Review: 'Moana 2' finds Disney's South Pacific heroine on a new adventure, in a colorful story of connection
It’s no surprise that “Moana 2” builds on the foundation of 2016’s Disney animated adventure “Moana” — but it is a nice surprise how sturdy that foundation is, and how charmingly the new chapter plays out.
Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) is as we left her after the last movie, working to do right by her ancestors as her island village’s “wayfinder,” seeking to unlock the biggest mystery of the ocean: Why aren’t there other people like Moana and her village on other islands?
On one such island, Moana — accompanied by her pet pig Pua and her less-than-brainy chicken, Hei Hei (voiced by Alan Tidy) — finds a pottery piece with an unusual marking. This marking shows a mountain and a line of people, and an unknown constellation. Finding this mountain, Moana believes, could help unravel the mystery of where other people are. When Moana is hit by lightning, she has a vision that tells her that she must find other people, or her own village is in danger of extinction.
At a time like this, Moana could sure use her friend Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), the demigod with a magic fishhook and expressive body tattoos. At the moment, Maui is being held captive by the villainous Matangi (voiced by Awhimai Fraser), who’s doing the bidding of the evil god who is laboring to keep the mountain undetected by humans like Moana.
Without Maui available, Moana figures she needs a crew, so she recruits Loto (voiced by Rose Matafeo), the village’s expert boat builder; Moni (voiced by Hualalai Chung), a scribe who is a major Maui superfan; and Kale (voied by David Fane), an elderly farmer who would rather be back on dry land.
Disney-heads will likely know that “Moana 2” was first pitched in 2020 as a TV series for Disney+, and was later retooled as a feature film. It’s to the credit of the directing team — Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller and David G. Derrick Jr., all first-time directors — that the story (the script is by Miller and Jared Bush) feels like a complete narrative. Only in the mid-credit cut scene, in which a character from the first movie is awkwardly re-introduced, does this movie feel the pull of studio-driven franchise concerns.
With a score of new songs (by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Opetaia Foa’i and composer Mark Mancina), the voice cast, led beautifully by Cravalho, captures the doubt and determination Moana feels as she’s called to follow this epic quest. “Moana 2” also deploys Pacific Islander cultural touchstones to bring out a powerful message about the importance of human connection, across oceans and generations.
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‘Moana 2’
★★★1/2
Opens Wednesday, November 27, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for action/peril. Running time: 100 minutes.