Moana 2

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

While I enjoyed the movie and had a fun time, I had never had such low expectations for a WDFA film in my whole life, due to being nervous as to how choppy or episodic, etc, it would be. I was happy with the end results. But, obviously the film is doing amazing at the box office. Besides Disney getting the idea that they will continue with making sequels, because they make so much money, what other lessens will they learn from this? How much different, in the end, was the production on this film than the others, and how might their future film production change due to Moana 2's success?

Good point. There's nothing bad that's being caused by this film's success since Disney have been on the sequel train for years. That's partly why they pushed WDAS into 3D because they recognized there was more franchise potential with 3D films from watching PIXAR and Dreamworks. Frozen 2-4, Zootopia 2-3, Moana 2-3, Encanto 2-3, etc. is just the realization of their planning, so... Maybe in-between the sequel successes, an original property might take off occasionally. They were in a dark area around the pandemic, but even some of their older films like BH6 and WIR weren't strong enough to push sequels from, too (although they still tried with WIR).

Let’s hope they can find a way to put The Princess and the Frog 2/Tiana in there since Disney can’t put a genie back in the bottle when it comes to turning Disney+ series into movies (Armor Wars, The Mandalorian & Grogu, and Moana 2).

[Farerb]

‘Moana 2’ Shatters Box Office Records Around the World
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/moana-2-box-office/

[robster16]

That is just truly heartbreakingly sad news! Disney will just keep shoveling familiar ip’s down people’s throats because apparently that’s what they want, regardless of the complaints about the lack of originality. It’s disheartening, truly…

[PatchofBlue]

You know that feeling when you try to tell your kid to stay in school and not blow all their funds on gambling in Vegas, and then they tell you they're going to go blow all their funds on gambling in Vegas, and then they win a billion dollars blowing all their funds on gambling in Vegas ...

[Disney's Divinity]

If it's breaking all these records, does that mean it's starting off stronger than Inside Out 2 did? That would be surprising.

[Pokenonbinary]

If it's breaking all these records, does that mean it's starting off stronger than Inside Out 2 did? That would be surprising.

It started stronger than IO2 but Moana 2 has a bad cinemascore so that will eventually slow down the legs and not reach Inside Out 2 final WW number

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

If it's breaking all these records, does that mean it's starting off stronger than Inside Out 2 did? That would be surprising.

It started stronger than IO2 but Moana 2 has a bad cinemascore so that will eventually slow down the legs and not reach Inside Out 2 final WW number

That CinemaScore is the same one Frozen II had and that didn’t slow that film down.

I doubt this same CS for Moana 2 will slow it down as well.

[Pokenonbinary]

It started stronger than IO2 but Moana 2 has a bad cinemascore so that will eventually slow down the legs and not reach Inside Out 2 final WW number

That CinemaScore is the same one Frozen II had and that didn’t slow that film down.

I doubt this same CS for Moana 2 will slow it down as well.

Frozen II bad cinemascore clearly affected its box office

The movie made 1.4b (great number) but could have made like The Incredibles 2 in a good scenario

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

That CinemaScore is the same one Frozen II had and that didn’t slow that film down.

I doubt this same CS for Moana 2 will slow it down as well.

Frozen II bad cinemascore clearly affected its box office

The movie made 1.4b (great number) but could have made like The Incredibles 2 in a good scenario

It made more than The Incredibles 2 worldwide, dude.

Do you hear yourself? Really.

It sounds like you’re someone detached from reality.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Now with the inevitability of Moana 2 making a billion thus making the experiment of turning a Disney+ series into a movie a success, there’s only one question… Will Disney turn Tiana’s Disney+ series into a film sequel to The Princess and the Frog for a theatrical release in Thanksgiving 2029 and give it the needed money to make it fully 2D/hand-drawn animated, rather than keep it in the alleged hybridized animation style of Paperman?

Guess we’ll have to wait and see…

I would like to believe there will at least be C-suite level conversations at Disney about doing that when they come back from their holiday vacation today.

[Patricier21]

Here’s my out of theatre reaction: https://youtube.com/shorts/-dYFfBf0Isw? ... mOce-a1QG3

[Disney's Divinity]

@Pokenonbinary trying to pretend Frozen II's box office was bad. Not a situation like TLM and Mulan LA remakes having extremely poor RottenTomatoes reviews that reflected (not caused ) their poor box office results. An A- means nothing to nobody, but a 40% score, for example...

I *would* be surprised if Moana 2 passed IO2 in the end. Conflicted--would I rather see Moana 2 pass IO2 to piss off the PIXAR shills or would I rather Moana 2 stay under to piss off the people who hate the fact that the first Frozen was massive unlike the first Moana? Choices, choices.

[Sotiris]

Auli'i Cravalho - Beyond (Live from the Walt Disney World Resort) ft. Te Vaka
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQD4lwcTXuY

Beyond (From "Moana 2") (Surprise Live Performance at Disneyland Resort)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGT8-l5agM

Get Lost (From "Moana 2") (Surprise Live Performance at Disneyland Resort)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSBGoJxI5EU

Can I Get A Chee Hoo? (From "Moana 2") (Surprise Live Performance at Disneyland Resort)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ7ldeXyy4c

Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear - Beyond (Live from Vevo Studios)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxT5WafVVKg

Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear - We're Back (Live from Vevo Studios)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSL3QPLa510

Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear - Get Lost (Moana 2) (Live from Vevo Studios)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWnDsZuXmis

Moana 2 - Cast - Beyond (From "Moana 2") (In 27 Languages)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nXJHzs1dLE

Moana 2 - Cast - Can I Get A Chee Hoo? (From "Moana 2") (In 26 Languages)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtENUBVMvg

Auli'i Cravalho - Beyond (End Credit Version) (From "Moana 2"/Lyric Video) ft. Te Vaka
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Ef1_9OGG8

Dwayne Johnson - Can I Get A Chee Hoo? (From "Moana 2"/Lyric Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SyDDEThMz0

Awhimai Fraser - Get Lost (From "Moana 2"/Lyric Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHVo0H-xuaU

Auli'i Cravalho - The Making of 'Beyond (Moana 2)' (Vevo Footnotes) ft. Rachel House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP2tutvWEVE

Dwayne Johnson - Can I Get A Chee Hoo? (From "Moana 2"/American Sign Language Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-__XoH_HrE0

[Pokenonbinary]

@Pokenonbinary trying to pretend Frozen II's box office was bad. Not a situation like TLM and Mulan LA remakes having extremely poor RottenTomatoes reviews that reflected (not caused ) their poor box office results. An A- means nothing to nobody, but a 40% score, for example...

I *would* be surprised if Moana 2 passed IO2 in the end. Conflicted--would I rather see Moana 2 pass IO2 to piss off the PIXAR shills or would I rather Moana 2 stay under to piss off the people who hate the fact that the first Frozen was massive unlike the first Moana? Choices, choices.

Frozen II did extremly well, it could have been even bigger (bigger than Inside Out 2) if it had good reviews

It's the general consensus of people from the box office subreddit

[PatchofBlue]

Disney Got Its Groove Back With ‘Moana 2,’ but Troubled ‘Snow White’ Could Halt the Momentum
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/disn ... 236234842/

One year later, Iger made clear that Disney would stay far away from the culture wars that had taken a toll on the company’s stock price amid a revolt from conservative consumers. “Creators lost sight of what their No. 1 objective needed to be,” he said at the DealBook Summit. “We have to entertain first. It’s not about messages.”

Fast-forward to 2024, and “Moana 2” marks the fulfilment of those two adjustments — a movie able to pivot from its planned release on Disney+ and escape the wrath of right-wing influencers who believe the studio had been pushing a “woke” ideology, a perception stoked by activist shareholder Nelson Peltz. The animated sequel, which features a voice cast led by Dwayne Johnson — an actor whose appeal straddles both sides of the political divide — shattered Thanksgiving box office records en route to a $386 million worldwide haul. Disney appears to have got its groove back following misfires like “The Marvels” and “Wish.”

Despite the successes, Disney began to surrender the narrative, with the likes of Peltz and Elon Musk critiquing the studio for pushing liberal values over storytelling. The ensuing social media noise often created a self-fulfilling prophecy of a bomb before a film opened, as happened when conservative commentator Ben Shapiro targeted “Lightyear” for giving significant screen time to a lesbian couple who were not part of the “Toy Story” franchise.

“We just had an election, and in very rough terms, half of the voters supported one side and half supported the other side,” says Guggenheim Securities’ Michael Morris, speaking generally and not about Scherzinger or Zegler specifically. “And if I am a company that is trying to connect with the broadest potential audience and I cut that addressable market in half before I even release the product, I’m really limiting my ability to maximize the value of the product. That’s why it’s important to entertain first and foremost.”

Well ladies and gentlemen, we have come full circle.

Once upon a time, the narrative was "Disney is neglecting their social responsibility in favor of making spiceless and inoffensive entertainment." It appears the progressive establishment has now modified their position to the polar opposite stance.

Like, my entire adult Disney fandom has been marked by elitists frowning upon the company being too timid when it comes to cultural progressivism, or else propelling really ill-founded readings of its library (e.g. Walt's films being uniquely racist among other classic Hollywood offerings, or anything Disney Princess). Seeing journalism rubberband-snap back to "Who does Disney think it is trying to be 'progressive' or put 'messages' in their films?! They just need to shut up and go back to worrying about entertainment!" honestly reveals a lot about both their own motivations for bagging on Disney all this time as well as their own loyalty to advancing social causes.

Anyways, not a single person who has actually seen Lightyear (not a huge sample size, admittedly) believes that the movie sucked because of a singular lesbian kiss. There were verifiable flaws within the narrative fabric of the film, and the question of whether the idea itself was even that interesting.

[Disney's Divinity]

I'm not sure I believe that. I mean, Moana 2's press roll had the same "She's not like normal princesses" just like there was with the original film, Raya, Wish, the remakes, etc. Anyway, there was nothing overtly political about Strange World, Raya, Encanto, Wish, etc. unless the mere existence of diversity is considered political.

[PatchofBlue]

I'm not sure I believe that. I mean, Moana 2's press roll had the same "She's not like normal princesses" just like there was with the original film, Raya, Wish, the remakes, etc. Anyway, there was nothing overtly political about Strange World, Raya, Encanto, Wish, etc. unless the mere existence of diversity is considered political.

It may have been because I wasn't as tuned to the promotion this time around, but I felt like that was comparatively toned down for Moana 2. Like, her foot's already in the door, people accept that she's a new age princess. Most of what I saw was more about "how great it is to have our favorite headstrong heroine back on another fun-filled adventure!"

And a huge component of the dialogue for the Strange World fallout has been about how it had Disney's first gay headlining character, and basically every news outlet has assumed correlation=causation and "they really should have known better than to try to shove a gay character in a Disney movie." Strange World also had a clear actionable green message laced in, which will make a certain crowd anxious.

A large part of the audience has decided that Disney has gone too woke, including liberals. I think we could go back and forth for a while as to whether that classification actually matches the behaviors of the movies or whether that's truly unique to the last decade of Disney, but that does appear to be the conclusion that the masses have settled on. We're seeing all sorts of floating heads in the sky trying to make it sound like this is what they've been telling us all along, which ... is something I have thoughts about.

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, I definitely think there has been a segment that have tried to define Disney that way, and it's hard for a business to fight a political party putting a bull's-eye on them. They aren't equivalent powers. Anyway, I'm not sure Disney has really done anything different so much as they're turning to reliable successes to shake the negative headlines off them. But it's bizarre why we're making the discussion about Moana 2 so blatantly about politics anyway. I'm sure there are corners of the Internet to talk about politics without co-opting a Disney film topic to do it. Like...terms like "the elite" and the "establishment" being thrown around in regards to a film company, really? It's almost like they're buzzwords that don't mean anything. Reminds me of how the Snow White thread somehow derailed into an Israel discussion.

[PatchofBlue]

I mean, politics are one component of the ecosystem that informs the culture in which Disney movies are made. That puts it on the table for discussion.

And either way, it wasn't my idea to make Moana 2's non-politicalness political. I was responding to someone else's thought piece, and my rant was more a reflection of my irritation with inconsistencies in the public's opinion about Disney. My gripes had more to do with journalism than politics.

[Pokenonbinary]

I'm not sure I believe that. I mean, Moana 2's press roll had the same "She's not like normal princesses" just like there was with the original film, Raya, Wish, the remakes, etc. Anyway, there was nothing overtly political about Strange World, Raya, Encanto, Wish, etc. unless the mere existence of diversity is considered political.

Exactly the mere existence of people of color is considered political by YouTube fascists

And for another person above saying "liberals even think Disney has gone to much woke"

It's not true at all, leftists think that Disney is trying to appeal both sides, and by that they're not appealing to any

For example Lightyear, the 6 seconds lesbian kiss, for right wing people that's a disaster, a horrible thing omg lesbians existing in a movie

And for leftists 6 seconds is not enough and feels like bait for queer people to show up and support, like that female cop that had a wife or in general any "new gay Disney character"