“Moana 2” was released on November 27, 2024, but recently became free to watch on Disney+. Personally, Moana is one of my favorite movies, so I had pretty high expectations. Sadly, the sequel didn’t quite meet them.
After making a movie as well-received as “Moana,” it can be hard to make a second movie that is even half as good. Expectations and pressure are high, making people easily more disappointed. I tried my best not to let that affect my rating of this movie, however, I won’t say it didn’t bring it down a bit.
The start of the movie was not good. While the start of movies typically isn’t, this one was worse. The start felt like it was rushing to get to exciting scenes and Moana out in the sea but also failing to do so. It was going too fast but not correctly. Furthermore, it felt almost impossible to tell how much time had passed since the first movie. I wondered that throughout the entire thing.
The middle of the movie got better. More things were happening, and things didn’t feel rushed. The “enemies” had great designs and didn’t feel boring at all. The story advancement was good and very enjoyable.
Although I would say the middle was by far the best part of the movie, the end was confusing and a bit underwhelming. Instead of answering questions, it created way more. For the underwhelming part, after the climax, they didn’t ease the movie back into the normal pace and feeling of the story. It felt more like a snap of the fingers.
Compared to the first movie, “Moana 2” was not good. But on its own, it isn’t terrible. The animation and the effects were very good, and I was incredibly impressed. While it doesn’t make up for the terrible story execution, it adds some points. The character designs were good and pretty different for the most part. With most characters, if you were given only a silhouette of them, you could pretty quickly identify who they were. Considering all the characters, mainly on the island, are meant to look pretty similar, that is impressive. Most of the music wasn’t bad, either. One or two of them felt out of place, but other than that, they were fine.
Overall, this movie is a 6.5 out of 10. It was good, and I don’t regret watching it.
Although the way they executed the story is too bad to ignore, I enjoy them trying not to waste time for more time in the movie, although they did not do it correctly. The story feels choppy, and it seems like we are given less information and explanation than most people would need. I would’ve ignored that if most of the questions were answered at the end, but it only caused more questions to arise, making me more frustrated than satisfied with the movie. I recommend it, mainly for little kids, but it is not a great movie.