Moana (2026) Review: Second Verse Exactly the Same as the First
The exact same story. The exact same songs. But make it dull.
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Ten years ago Disney introduced us to Moana of Motunui, chosen by the ocean to help her dying island with the help of the demigod Maui, played by Dwayne Johnson. It's a rousing throwback to classic era Disney princess musicals, with snappy songs and was beautifully animated. It's a story so nice the studio essentially wanted to make it twice, and thus its entered the pipeline of other movies getting the live-action treatment solely because they were made before.
This new take on Moana is essentially a shot-for-shot remake (though a lot more of those shots feel like they have Maui in them). The story is the same, the songs are the same, the characters are the same. It's just now what could beautifully be accomplished is rendered in CGI with an high level of uncanny valley on display. A game cast tries hard to make this their own, but in a landscape where Moana 2 barely registered on the pop culture scale, this live-action remake of the story only reminds audiences why the original should have stayed one and done.
Moana (Catherine Laga'aia) is the bright, determined chieftain's daughter who loves the sea despite her father's insistence she stay on her island. When the island starts suffering food shortages, Moana discovers the island villagers were once voyagers and quests to restore the heart of Te Fita and save her home. Along the way she meets disgraced demigod Maui (Johnson), and the two become unlikely allies.
Moana 2026 is a prime example of how telling the exact same story, albeit with live action, doesn't mean lightning strikes the second time. Every element you enjoyed about the original feature is present – including what feels like even more digressions to Moana's pet chicken Hei Hen – and yet the overall effect is muted and, at times, very boring. This iteration is just seven minutes longer than the animated feature and right around the time the villain song "Shiny" starts you'll feel like two hours have passed.
This being Laga'aia's first feature film, she's incredibly green and that comes through a lot here. She's perpetually in what can only be dubbed as Moana stance: legs apart, shoulders back, and confident. But the movies seems to have little interest in Moana. Where the original film allowed Moana to grow through moments of isolation, this Moana is never alone. We see her with her parents – John Tui and Frankie Adams who are great in small roles – or with her grandmother, impeccably played by Rena Owen (stealing every scene) or Maui.
And for a movie called Moana, this movie feels a lot like a Maui movie. Johnson is in the frame a lot in this movie, and the sheer constant presence of him ends up overshadowing and unmining any good work Laga'aia could be doing. Rocking a Vidal Sassoon wig – that looks even worse when it's wet – Johnson is just resting on his laurels. His voice work, that was so outsized and fun in the animated film, is bland here as if he's just perpetually annoyed.
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The problem is how much animation works for the original feature and there's a heavy reliance on specifically on what worked best as animated. Maui's tattoos, which could be mined for comedy because they could be seen full-screen are incredibly small. Good luck seeing what expressions baby Maui is making. The original Moana is beautifully animated, allowing for the sea to take on a life of its own. Hei Hei and Moana's pig Pua have expressive faces.
Moana's facial expressions can be more florid in an animated film that balances out with her voice acting. And Maui, a Samoan demigod, lives up to the name. Here, the sea shimmers like it's glowing in a Disney theme park, and Hei Hei and Pua have a waxy sheen. (It never looks like Laga'aia is handling any creature in this movie.) This all comes to a head in "Shiny," the sequence wherein Maui and Moana are trapped in the home of a massive crab voiced, once again, by Jemaine Clement.
Again, because the crab was animated you could see all the detailing in the moment, and see Moana and Maui clearly in danger within the music performance. Here, it's a weirdly edited sequence to allow for the live action characters to co-exist with the CGI. Moana looks like she's rolling around in King Kong's hand while Clement's Tamatoa looks like a bizarre Disney animatronic.
Director Thomas Kail, who helmed the live recording of Hamilton, clearly has a flair for theater as the movie's opening performance and choreography is impeccable. And yet there's no choreographed dances after this. Cinematographer Oscar Faura gets a chance to show off some beautiful island long-shots. But the moments of Moana piloting the boat have an odd rear-projection quality to them at times and, mostly, the need is to just recreate the exact same shot list as the animated film.
Disney's clearly trying to find the formula on their live-action remakes, clearly not happy to go too far astray (no one wants another Snow White) and yet doing something ultra-faithful like this just makes the entire thing boring. Moana 2026 is lovely to look at sometimes, but it's wholly unnecessary and only diminishes what made the original work so well. If you enjoyed the animated film, stick with what works. I'd rather have a bad Moana 3 than something regurgitated.
Grade: D+
Moana is in theaters Friday.
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