Disney is releasing movie sequels more frequently compared to company originals. From “Inside out 2,” “The Lion King: Mufasa,” and now “Moana 2.” While quality may naturally differ, the current movies are chasms apart. “Moana 2” is an example of the lower-quality sequels.
Despite being advertised on every platform and several plazas, it is not as good as it is made out to be. Compared to its predecessor “Moana,” it has several issues and areas of improvement regarding plot, characters, humor, and connectivity.
The movie itself has nice visuals and the music was one of the most enjoyable aspects. In those departments, they continue to thrive -producing wonderful works. Yet, once it comes to storytelling, the film falls short.
It loses the intricacy of the first movie, beginning with Moana sailing towards an island, where we learn of her motives for finding other civilizations. It doesn’t build up or let us infer what she wants. And, once she returns home it seems less like her dream, and more like her carrying on the wishes of her predecessors; those who were never mentioned searching for others. The people on other islands were told to be either from her tribe, or other voyagers.
Yes, the tribal stories from the first movie can hint at the future want to find connections, but her wording and series of actions don’t seem like her. She doesn’t follow her mannerisms and acts upon things differently, making her appear out of character.
The tribal stories also seem altered and there are new ‘lost’ customs, showing tapestries that have stories no one has heard of before. Why would there be unknown tapestries if they’re the only people on the island?
They then have new customs/ rituals. What rituals would they have learned to perform? The hidden cove is said to have had ships, and as far as we were told wayfinding and previous customs were lost to time.
Towards the story-building in the first movie, it was told that they were voyagers, discovering islands. Never was it said they wanted to rejoin the seas. They had different means of death, and the ‘last voyager’ in the second movie wasn’t the last in the first as there is a clip of the necklace being passed on. Yet, he never again shows up in the second movie.
Then, following her expedition she decides that a journey this dangerous requires a crew. I understand adding more variety, but why give her a crew? An inexperienced crew at that? In the first song, you can tell who will have a bigger part in the film. I was left wondering: Why get people with no sea legs to go fight a god? Why try to teach them on the way there how to function together? She knew how hard it was to learn with no prior experience, yet thought it would be fine to teach multiple people how. People who had no synergy were doing some of the most illogical things, even if they were for comedic effect. Because no, you can’t chop off the mast, we need that to sail.
