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MOANA II (2024) đ dir. David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller
After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she's ever faced.
Sounds like Moana 2 felt like the rushed tv movie it was supposed to be.
THIS IS THE MOANA 2 CRITIQUE POST
I'm tired of excusing things with the word "rushed." If you have less time to produce, you should simplify what you're trying to say. That way, all your small amount of time can be spent on carefully building the best way to say it. Moana 2 felt very unfocused. It felt like it was trying to say:
"You Canât Survive in Isolation" (but like why not? why do they need their neighboring islands? Donât make up a reasonâtell me the reason the movie showed you.)
"There's Always Another Wayâ (what? As opposed to what? One way? What One Way was Moana demonstrably sticking to before the not-really-villainess sang her song? Wasnât finding that One Way ((âlearning where to go by remembering who you are/where youâve beenâ)) the whole point of the first movie? Now weâre throwing that out the window?)
"Together But a Little Different" ("Different" as in 'In-New-Circumstances' not "Different" as in 'Weâre-Different-So-Itâs-Hard-to-Relate-to-One-Another,â which would've been the better, more cohesive sense of âDifferentâ.)
âSomething-Something Stories Are Importantâ (literally they just substitute the phrase âweâll dieâ with âour story will end.â No mention of why thatâs bad, or what makes a story a story, no reason why stories are important, or what for, just throwing the word âstoryâ around vaguely.)
And none of those "themes" I listed just now had a lot of work put into them. Thatâs it, in a nutshell. But I can flesh-out my argument for those, and present what I think they couldâve easily done differently, if theyâd just picked one and worked hard to make it simply good.
SPOILERS BELOW.
âYou Canât Survive in Isolationâ
We're told in a quick vision that Moana's people will die if they stay in isolationâbut there's no showing us that.
In fact, what we've been shown is that they're thriving, they're fine by themselves. They were in the first movie. They are at the beginning of the second.
So we're not convinced that they need what the whole adventure is supposedly about. Compare that to the first movie! Totally doesn't measure up to the storytelling quality!
In the first movie, the whole first act sets up the idea of darkness reaching through the ocean from Tefiti's missing heart, killing everything. Thatâs especially bad for Moanaâs people. We know that because weâre shown how Moana's people are so deeply connected to the ecosystem of their island, and how every part of it is needed for their way of life to continueâthen were also shown that Moana has a deep, personal longing to leave the island. Thereâs a real connection to home and an urgent need to leave it, and that creates really good emotional tension.
So by the time we're shown (not told in one scene, or through snatches of overdone dialogue, but shown) how the darkness will destroy everything if she doesn't go, we really believe it. We have lots of reasons to empathize with and believe in Moanaâs reason for going on this mission. We also feel for her having to make the big decision; weâve been shown that sheâs trying to live up to her responsibilities, and leaving the island would seem like a dismissal of those responsibilities, but we can also see how doing nothing and staying actually would be a dismissal. We feel that tension because they showed us several believable reasons to feel it.
But when Moana is singing âBeyond,â which is supposedly about her conflicting feelings about leaving, and the need to go? Iâm just bored. Not emotionally invested. I just saw her going back-and-forth, leaving and coming back, leaving and coming back, one song ago, in âWeâre Back.â And everything was fine during that song. Leaving-And-Coming-Back is the dream sheâs been living as a voyager. So why is she suddenly convinced itâs a hard decision toâŠleave-and-plan-to-come-back?
âBecause the last voyager died doing this mission sheâs about to go on! She might die too!â Okay but all you did was tell me that. You didnât show me Moana nearly-dying (like she did the first time she tried to cross the reef, or the first time she tried to tackle Te Ka on her own) and then realizing, âgee, oh no, I could die this time,â and then having to make a renewed decision to go anyway. You didnât put work in, so I donât believe it.
But the emotion Moana is feeling about leaving is also undercut, like I said, because there doesnât seem to be a need for her to leave. All they did was tell me that Motunui is in trouble if it stays isolated. But no proof. They were fine isolated from other islands in Moana 1. They have been fine up until now in Moana 2. One random vision of an empty pavilion for three seconds isnât going to make me forget that and believe that continued isolation will do anything negative to them.
And another thing, what does âuniting with other islandsâ even mean?â Why would it be such a good thing?
Nobody mentions trade. Nobody mentions learning from one another, or demonstrates learning from one another. Honestly, having Kele teach Moana or Moni or the Kakamora, an actual other-islander, about farming wouldâve been a great demonstration of âwhy we need to meet new people and get out more.â
Having Kele LEARN TO SWIM would have been a SLOW ONE DOWN THE MIDDLE.
But nooo. They just half-bake suggest the idea that the old man doesnât like leaving his comfort zone, but then never let one of the others have a real conversation with him about why he needs to learn new things from new people. NEVER. Itâs just âbouncy vague song, almost-jump-in-the-water-under-coercion BUT NEVER ACTUALLY DO IT, banter and one linersâ for the rest of the movie! (And donât tell me Kele âlearning to speak Kakamoraâ was an example of him âgetting out of his comfort zone.â No. Kele never demonstrated a lack of desire to meet and learn new things from strangers. He demonstrated a hatred of fun and the ocean. All the others could also understand the Kakamora literally whenever they needed to, so that wasnât a special-character-arc for Kele.)
Even though, my point is, they couldâve easily had a character arc for Kele. And that wouldâve had something to do with âlearn new things from new people, or die stagnant and stuck in your ways,â look, see, a mini-object-lesson in one characterâs journey about the theme of the movie. But noooo
They couldâve done the same type of âlearn-something-new-or-dieâ with Moni. Have him be convinced that doing things the âtraditional Motunui Wayfinding Wayâ on this, his first adventure, is the ONLY way to do things. But heâs not good at it, no matter how much head-knowledge he has. And then the Kakamora (or literally any non-Motunui-character) couldâve shown him a newly-developed style for him to learn and grow.
They couldâve done the same type of âlearn-something-new-or-dieâ with Loto. But nope. She just has a really poorly-done, poorly-written, poorly-performed snippet of a song where she mentions how⊠âperfection is a myth, the journey is just failing, learning, then death, no destination, ever.â But that ridiculous, absolutely absurd worldview is not portrayed as something sheâs wrong about or needs to grow out of. Itâs portrayed as a good, quirky, revolutionary thing.
But thatâs not the same thing as portraying the value Iâm describing. Loto just sings about it and invents-and-reinvents canoes. She does not learn how to make canoes from outsiders. She doesnât learn anything from anybody. She is portrayed as a solitary genius with her own ideas whoâs never once shown to be wrong about anything in the whole movie, and everything she tries works. She never messes up or makes a mistake, for all her singing about it. So she never actually âfalls on her face, then gets up and learns.â Even though learning from others would be the literal only way for her character to portray the idea of this vague theme they throw out there, âYou Canât Survive in Isolation.â
The point is: there is no reason, in-movie, SHOWN, for the audience to believe that Moana should âre-unite the islands.â Thereâs no believable demonstration of why that would be a good thing, and no believable demonstration of why not doing it would be a bad thing.
So then why do we care if she risks her life and Mauiâs life to re-unite the islands? For a bunch of nameless nobody background characters to show up for a five-second afterparty on Motunui at the end? Ridiculous.
Moving on.
âThereâs Always Another Wayâ
So BUMP ALL THAT, I GUESS.
Matangi, everybodyâs Cherished Hope for a New Villain, sings a song and itâs about âget lost, there is no one way, thereâs always a different way.â
Fine. Cool. Whatever. The whole point of the first movie was that thereâs this symbolic, ancient, WAY of sailing and living your life bravely. And Moana doesnât know what that One WAY is because her tribe had forgotten it, so she has to learn it. Itâs cool, because you navigate by looking at where youâve been, to see where youâre going. Itâs the whole âremember who you are in order to face lifeâs challenges, not hide from them.â Thatâs âthe Way.â But whatever. Dump that down the toilet, new movie.
You know why? Because everybodyâs obsessed with âThereâs No One Truth,â and âThere Is No Right and Wrong,â and âLetâs Experience Things Just to Experience Them, the Journey is the Destination Because Weâre not Going Anywhere!â Blah blah blah ridiculous inane sewage slop.
BUT whatever, fine, IF you mean it in a âThereâs Lotâs of Ways to Solve Most Problems, Try Try Again,â sense, thatâs okay. Thatâs true for most problems (not all, but most, certainly there are more than one ways to sail.) Sure. that message, if thatâs what they mean, is fine. Thatâs the sense in which Moana takes it, at least, when she dives down to touch the Core Island and break the curse instead of it rising.
But you know what? Yeah. They donât flesh it out. They donât take time to show that thatâs whatâs happening.
Moana doesnât try to teach her new crew how to sail, and they suck at it, but if she lets them do it their own way or whatever, then they workâand she learns thereâs âmore than one way.â That doesnât happen.
The Kakamora that joins their team doesnât solve all his problems with blow darts, or violence, or whateverâand then Moana, or the kindhearted Moni, or the peaceful Kele, tells him, âno, thereâs another way, you donât always have to do things your violent way.â That doesnât happen.
Loto has one moment where she applies the way she was already living according-to, from the moment we meet her, not a NEW way, to the canoe so that the gang can out-sail magical waterspouts. And it works for like twenty seconds, is played like a great triumph, before they all get smashed into the ocean anyway.
Kele, again, wouldâve been a great example of âlearn to do things in a different way, or problem-solve by try-trying again.â Because heâs old and they set him up as hating life for no reason and not wanting to do new things. But they didnât do anything with him.
And guess what elseâat the endâwhen Moana has her own demigod powers, and her own magical-arm-tattoo ripped off from Tears of the Kingdomâguess what her magic power is?
To stick her oar in the water, and light up one current or âpathâ for the boat to take to a new destination.
A Path. ONE SINGULAR SOLITARY WAY.
Not âa new way.â Not âall possible ways.â Not âmultiple ways.â Not even two ways. One. Even though the big lesson she sacrificed her life for, even though the one and only song Matangi got to sing, was about how âthereâs always another way.â
WHILE theyâre singing a reprise of, âWe Know THE Way.â
Itâs like being in a conversation with someone who starts a sentence and then forgets what they were saying halfway through, and winds up saying worse than nothing.
âTogether, But a Little Differentâ
Like I said, if you told me that the Main Point of the movie (not one of many vague ideas, but the Main Point) was âTogether, But a Little Different,â I immediately wouldâve said:
âOh, so itâs about having to adjust to long-distance relationships. Maybe even death.â Or, maybe, because I saw the trailers, Iâd go, âOh, so itâs about keeping what makes us unique, but uniting when we need to, in spite of our differences. âTogether, But a Little Different.ââ
No. Itâs not about any of that. Itâs just a phrase the Grandmaâs Ghost says whenever she hugs Moana to remind her that sheâs still âwith her.â Sheâs still with her; she just glows and can shapeshift into a manta ray now! That has tons of application for real life. đ
Itâs supposed to be her words of comfort to pass on to Moana, who can then pass it on to the people in her island, so they know that she wonât âever really leave them.â But like. Then why should I care that sheâs leaving them? Why should that be sad? If thereâs no sacrifice in being apart, in leaving for the adventure, then the adventure keeps feeling low-stakes and boring and kind of pointless.
If you tilt your head and squint, itâs also maybe-applying to Moanaâs pointless ugly annoying Little Sister character, Simea. Simea is in the movie so that someone can be immature for three seconds about how Moanaâs always gone from home. And I do mean exactly three seconds, thatâs all the emotional drama we get, and itâs not built up to either. She says, âNever come back? -sniff sniffle- I donât want you to gooo!â And then runs away and then Moana takes a break from singing the next day to briefly explain to Simea about how she can pass messages through the ocean. Then sheâs fine.
But the way this theme is thrown around, you think it would mean, âMoana Has to Go Away Sometimes, But if You Remember Her She Never Leaves You.â
But seriously. Again I say to you, who cares? We know Moana is coming back. We know that. Nobody in the audience seriously believes sheâs never coming back when she leaves for this adventure. If we did, maybe weâd care that Simea cares. But we donât.
Even when Moana âdies,â and itâs the perfect time to be like, âseeee, what we feeeared has happened, sheâs dead, she can never go home to Simea!â THERE IS NO FOLLOW-THROUGH. Thereâs not even a cut to Simea back on Motonui, feeling through the ocean or the Force or whatever movie mumbo-jumbo that her sister is gone. And there is not even a deadline, in the movie, for Moana to accomplish this mission, so itâs not like she could be running late and we could get some scenes of Moanaâs family mourning. Simea having to do something, take some big step, that showâs sheâs willing to go on even if she canât be with Moana anymore because she believed Moana about how sheâs always with herâsomething like that.
My point is, Simea has no real point, so she doesnât add to this âTogether, But Different.â idea at all. And we already know that it doesnât mean, âovercome our differencesâ from what I said in the first Theme.
But what they could have done? They COULD have gone whole-hog and MADE MOANA A BELIEVABLE DEMIGOD. Instead of a vague joke about tattoos that leaves the question open-ended, a pointless and theme-breaking display of shiny superpowers, and no other change to the status quoâ
âthey couldâve shown that there are consequences to that actionâmaybe sheâs a Demigod of Navigation, or something like that, and the condition is, she can sail around connecting islands, but she can never stay on one too long. So sheâll never be able to live with Simea and her parents again on Motunui, but itâs the price she has to pay to connect the islands. Then sheâd have to show Simea how they can still be âTogether, Just a Little Different.â
Or someone couldâve gotten hurt or disabled, giving off the idea that even though everything is âdifferent,â they can still be âtogether.â
Maui couldâve died and passed his fishhook powers, AND MINI MAUI, on to Moni or Moana. âTogether, but different.â
Nothing, nothing at all like that happens. Itâs just a pretty phrase that couldâve meant something, but any meaning it actually has hamstrings the whole emotional weight of the story instead of fueling it.
âSomething-Something Stories Are Importantâ
The thing here is. I already said it. You canât just say words and expect them to be impactful, in a story. Youâre supposed to show what they mean and why theyâre true, and THATâS what creates an impact.
So when youâre talking about âstoriesâ in a story, you definitely should not have nothing to say.
And I can feel it. Iâve seen none of the promotional material, I donât watch the interviews, I havenât checked BuzzFeed or ScreenRant or the Disney Youtube page in a while, but I can feel it.
I can feel them trying to say, âSomething Something, âStorytellingâ is a big part of Pacific Islander Culture!â I can imagine the headlines. â[Actor or Disney Exec Name Here] Invites You to Celebrate Your Story with Pacific Islander Heritage Month!â Theyâre so into âculture as a marketing toolâ these days.
But they say it so lazily. Just repeating the word âstoryâ over and over in the movie doesnât pay tribute to how important âstoriesâ are to Pacific Islanders. Or to anybody.
You know what makes stories impactful? They point at truth, when the darkness and misunderstandings and evil of the world threaten to distract you or hide the truth. Thatâs what makes stories impactful. Iâm sure Pacific Islanders use stories in that wayâto pass on what they believe to be true, in a way that can be retold and remembered.
So MAKE THAT THE THEME OF YOUR MOVIE. Instead of just having Moana replace âNalo wants to kill usâ with âNalo wants to end our storyâ for Empty Effectâinstead of having Grandma say something about âyour e
Okay okay.
Nalo is a silly, lazy villain. He is clearly a Thanos rip-off in design and introduction in a literal post-credits scene, and his most-present form, in the movie, is just a big ocean thunderstorm. But the laziest thing about him is that heâs the Conflict that everyone is trying to rise up and overcome, and the whole reason he sunk the Island was âHe gets power from humans being divided.â
Thatâs never explained. Itâs never shown at all why he gets power from the vague âhumans are dividedâ thing. He has no scenes. He has no interactions with other characters (till the end-credits scene.) A range of his power, like âhereâs what it looks like when the humans are dividedâoh, now hereâs how much less-powerful he is when theyâre together!â is never shown. So. No consequences if the heroes fail, no change to the status-quo, villain-wise, when they win.
If Nalo wanted to end their stories, though, that would be another thing.
Stories are meant to be told. Theyâre for the benefit of others. So what they shouldâve done is made the secret key of Naloâs power hidden. Unknown. Nobody knows how to beat him. And heâs not sinking some unfindable island in another dimension. Heâs just devouring the resources of the weather with his ever-more-powerful storms, (kind of like the darkness leaking through the ocean from the first movie) and nobody can stop him.
But thatâs because each island, around Oceania, has clues to how to beat him. Clues in their stories. But they can only sail so far from what they know before his storms kill them. So heâs literally making them weaker by using his power to keep them apart, and making himself stronger by defending his weakness. Now they canât Wayfind to each other, and learn one anotherâs cultural advancements or stories or beauties, because Nalo is powerful enough to make storms that rip their boats apart. But if they could learn from one anotherâs stories about the things their ancestors used against him, they could get rid of him.
Thatâs what they shouldâve done. Shown why Nalo was a threat and how the Main Theme was the key to overcoming that threat.
They did not do that.
They made stories just a hot button word to be thrown around with no impact. In a story.
The point of this post is that Moana 2 had a lot of potentially-good points, and it made none of them, so it was totally unsatisfying. If it had just focused on one, the other little benefits they were trying to fit in couldâve been mentioned more naturally.
The way that Beauty & the Beast is all about ONE theme: âTrue Love is Self-Sacrificial.â But because of the tools it uses to tell that storyâa beast that it would take a lot of self-sacrifice to be stuck with foreverâyou get little side-themes thrown in, supporting and draping decoratively over the ONE theme: âBeauty is Found Within, So Donât Be Deceived By Appearances,â etc.
Moana 2 shouldâve just picked the Story One, and it couldâve had that theme, and itâs cultural-nod cake, and itâs unifying-effect cake, and EATEN IT TOO.
And we couldâve eaten it. And WE couldâve enjoyed it! But no. Money money money lazy lazy lazy.
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"Gramma! She said to grab Maui by the ear and tell him, I am Moana of Motunui, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Te Fiti!"
"Pretty good!"
"Yeah... How long did it take?"
"Few weeks?"
"Weeks?! That's longer than forever."
"I know, but it was important! And, if I hadn't gone, I never would've become a wayfinder."
Moana and Simea - Moana 2 (2024)