Verdict:
Just a short one, because there is not a lot to say about Moana 2.
There are two songs that woke me up from my sleep, Get Lost, with the vocals from Awhimai Fraser, and Dwayne Johnson’s Can I get a Chee Hoo. Fraser does some amazing vocal gymnastics and her song is catchy. There is so much vocal power against the background of 70s instrumentation. Can I get a Chee Hoo features an energetic Dwayne Johnson rapping with a complicated backing track and the lyrics are pretty smart. These two songs make you realise how boring the preceding songs are. They are just generic Disney princess stuff, with some Polynesian flavour thrown in occasionally. This is why you shouldn’t put so many songs in an animated film – they can’t all be diamonds, so just put in the diamonds and leave the rest out. They are fine, but that’s it.
Other than that, Moana 2 continues the trend from the first instalment of having breathtaking visuals but a bad story. The writing is very lazy, and the details make no sense. It gets worse the closer you get to the end. What are they doing now? Why are they doing it? Don’t know. Was never foreshadowed. Look at the pretty colours and shut up.
Simea, Maoan’s little sister, is extremely cute, well animated and voiced. Dwayne Johnson is very energetic as Maui. Where does this guy get so much energy, if he barely sleeps? Moana herself is…ok. I’ve experienced this type of female lead performance so many times in so many other animated films that it’s hard to produce an opinion of any kind.
Moana 2 is another mindless beautiful animated movie.