The warm Polynesian spirit and open-sea sense of adventure is back in “Moana 2,” but little of the original’s humor or catchy songs finds its way into this heartfelt but lackluster sequel set three years after the original.
“Moana 2,” which opens in theaters Wednesday, was originally put into development as a streaming series before it was rerouted the big screen. Curiously, though, it’s not scale or spectacle lacking here. Directors David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller have made an often dazzlingly animated film that is, visually, a step up from 2016’s “Moana.”
But in a story that brings in a literal boatload of new characters, it’s hard to shake the feeling that “Moana 2” got caught in the crosswinds — too blown between shifting studio imperatives to really find its own way.
That’s a shame because the original “Moana” is about the lightest, most joyful animated movie Disney has made in a decade – with the possible exception of “Encanto,” which likewise bounced to the buoyant rhythms of songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. (Miranda is crucially absent in “Moana 2,” though “Hamilton” director Thomas Kail is currently developing a live-action “Moana.”)
Photorealistic remakes have been the more dominant providence of the Magic Kingdom in recent years, a trend that’s made more whimsical, imagination-filled animations like “Moana” all the more exceptional. Here was a movie that somehow balanced Pacific Island cultural authenticity with the cartoony delights of a demigod turned accidental shark and Jemaine Clement as a singing, flaunting giant crab. Talk about win win.
Such inventiveness is harder to come by in the perfectly earnest but not especially inspired “Moana.” It opens with a visibly grown Moana (Auli’i Cravalho, returning) engaged in a search for evidence of Pacific Islanders beyond her home island. She is by now a mythic figure, herself, to her people, idolized by youngsters for her courage and for being “super-besties” with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson, also back).
When Moana turns up an artifact with evidence of a two-peaked island, Motufetu, fabled as the once binding center of their ancestors, she sets out to find the cursed island and reunite the disparate people of Oceania. This time, though, Moana is sailing with a more crowded boat.
