Did you know there was a sequel to Aladdin? The Return of Jafar came out two years later. The voices of Aladdin, Jasmine, Jafar, and Iago were all the same. For Genie, Robin Williams was replaced by Dan Castellaneta (whom we knew even then as the voice of Homer Simpson). There was music and magic and good and evil, the standard trappings of our Aladdin world. It wasn’t terrible, but it also was a far cry from great. The short runtime (69 minutes) and poor film quality spoke to a second-rate production.
Disney never released The Return of Jafar in theaters. At the time, Disney had a policy of not releasing sequels because the original should stand on its own. This era of Disney film also included straight-to-video sequels of Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and Hercules, none of which dared shame the big screen.
This is exactly what I thought of when watching Moana 2, a film intended for straight-to-video, but released on the big screen. Moana 2 takes us back to Polynesia before white people ruined it. Cuz, you know what? Moana is strong and empowered and she can do that all by herself.
We are a few years removed from that awkward time when Moana (voice of Auli’i Cravalho) journeyed from defiance to savior. Now, she has basic run of the place which essentially means her ill-fed pig and rooster never get eaten. Turns out Moana’s god-intervention days are not over, however, as an ancestor from a vision tells her to get out there and meet some new people.
(This is presented as “a jealous god has separated island peoples that need to be reunited.”)
And, you know, demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) is out there, too.
Naturally, Moana decides she needs a crew for this adventure and selects three people, none of whom are actual sailors – which seems a difficult task among an islan
d nation where fishing is literally a way of life – personally, this, to me, is like coaching a football team and filling the offensive line with an usher, the front office accountant, and the team mascot. But, hey, what do I know?
Bottom line here is Moana has yet another song-filled adventure. But the adventure, the songs, the humor, the whole project just isn’t as good. In fact, it’s so far away from where the original Moana was, you might be severely disappointed by the result. I was.
There just wasn’t a good reason to make this film other than: “Disney want money.” Moana 2 will certainly thrill a few filterless children, and yet, when they get older, they’ll wonder why they ever preferred the second to the first, or watched the second at all for that matter. I can see Disney tried. They didn’t skimp on cast or film quality and they did come up with a whole new soundtrack. And yet, the result is a listless fail. Today, I miss the days when Disney never released sequels to the theater.
A much-respected Polynesian
As independent as any old man
She faced the gods
And defied all the odds
But she’s gonna lose to Paul Gauguin
Rated PG, 100 Minutes
Director: David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller
Writer: Jared Bush, Dana Ledoux Miller, Bek Smith
Genre: The same film, only worse
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Your Moana-loving child
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Their tired parent
