Moana 2 (2024 | USA | 100 minutes | Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, David Derrick Jr.)
Moana 2 essentially picks back up where the first ended. The sassy strong-willed titular character has seemingly perfected her wayfinder talents. With the help of an experimentally-minded carpenter building bigger and better boats she learns more and more from every journey. The people of Matunui are thriving since the heart was returned to Tafiti, so now Moana is looking to reconnect her community with other peoples outside of their singular island. The lore shared by her ancestors tells of a centralized island that connected many peoples throughout the world, but had been lost, sunk to the bottom of the ocean by a vengeful and tyrannical god. This god figured separating all the peoples of the world would bring him more power, so he continued to loom over the sunken treasure with a storm above that would fling even the strongest person clear across the sea.
Moana, as always, refuses to sit idle where the happiness and prosperity of her people are concerned, so with the help of a few new crew members, she sets out to restore the connection between her people and other tribes who have lost their way.
While princess movies aren’t typically on my “to watch” list, recently Disney has attempted to move into a new chapter with strong-willed women who definitely do not need men to accomplish something spectacular. It’s about damn time. With Moana and Frozen, among others, they have birthed several film series that show girls and women alike that they have the power to change the world; their purpose in life does not have to revolve around finding a partner and settling down with a family. We all have the right choose whichever path we want regardless of gender stereotypes and other people’s expectations. This concept is especially important right now for women of all stripes. Moana is a character I especially fell in love with as both an indigenous protagonist and an independent woman… I’m so incredibly thankful my niece and so many other young women like her have this kind of storyline to show them what the future can and should hold for them.
Ok, enough gushing about the characters as a whole, let’s focus on the new film. It’s always a crapshoot whether a sequel will have been created as an obvious money-grab after a successful first film green lights a second, or if there’s actually a tale still to be told. I can say, with a sigh of relief, the story of Moana 2 feels like a natural extension to the first. Better yet, the the storyline is even more focused on Moana because Maui is tied up again (literally and figuratively) in a trap keeping him from seeing his precious humans for the first half-ish of the film. While I love his personality, the charm and comedic timing he adds to the narrative, he should (and is) a supporting role to help our lead find her way. That’s exactly what this second installment has done. I won’t add any details to avoid spoilers, but family and ancestry has always been very important to these characters and this sequel only seeks to strengthen that conviction.
There are high expectations for this second installment that has been eight years in the making (can you believe it’s been that long since the first released?!), but you can rest assured they did right by our beloved non-princess and gave her even more tenacity and courage than before. They even hinted, or seemingly left the door open, for another sequel. I wouldn’t mind one bit.
Moana 2 arrives in theaters on 11/27