This is a quick review of the newly released film Moana. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.
Plot
Via Letterboxd: Moana answers the Ocean’s call and, for the first time, voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with the infamous demigod Maui on an unforgettable journey to restore prosperity to her people.
Review
I’m super hit-or-miss with Disney’s live-action remakes. There are some that have worked for me, while others have left me completely cold.
When these remakes fail, they usually fall into one of two categories. Either they fundamentally misunderstand and bastardize the source material (Maleficent, Dumbo, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, etc.), or they become lifeless shot-for-shot recreations that offer little reason to exist beyond corporate brand recognition (The Lion King being the prime example). Unfortunately, Moana firmly falls into the latter camp.
What makes this especially disappointing is that Moana is one of my favorite films of 2016 and one of the few Disney-proper animated movies from the past decade that I’d consider close to top-tier. Going into this remake, I had concerns based on the marketing. The trailers looked oddly artificial, and lacked much of the charm that made the original special. Sadly, every single one of those red flags ended up becoming reality.
To the film’s credit, I was actually somewhat on its wavelength during the first act. The opening stretches are where the movie feels most alive, largely because Catherine Laga’aia does an admirable job stepping into the title role. She clearly understands what made Moana such an engaging protagonist and brings genuine energy, charisma, and heart to the character. Whenever she’s on screen, you can see someone trying her hardest to elevate the material around her. The problem is that almost everything surrounding her feels manufactured.
Once the seafaring adventure begins and the main plot kicks into gear, the film starts looking and feeling less like a movie and more like an AI-generated generation of one. The visuals often have that strange synthetic quality that has plagued so many recent blockbusters, where everything technically looks expensive but very little feels tangible or alive. Scene after scene recreates moments from the animated classic, but without capturing the sense of wonder, excitement, or emotional sincerity that made those sequences memorable in the first place.
The musical numbers suffer the most from this. The soundtrack remains fantastic because it’s still largely drawing from the same songs that helped make the original film so good. But while the music itself survives intact, the presentation doesn’t. The musical set pieces rarely have the energy, vibrancy, or visual imagination of their animated counterparts. Instead of feeling like joyful showstoppers, many of them simply feel like obligations that the movie is checking off a list.
Then there’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Maui. Johnson was one of the highlights of the original film, bringing his great charisma and larger-than-life personality to the character. Here, he’s almost unrecognizable, not because of the bad wig even, but because of how disengaged he seems. This is one of the weakest performances I’ve seen from him in years. He comes across as completely checked out, delivering a performance that feels less like he’s inhabiting a character and more like he’s fulfilling a contractual obligation before moving on to whatever project he’s actually excited about next. Every scene with Maui should be bursting with personality. Instead, many of them feel surprisingly flat.
One advantage Moana does have over some of Disney’s other remake efforts is that it doesn’t actively damage the original story. Because it’s largely a shot-for-shot recreation, fans don’t have to worry about baffling narrative changes or misguided reinterpretations of beloved characters. But that’s also part of the problem. The film is so committed to recreating the original that it never justifies its own existence. It simply reminds you how much better the animated version was.
That’s ultimately the biggest issue with Moana. It’s not offensively bad, and it’s certainly not my pick for the worst live-action remake Disney has produced. But it exists in that frustrating middle ground where it offers almost nothing new while simultaneously failing to match the magic of the film it’s copying. Outside of Catherine Laga’aia’s committed performance, there is very little here that improves upon or even equals what audiences got back in 2016.
By the time the credits rolled, I couldn’t shake the feeling that many parents taking their kids to see this will leave wondering why they didn’t just stay home and watch the original on Disney+ instead. The animated Moana remains a modern Disney classic. This remake mostly serves as a reminder of that fact.
“TL;DR”
Pros: As the title role Catherine Laga'aia locks in as Moana and gives the film its best energy; The great soundtrack from the first film returns; As a shot-for-shot remake there is no bastardizing of the source material to worry about; First act is the strongest
Cons: A wigged-up Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson puts in an incredibly forgettable and mailed-in performance that showcases how lifeless and soulless this live action remakes comes off as; The film looks and feels like it was AI generated once the main plot kicks in; The musical set pieces have no real energy to them versus the source material’s renditions; Ultimately will leave many parents who take their kids to see this wondering why they didn’t just stay at home and watch the 2016 film on Disney+
