When released in 2016, Ron Clements and John Musker’s animated feature Moana was an immediate sensation. It was inventive, creative, beautifully designed, and impeccably researched. It boasted strong characters with well-crafted story arcs, demonstrated tremendous respect to its Polynesian cultural origins, and represented proper cinematic filmmaking via the animation medium. The songs and soundtrack were memorable. It felt genuinely mythic.

Moana 2, directed by David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, is product.

Where there was innovation, there is repetition. Where there was a finely crafted story, there is a by-the-numbers duplication. Characters that had development and who innately matured from first scene to last now have catchphrases and schtick. Titular character Moana keeps making that weird smirking expression that DreamWorks used a lot in the early 2000s to signify a character was snarky. Due to industry disruptions and strikes, Disney was left with a Thanksgiving-sized hole in their 2024 release schedule. A made-for-streaming series was hurriedly shoe-horned into a feature sequel, and while Moana 2 remains impeccably animated it really needs to taken for what it is. That is product.

As a long-term fan of the Walt Disney Animation Studio, it is dispiriting to watch it struggle creatively. Original films like Strange World and Wish have suffered from weak development and moribund storytelling. High-profile sequels like Ralph Wrecks the Internet, Frozen 2, and now Moana 2 have failed to replicate the quality of their predecessors. Frozen missed by a little, Ralph by a lot, and Moana is lost somewhere in between. There are entertaining bits to be found, whether funny dialogue or engaging action sequences, but it all feels rote and unnecessary.

At the screening I attended last night, the film was preceded by promotional trailers for Mufasa: The Lion King – a CGI-heavy prequel – and Snow White – a jaw-droppingly garish teaser that will do more to deter than entice a movie-going audience. Disney raped and pillaged its animated back catalogue before, of course, via a series of direct-to-VHS sequels and spin-offs in the 1990s. Even studio head of the time Michael Eisner, among his multiple cash-ins of Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, even Bambi, had the good sense of legacy to avoid touching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It seems that Disney management today have no such respect. It is also worth noting that, between the The Return of Jafar in 1994 and Ariel’s Beginning in 2008, WDAS still managed to produce The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Brother Bear, The Emperor’s New Groove, Treasure Planet, and Bolt. By shoving so many derivative sequels and remakes into cinemas, the Disney of today is not affording itself the same balance. They will pay for it when the current wave of remakes and sequels ends, because they will have nothing left to refashion and exploit.

Moana 2 hits cinemas while Disney are literally shooting a live-action adaptation of the original. After Mufasa and Snow White audiences will be getting remakes of Lilo & Stitch, Hercules, Robin Hood, The Aristocats, and Bambi – as well as Zootopia 2 and Frozen 3 & 4.

Feel free to go and watch Moana 2. A lot of the audience will undoubtedly enjoy it. At the same time one feels you could save some time by mailing Disney a twenty so they can hit their revenue quota, and then just stay at home.