Moana 2 Review

It may be not surprising to learn that Moana 2 was originally envisioned as a TV series. In fact, the signs are everywhere. Starting with the overabundance of characters who join Moana (Auli'i Carvalho) in her new calling as the chief and wayfinder-extraordinaire of their island Motonui. As she sets off on a quest to find and unite all the neighboring Island peoples - an adventure that finds her reuniting with Maui (Dwayne Johnson) to save the submerged island of Motufetu from the curse of Nalo. Except for Loto (Rose Matafeo), a cheery perfectionist boat-engineer who speaks in a heavy New Zealand accent, none of the crew appear to have a clue about way-finding. Not the rooster Heihei, which is impossibly still alive and pecking at inanimate objects, or Pua, her long-toothed pet pig. Not Moni (Hual?lai Chung), the brawny Maui-wannabe, the island's storyteller. Nor Kele (David Fane), the grumpy old farmer who asks "Do we HAVE to sing?" when the entire island erupts into a chorus to celebrate Moana's way-finding trips. To top this in this fruitcake of film, Moana's little buck-toothed cutie-pie of toddler sister Simea makes hearts melt.

Perhaps a series may have had plot-space for this motley bunch, but inside a film, these characters are purely decorative - a clangy string of shells that adorn Moana and rattle against each other uselessly as she valiantly takes to the high-seas to vanquish Nalo.

Even as Moana is now older, stronger and more assured of her identity - a girl of both land and sea - her adventures are frothier. The brilliant visuals of the original get a more child-friendly candy-floss makeover with blobby, gooey monsters that fart over and jellify their victims. The most dangerous perils Moana and her crew encounter include a giant clam whose shell resembles an island-paradise, and a batty agent of Nalo named Matangi (Awhimai Fraser) who shape-shifts into a sultry vixen. The shadowy lava monster Te Ka may have had toddlers on edge in the original, but the most dangerous element of the sequel, Nalo, takes the form of a storm that zaps boats with neon-pink lightning.

Newcomer director trio David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller don't meddle with the charming elements that clicked in the original. Maui's moving tattoo Tiny is still just as assertive of a piece of body art. The coconut-shaped pirate, Kakamora, returns in the film's most perky, clever visual sequence that sees Moana's crew feted by this misunderstood tribe.

Then again, though, Moana 2 never ventures into uncharted territories, treading in the safe waters of its predecessor. Nowhere is its conventionality more apparent than in its musical numbers, which, although as uplifting, celebratory and sing-along-worthy as the originals, sound like dupes. Maui's "Can I Get A Chee Hoo" which he sings to Moana at one the film's only narrative low points apes composer Lin-Manuel Miranda's style of rhythmic verse which we heard in original "Welcome Back" (Lin-Manuel did not return to score Moana 2). "Beyond", with its wanderlust lyrics, feels like an extended verse of the smash-hit "How Far I'll Go".

Moana may be a young adolescent now, but Auli'i Carvalho remarkably retains that enthusiastic, question-mark-filled voice of the younger Moana. There is barely a hint of the rebellion or doubtfulness of a teenager Moana. Dwayne Johnson's Maui, whose reduced role notwithstanding - stuck as Maui is for most of the duration of the film dangling in Matangi's batcave - has the same huggable-giant energy as in the original.

Moana 2 doesn't even pretend to be a grand evolution of the original. It knows exactly who its audience are: toddlers. From its curly-haired Polynesian heroine and her sassy, teddy-bear-like sidekick to its squishy, bubblegum-coloured monsters, the film dives straight into capturing a new generation of young minds - and does so swimmingly.