Moana 2

Sophia Luckey

Managing Editor

On Nov. 27, “Moana 2” made its theatrical debut. Although the film saw a great opening weekend- ranking in a whopping $389 million- the critic’s ratings did not reflect the movie’s success. “Moana 2” is a sore excuse of a sequel to one of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures greatest films of all time, lackluster in its production, music, and storyline. 

Initially, “Moana 2” was developed as a Disney+ TV series. However, after the studio’s last two projects “Strange World” and “Wish” turned out to be box-office bombs, Disney knew they needed to find a way to make a hit, and fast. Since the Moana series was already in production, Disney decided to quickly rework the TV show into a movie. 

This decision was one of the worst that the company could make from the audience’s perspective. Because the studio decided to change the medium of the story, “Moana 2” is all over the place. The film feels rushed, not letting audiences spend any time with the new characters introduced. Not only this, but the flow of the movie is anything but cohesive. Viewers can noticeably see where an episode of the TV show would start and end throughout the film, leading to a jarring viewing experience. 

With the picture’s poor pace, the storyline is jumbled. The main conflict feels forced and insignificant when compared to that of the former work in the series. This makes for an uninteresting story, and has an effect on the characters as well. With no real conflict that connects to the pre-existing characters, their actions feel disingenuous, and ultimately disconnects them from the ones they are portrayed as in the first film.

When compared to its predecessor, the movie’s soundtrack is significantly worse as well. Renowned singer/songwriter Lin Manuel Miranda famously wrote the soundtrack for “Moana,” and even won a Grammy for the movie’s staple song “How Far I’ll Go.” However, Miranda did not return to write the music for “Moana 2.” It is thought that the reason behind this decision was because during the time of production, Miranda was busy writing the music for “Mufasa: The Lion King.” 

Because Miranda did not return to write the soundtrack for the second project, the producers hired musical duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. The two are known for writing “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” an album that surprisingly won a Grammy in 2022. Even though Barlow and Bear won this prestigious award, their accolades did not translate when writing the music for “Moana 2.” 

The second movie’s soundtrack is okay at best. The songs from the second film sound as though they are trying to imitate Miranda’s style of writing and production. However, this attempt is nowhere near successful, for the music sounds cheesy and lazily composed. In fact, Barlow and Bear only wrote 4 new songs for the sequel, compared to Miranda, who wrote 7. 

Since “Moana 2” was supposed to be a TV series, Disney gave the project to the studio located in Vancouver, who normally managed the smaller projects, like a handful of the Disney princess sequels. These movies almost always released directly to video, proving the main studios superiority. Financially, this was a great decision on Disney’s behalf; cheaper studios means cheaper production, which ultimately leads to more money available to earn in the box office. 

So far, “Moana 2” has held onto the top spot in the box office for two weeks since its release, proving Disney right that their decision was the right one to make. Disney knows any movie they put out with the name “Moana,” good or bad, will bring in loads of money. The original “Moana” has been the most streamed movie for the past five years. Once “Moana 2” hits Disney+, the company knows that parents will just turn the movie on for their kids, who don’t really care or understand that the movie has no real plot.

On paper, this sounds like a great idea, but in reality, it is horrible for the longevity of the company and their relationship with audiences. Disney using the Vancouver studio to produce their full length animated feature films will downgrade the quality of their future projects. The Disney we know will be no longer if they decide to use this cheaper alternative just to make more money. 

It was teased in “Moana 2” that a third installment to the series will be coming soon. All audiences can do is hope that Disney will return to making original and well produced films.