The 2016 Animated film MOANA was a pleasant surprise, coming in under the radar and scoring a hit with good music by HAMILTON composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and surprisingly fun vocal performances by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and newcomer Auli’i Cravalho.
So, it comes as no surprise that Disney decided to create a sequel, but what does come as a surprise is that the powers-that-be at Disney decided to turn what was originally designed as a television series into a theatrical motion picture.
And that’s where this film falls down for Moana 2 is an engaging (enough) piece of entertainment, but it feels like a series of vignettes (Episodes of TV) strung together to make a movie.
The lead performances of Cravalho as Moana and Johnson as Maui are engaging enough, but…probably because they thought they were making a tv series…writers Jared Bush (back from the original) as well as Dan Ledoux Miller and Bek Smith decided to add a whole bunch of characters to Moana’s new voyage - and, while they were winning enough characters - they really did nothing to add to the events of the films. The characters were somewhat fun, but they were UNNECESSARY - a cardinal sin.
As is the music by Mark Mancina. Clearly, Miranda had no interest in returning to this project when it was going to be a TV Series, so veteran TV Composer Mancina was called in. The results were, again, fairly fun (but forgettable) songs throughout the film.
The same goes for the direction by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller - all of whom were tabbed to Direct a TV Episode and then the film was stitched together - and it shows. The Direction is disjointed and unispiring…but professionally done.
A forgettable, pleasant enough romp - one that will keep the kiddos occupied for an hour and a half - but not strong enough to warrant a 3rd film that will “complete the trilogy”…a film that was hinted at in the closing credits.
Letter Grade: B
3 /12 stars (out of 5) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Comments