My Review of Moana (2026)

 

Written by Jared Bush And Dana Ledoux Miller

Directed by Thomas Kail

Maui: "You're welcome."

It was a summer of mixed hits in terms of blockbusters and Disney seem to be almost half and half these days. With their live action remakes, they're either hits or misfires. This probably fell into the latter side of things.

Maybe it was the fact that it was less than two years ago, Moana 2 surprised everyone by being a decent sequel and hitting a billion. Perhaps it was too soon to do a live action version of the first movie.

The beats are essentially the same as what we got back in 2016. Catherine Laga'aia took on the title role of Moana and she's pretty likable as character in live action. Her story of course was the same beats, aided by her endearingly dumb chicken Heihei in order to retrieve a heart and magical hook.

This meant teaming up with shape shifting demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson). Johnson reprising the role for live action mostly works. His scenes with Moana and Heihei are the strongest as even a demigod can go on an important journey of discovery.

The visuals in this film are something of a mixed bag. Some are excellently brought to life while others clearly needed a bit more time in the editing room. It's not quite as bad it could've been a bit better too.

There's some good supporting roles for John Tui, Frankie Adams and Rena Owen as Moana's parents and Gramma Tala. Jermaine Clements reprised his villainous crab Tamatoa and he's generally good here. 

- A third animated movie is in the works, so this side of Disney will definitely have more exploration.

- Auli'i Cravalho has an executive producer role for this film.

- Standout music: Same from the animated movie, plus new song Along The Way.

- Chronology: The Polynesian island of Motunui. Te Fiti was also a living island while Te Kā was a volcanic demon.

Live action Moana isn't actually that bad. It's perfectly fine to watch and Catherine Laga'aia was very good as the title character. Even Dwayne Johnson isn't too bad here. I think I liked this more than expected.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Moana 2 (2024)

 

Written by Jared Bush And Dana Ledoux Miller And Bek Smith

Directed by David Derrick Jr. And Jason Hand And Dana Ledoux Miller

Moana: "Still not a princess."

Maui: "A lot of people would disagree."

It's interesting what a twist of fate can have. Originally this was supposed to be a miniseries for Disney+ but for some reason it was decided to make it into a theatrical release. That was a decision that turned out well.

Since the events of the first movie, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) has become determined to find more people by exploring all the islands near Motunui. It's not been a successful venture for her and she's also missing Maui (Dwayne Johnson). Of course their paths would cross but not until halfway into the movie.

In the meantime, Maui had gotten himself into a bit of a pickle of his own. It turned out that helping Moana in the previous movie had consequences and he was now captured by Matangi (Awhimai Fraser). She's an enforcer of storm God, Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea'i), the main villain of the movie. 

Moana's mission for this movie also meant preventing the extinction of her people after an encounter with ancestor, Tautai Vasa (Gerald Ramsay). This also meant assembling a crew, which included Loto (Rose Matafeo), Kele (David Fane) and Moni (Hualālai Chung). Oh and there was the return of Heihei (Alan Tudyk) and pet pig, Pua.

Over the course of the movie, we had Moana and her crew reunited with Maui (Moni really was a fanboy). There was the journey that involved working with the coconut baddies from the first movie and Maui having to use his powers to help Moana lift Motufetu enough for the latter to touch.

It wasn't too surprising that Matangi was the one who was trying to stop the humans from reconnecting with ocean. By the end of this movie, that connection had been made with a celebration in Moana's honour to boot.

- A mid credit with Matangi and Nalo seemed to be setting a third movie that will happen due to this one getting over a billion dollars at the box office.

- Moana had a younger sister named Simba (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) while Dwayne Johnson's daughters and mother's had minor roles in the movie.

- Standout music: We're Back, Beyond, My Wish For You, What Could Be Better Than This? and We Know The Way.

- Chronology: Three years since the events of the first movie.

Moana 2 did actually work rather well as a sequel, in spite of the fact it wasn't intended to be a theatrical one. The new characters/villains are fun, the songs are good and there's clearly an intent for another one down the line.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Moana (2016)

 

Written by Jared Bush And Ron Clements And John Musker And Chris Williams And Don Hall And Pamela Ribon And Aaron Kandell And Jordan Kandell

Directed by John Musker And Ron Clements

Moana: "Okay, first, I am not a princess. I'm the daughter of the chief."

Maui: "Same difference."

Moana: "No."

Maui: "If you wear a dress, and have an animal sidekick, you're a princess."

Confession: Until last night, I had never seen this movie. Yes, there's some Disney movies I still have to catch up on. This and it's 2024 sequel are high on my list and things got off to a great start here.

Setting in Ancient Polynesia, our protagonist Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho), the daughter of Tui (Temuera Morrison) and Sina (Nicole Scherzinger). They're the Chief and Chieftess of Motunui and Moana had ambitions of her own. For instance, the ocean gave Moana a mission to return the heart to Te Fiti, a powerful goddess of nature and a living island.

The backstory here also being that Te Fiti had her heart stolen by shapeshifting trickster demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) who wanted to give humanity a head start. This had Te Fiti to disintegrate and for Maui to lose the heart and a magical fish hook after losing to volcanic demon named Te Kā. 

Of course, Moana's parents weren't keen on her exploring the oceans but that didn't stop the latter and her pet rooster, Heihei (Alan Tudyk) from taking to the ocean after the village's vegetation was struck by blight. They were in for one hell of an adventure.

First of all, there was the Moana and Maui dynamic. The latter wasn't pleased with the former not worshipping him and the latter was similarly annoyed with the former refusing to help her get to Te Fiti. They also couldn't get away from each other as Maui's tattoos forced his hand into helping Moana.

I'm not always the biggest fan of Dwayne Johnson as an actor but he's an absolute delight as Maui. The demigod had a massive ego that the movie had even more fun tearing down to size as Moana dragged him into helping her as they battled coconut crabs and their gigantic leader, Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement). I really enjoyed him as a minor antagonist.

As for the rest of the movie, yes both Moana and Maui were forced to step upon reuniting with Te Fiti and facing off Te Kā. There's also a great use of Moana's grandmother, Tala (Rachel House) with Moana also taking her place as wayfinder and Chiefess by the end of the movie.

- Auli'i Cravalho's mother, Puanani had a villager voice role in the movie while several actors reprised their roles for the film's Māori-language dub.

- Tamatoa was a tribute to David Bowie and Alan Tudyk was the only cast member that wasn't Polynesian or from New Zealand.

- Standout music: How Far I'll Go, You're Welcome, Shiny, I Am Moana and Know Who You Are.

- Chronology: Set in Ancient Polynesia, on the island of Motunui.

Moana deserves to be seen as one of the best modern Disney movies. Lovable protagonists, great songs, animation and delving into Polynesian history, it's an absolute blast to watch. Will catch up on the sequel during the weekend.

Rating: 9 out of 10