.