Moana 2 (2024)

PG mainly because every kids' movie has a lot of scary parts for kids.  Like, these creatures are becoming a little bit upsetting every time.  There's a giant clam island that swallows boats whole.  There are a lot of bats.  If you have a thing about bats, that might be the worst for you.  Also, there's a lot of death fake outs.  There's one that can be really upsetting for younger kids because it comes at that one moment where a character understands their own mortality.  You know, kids' stuff.  PG.

DIRECTORS: David G. Derrick, Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller

See, now I've gone off the deep end.  Not only am I going to go see Wicked today, but we decided to watch The Goonies last night.  So that, once again, puts me at three blogs behind and I don't want to be writing these things next week.  I don't know what it is about the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas where everyone is down to watch a movie, but I know it is going to create a lot of work for me.  This is the weirdest complaint in the world.

I really want to know the entire background for this movie.  For those who don't know, Moana 2 is repurposed from being a Disney+ Limited Series into being cut for a theatrical run.  I know that most of the brass at Disney tend to know that their IP does better as theatrical releases, even if theatrical releases may not be the most financially successful stuff out there.  The way I understand it is (and this is from someone who is not on the inside) is that television has always been considered a lesser medium.  While theatrical release is more of a financial risk, the big name stuff that Disney puts out keeps people in the Disney collective consciousness.  But I also wonder how far Moana 2 got before it was decided to go in a different direction.  Why I'm positing all of this is because, despite the fact that I knew that this was meant to be a limited series before going into it, it does feel mostly like it was always meant to be a theatrical release.

Part of me is glad that this is a theatrical release.  Listen, I'm a guy who gets pretty jazzed for Disney+ stuff.  I thought that the direct release to a streaming service during Covid was a godsend, despite the fact that it angered a lot of filmmakers.  I get it.  But I'm always going to be on the public safety side of things over the egos of filmmakers.  (Mind you, if I was in their shoes, I would also be a big stick in the mud about such things.) As a theatrical release, it works pretty well.  I will admit that I'm still kind of unpacking things.  The reality of the situation is that Moana was a bit of a game-changing movie.  (Note: I can't believe I've been writing this blog long enough that I can say that I watched both of these movies in theaters, despite the sequel coming out almost a decade after the initial movie.) I know that Moana 2 is not a game-changer.  It's very good.  In fact, I'm a little annoyed by some of the ho-hum reviews that the movie is getting.

But I kind of get where those reviews are coming from, even if I don't agree with those thoughts at all.  The Disney Princess films (even though, as the movie stresses, that Moana is not technically a Disney Princess) tend to be hard to sequelize.  As a guy who gave Frozen 2 a fair shake, I think the problem comes with the idea that we fall in love with whole new worlds and whole new characters with each Disney Princess entry.  (I'm sorry, I'm going to use the terms "Disney Princess movie" as shorthand for something that I'm having a hard time defining.) Maybe Final Fantasy as a franchise might have the same problem.  It is hard to find that magic again.  Do I think that Moana 2 comes incredibly close?  Yeah, I do.  Part of that comes with how pretty the movie is.  The color palates that the Moana movies deal with are aesthetically pleasing as can be.  The movie starts with the artsiest shot of a hermit crab searching for a new shell.  I was about to say that it has nothing to do with the movie, but I just got the metaphor that the movie is about Moana looking for more people to find a new home.  

But that shot of the hermit crab is a testament to what lengths animation has gone to in an attempt to push the envelope.  My father-in-law was meh about the movie, but he couldn't deny how pretty the movie looked.  If nothing else (which Moana 2 offers a lot), this movie acts as a showcase of animation that might be unmatched.  These are gorgeous movies and, as stupid as this sounds, it is a celebration of color and form. 

But Moana 2 thrives at screaming something at us that many of us, unfortunately, do not care about.  The recent trend of Disney movies has been a healthy step towards undoing the tropes that have tended to lean towards the misogynist.  I know that there are probably a bunch of people who scream "Woke" at these movies, but I do love that Moana is a character who has all of the odds stacked against her, but defies those odds when it comes to self-sacrifice and belief in herself.  And I applaud the movie for doing these things while not undoing the lessons from the first film.  It's not that the characters aren't flawed.  Maui is still incredibly cocky when compared to the other character.  But he's also imbued with respect and love for Moana, whom he views as an equal despite being a demigod.  If the first movie was learning to find oneself, the second movie is about pushing oneself.  Moana, in the first film, does what she does with the word "no" being thrown at her at all sides except for her grandmother and the ocean.  But the second one is Moana in a place where society supports that, not only is she capable of great things, but she might be the only person capable of great things.  With a character like Maui, that would be a toxic combination.  But with Moana, she treats this newfound respect as a leader should, empowering others to pick up their own talents and use them for a greater good.

The insane part is that Moana also understands that her adventures don't affect just her.  In the first film, her parents held onto her too closely. That was a story about defining oneself beyond the influence of parenthood.  But now she realizes that she has someone younger looking towards her.  Yeah, they're giving Moana a motherhood story when she's really just an older sister.  But it is fascinating to know that the real kryptonite that Moana faces doesn't come from physical impediments, but rather the emotional ties that she owes to others.  It's a cool concept, especially giving the character emotional growth.  But...

...the other characters don't really add anything.  I mean, they are likable.  Moana's sister makes sense, but the extra add-ons with the boat don't really add anything narratively.  Here's me trying to make sense of them.  A limited series on Disney+ needs more characters.  They probably got a ton more character stuff to go through in those stages.  But when it comes to the much more focused story that a theatrical release has, these characters had little reason to be there.  There might have been a small reason when it came to the theatrical release when it came to those characters.  Spoilers, but Moana might be a demigod by the end.  They needed a human character to stand on land, so Moana would be out.  But that's three characters who have little value who are there simply for their mortality.   It's a weird choice.

But the movie mostly works.  I would 1000% watch this movie again.  Am I missing Lin Manuel Miranda?  Yeah, a bit.  The songs are good, but not Lin Manuel Miranda good.  Part of that comes from the fact that I haven't heard them a billion times at this point.  But all of the weaknesses come from the fact that this is a sequel.  But we shouldn't complain.  I lived int he Return of Jafar era of Disney sequels and loved that movie.  So, we should be thrilled with the same attitudes of TV show to movie transitions.  Listen, as long as the movie works, I'm on board.  Well done, Moana 2.