On the fictional South Pacific island of Motunui, a variety of tween girls known as the “Moanabe” (pronounced “Mo-wannabe”) now exist. These enthusiastic, sometimes clumsy young ladies are a queen who is also well known to the rest of the world: the tough seafaring Moana, teenage heroine from the 2016 film of the same name. After she saved her people from famine through an ancient curse on the goddess of undoing nature, Moana (voiced again by Auli’i Cravalho) has gone from being the eldest daughter of the island tribe’s leader to, essentially, the co-daughter of her father leader. Children look up to her, village elders ask her for advice and her return from a three-day solo trip to a nearby island is celebrated as if it were a major national holiday.

Moana 2 is something of a Moanabe itself, eight years younger than its wildly popular predecessor (Moana earned universal acclaim and over $600 million worldwide, and remains a fan favorite on streaming) and determined to recreate, if not his unique charm, then at least his most recognizable gestures and stylistic choices. Scene after scene, there’s nothing not to enjoy about this lushly animated ode to discovery, teamwork, and picking, especially if you’re a parent of small children looking for a fun family outing. But for all its verve and brilliance, Moana 2 seems more like a consumer product than the first film in a subtle but unmistakable way. (Given that both were hyper-promoted Disney releases, it might be more accurate to say that the sequel wears its inevitable status as a mass-produced consumer good less lightly than the original.) The little details and strange character quirks that define the first Moana have been sanded or, worse, recycled as nostalgic callbacks.

Part of the problem is that, as with every second film in a franchise of this size, the title character has no choice but to start from the position of an overdog. When we first meet her, the slightly older Moana – about three years have passed in the movie business since the previous chapter – has none of the self-doubt and insecurity that plagued her during her first adventure. She is a confident, idealistic, powerful young woman – a state of being that, while certainly optimal for her, is not the most conducive to a satisfying character arc for the audience. Instead of watching as our heroine gains the competence and knowledge she needs to accomplish an extremely difficult task, this time we get to see an almost superheroic protagonist, a kind of Moses who already knows she can part the waters and can walk among them (although in her case she mainly does it to entertain her little sister).

It’s true that Moana will later encounter obstacles that call on her to tap even deeper reserves of that all-important Disney heroine fuel: belief in herself. But now that she’s best friends with a demigod, the shape-shifting trickster god Maui (voiced, as in the original, by Dwayne Johnson), Moana has something of a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s not difficult to get one deus ex machina save if you are a real one deus who regularly exchanges high-fives with the ocean.

Once again, the sea voyage at the center of the film is set in motion by a battle between the natural and supernatural worlds. This time, an angry god has placed a curse on a distant island, which must be lifted so that the scattered peoples of the world can find each other. Moana is called upon by her traveling ancestors, including her late grandmother Tala (Rachel House), to take on this dangerous task. At her parents’ insistence, Moana brings a team this time, an unlikely trio of misfits: Moni (Huālalai Chung), a teenage boy who idolizes Maui; Loto (Rose Matafeo), a quirky (and possibly slightly queer-coded) teenage girl who is an expert with a toolbox; and Kele (David Fane), a grumpy old farmer who hates the ocean and can’t even swim. They’re joined by not one but two adorable animal sidekicks, who also return from the first film: Moana’s intellectually challenged chicken Hei Hei (Alan Tudyk) and her pet pig Pua.

Wild things happen as the traveler’s raft approaches the cursed island of Motufetu. A kind of floating mountain turns out to be the shell of a colossal shell, within which the travelers are trapped for a while. Pinocchio-style. There’s an extended encounter with the Kakamora, a species that Moana also met last time – basically they’re sentient coconuts, animated in a Minion-like fashion, whose specialty is piracy on the high seas. Later, the crew will meet the mysterious underworld goddess Matangi (Awhimai Fraser).

This middle section is too action-packed to be completely coherent; every other scene features a near-capsizing or other confrontation with a maritime disaster, and the antagonists continue to pile on. But the onboard jokes are often funny, and the frame is always bursting with bold, warm colors and witty visual ideas. For example, Maui’s many tattoos (still) have the ability to move around his body like animated figures, their gestures and interactions sometimes commenting on the main story. When new characters are introduced, such as a somber-looking neon green blobfish that secretes a powerful but non-lethal neurotoxin, the designs are reliably clever, but no creature sticks with you like the bling-hoarding crab voiced by Jemaine Clement in Moana (who only returns this time for a brief non-musical cameo).

Moana 2 is directed by the team of David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, all making their feature film debut, from a script by Miller and original Moana screenwriter Jared Bush. The project was intended as a TV series, a line that may remain visible in that crowded middle section.

Although it shows some symptoms of subsequent inflammation, Moana 2 appears to have been created with enthusiasm, love and impressive attention to detail by a group of talented artists, many of whom have cultural roots in the South Pacific. The score was once again composed by Mark Mancina in collaboration with Samoan-born, New Zealand-raised songwriter Opetaia Foa’i, but this time without the help of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote or co-wrote the most memorable songs in the 2016 film. The Grammy-winning composing team of Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (The unofficial Bridgerton musical) contribute songs that fit nicely into their dramatic place without ever leaving an impression as deep as ‘How Far I’ll Go’, ‘Shiny’, ‘You’re Welcome’ or ‘We Know the Way’ by the original (a fantastic song). seafaring anthem usually sung in Samoan and Tokelauan). The big songs of the new film are virtuoso framed by the golden-throated Cravalho and pleasantly sung by The Rock, whose incarnation of the conceited but needy Maui is perhaps the best work of his career of wrestling, acting, wrestling again. . But I would have been hard-pressed to hum a single tune on the soundtrack half an hour after leaving the cinema.

A mid-credits teaser subtly hints that another age-old, myth-related crisis may emerge in the future for Moana and her team to confront. And true to Disney’s recently established tradition of recycling its animated classics as live-action…less than classics, a remake of the first film is already in the works, also starring Johnson, and due out in the summer of 2026 will be released. The young Polynesian adventuress (please don’t call her, as she insists with a fierce look in the new film, call her a princess) may still be dreaming about how far she will go, but the audience will have to choose for themselves whether they are ready another to ride.