Moana — Review
What is the biggest sin a movie can commit? While it’s a question with many answers, a few key ones are often brought up by this question. A popular answer is a film being boring is the most severe, while a more broad-minded person could argue it’s that a certain film promotes some evil of the world. But one other answer that’ll also certainly float around is that biggest sin a movie can make is to be pointless, to have no reason to exist.
It’s technically difficult for a film to commit such a sin, as even morally bankrupt films still have a negative purpose for the audience, but Disney’s live-action remake of “Moana,” releasing only a little less than a decade after Ron Clements and John Musker’s animated film, is one of those films that could be considered pointless. Directed by Thomas Kail (most known for “Hamilton”), the remake is damn near an exact replica of 2016’s original film, seemingly down to the script.
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The plot likewise is the same, the islands are dying out one-by-one because Maui stole the heart of Te Fiti, and now that the plague has hit her homeland, the titular Moana must find the demigod to restore the heart, despite her father’s insistence on staying within the reef. With the whole plot remaining untouched the weaknesses of the structure of 2016’s “Moana” also return, with any opportunity to build off the weak points of the source material is ignored.
Catherine Lagaʻaia plays the not-princess (a theatrical debut for the actress), and while she does a solid job at replicating the vibe of Moana from the original film, she lacks a strong visual presence during the musical numbers. Similarly, Dwayne Johnson is still quite good as Maui, but the lack of an animated visual presence hinders his vocal performance’s best cartoonish capabilities that, of course, were present in the animated film.
The film’s best merits are something it can directly lift from its source material, the musical soundtrack, which “Moana” is able to keep sounding great in their recreations. But every song is clearly begging to be brought to life visually, and for the most part, “Moana” is unable to successfully do as the look of this live-action struggles to bring the songs to life in a strong way (there’s also some animated bits during You’re Welcome, which are cute but haphazardly dumped in the background and again represent why the film shouldn’t exist), which brings this review to the visuals of “Moana.” 2016’s beautiful source animation is replaced with a frequently ugly blend of clear green screen shots, CG recreations of all otherworldly creatures and gods (Heihei and Tamatoa are very ugly shells of their animated selves, although Te Kā’s replica looks fantastic by itself), and especially terrible cinematography that continuously shows itself. The film doesn’t always look bad, but even its best looks never come close to the original film’s immensely lively visuals.
And that just shows how the core problem with 2026’s “Moana” is that it does nothing better or different than what it’s remaking, so then why was this film made? That’s not a difficult question to give Disney’s real answer, money, but there’s no good reason observable for its potential audiences. There’s nothing here new for the old audience and no merit to give it a chance over Clements and Musker’s original film for the new.
