Moana 2

Walt Disney Animation Studios was around for more than fifty years before they made their first feature sequel. “You can’t top pigs with pigs,” the studio’s pioneering namesake had famously stated in regards to his hit 1933 short film Three Little Pigs, a cartoon he followed up three times.

That was then, when you could preach the gospel of originality and look respectable. In 2024, if you’re not making sequels, you’re being irresponsible to shareholders and blissfully ignorant of market demands. As of now, the top ten grossing films of this year, both domestically and worldwide, are sequels. Disney knows this. The year’s runaway top two earners, the only billion dollar global blockbusters of 2024, both hail from different arms of Disney: Inside Out 2 from Pixar and Deadpool vs. Wolverine from the Marvel machine.

Disney’s signature animation division has also caved to business realities in recent years. Over its first eighty years, the revered canon included only two true sequels: Fantasia 2000, presented as a realization of Walt’s original plan for cyclical updates, and the Australian outlier The Rescuers Down Under. Sequels existed elsewhere: a cost-effective direct-to-video line that peaked in the early 2000s. The modern descendant of that practice has been even more lucrative, with the studio remaking beloved animated classics as “live-action” movies, which are often full of photorealistic computer animation. More billion dollar babies.

In just the past few years, WDAS proper has given us the Wreck-It Ralph sequel Ralph Breaks The Internet and Frozen II, the inevitable follow-up to the most successful modern musical. Zootopia II is coming next year. And now here is Moana 2, a sequel to the 2016 hit that’s already getting the live-action remake treatment in 2026.

To animation fans, Moana may be most notable as the last in a line of cherished features written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. That duo joined Disney in the late 1970s and gave us the masterpieces The Little Mermaid and Aladdin as well as the now widely appreciated Hercules, The Princess and the Frog, Treasure Planet, and The Great Mouse Detective. Moana was Clements and Musker bringing the sensibilities of their traditionally animated gems to the world of 3D computer animation. It probably would have won the Best Animated Feature Oscar if it wasn’t released the same year as Zootopia. It probably would have won Best Original Song, if it wasn’t released the same holiday season as La La Land.

Musker and Clements have both retired now, leaving Moana 2 in the hands of first-time directors David Derrick Jr. (a seasoned story artist at DreamWorks and Disney), Jason Hand (another veteran story artist), and Dana Ladoux Miller (a production assistant-turned-TV writer). Like Ralph Breaks the Internet and Frozen II, this is a bona fide WDAS production, as grand and ambitious as many of the 62 animated features that precede it in the canon.

This sequel sees wayfinder Moana (voiced again by Auli’i Cravalho) off on a new adventure, this time looking for the lost island of Motufetu, which she believes is key to connecting her people with other unknown, nearby civilizations she’s certain must exist (and has some archaeological evidence to support that belief). Joining Moana on this journey are perseverant budding engineer Loto (Rose Matafeo), Maui fanboy Moni (Hualālai Chung), and Kele (David Fane), an old master farmer who’s supposed to take care of the group’s nutrition. Of course, Maui himself is also back, voiced by none other than Dwayne Johnson (who is also reprising the role for the forthcoming live-action version) in a surprisingly reduced role.

Moana 2 is a spry and polished effort, one that has clearly been given time to develop instead of being rushed out to seize the first available tentpole release window and retain young fans of the original. While it doesn’t at all feel like it, a full eight years have passed since the original’s release, which means someone who saw it in first grade is now a freshman in high school and quite possibly nostalgic about this. Moana 2 will likely hit such a moviegoer differently than it did me, which is just fine. This sequel did not produce a particularly potent reaction in either direction for me. I enjoy the original, but don’t regard it as a sacred text the way I do the beloved animated musicals of my childhood like the aforementioned Aladdin and Little Mermaid.

What stands out for me is how much of a movie’s joy comes from world building. Great animated movies almost always succeed by introducing compelling personalities, environments, and predicaments. Some universes are rich enough that a simple return can be utterly exhilarating and delightful. I would not quite put Moana‘s universe on that level. The screenplay, credited to Miller and returning Jared Bush, does not look to destroy and rebuild Moana’s world, but simply to continue the tale and spend more time there. For many viewers, that may be enough. The narrative does not feel essential or stand up to the dozens of iconic fairy tales of the canon it joins. But there is unmistakable love for these characters and regard for their journeys.

Not returning and missed is Tamatoa, the Jemaine Clement-voiced giant coconut crab who performed the show-stopping number “Shiny.” None of the new characters approaches the impact and entertainment value of Tamatoa. But Moana’s pet rooster Heihei and pig Pua are back to provide more visual comedy, as are the Kakamora coconut pirates, who become unlikely allies to Moana and company after incapicitating them with poison darts. Moana now has a little sister named Simea, whom the movie positions as a potential Scrappy-Doo before not making good on the threat. And there’s also a new character named Matangi (voiced by Awhimai Fraser), who gets a musical number that doubles as valuable wisdom imparted to our protagonist.

Arriving a year after Wish marked the Disney studio’s 100th anniversary with an epic domestic flopping I’m still struggling to make sense of, Moana 2 should add to Disney’s 2024 commercial success, even while arriving on the heels of the year’s other big family-friendly musical, Wicked. I suspect the reviews will be more positive here than they were on Wish, whose hate continues to baffle me having only seen it once. Moana 2 is probably not a serious Oscar contender outside of Best Original Song, which has some genuine possibilities amidst mild competition. It’s not likely to rank among the favorite movies of many Disney fans. But it’s a colorful and spirited production with visual allure, musical appeal, and nothing that makes it feel like a soulless corporate cash grab.