(courtesy IMP Awards)
It was always going to be a tricky thing to follow up a massive success like Moana.
Hailed as a near-perfect piece of feature animation by many, and introducing a titular hero who saved her people while growing as a person with animation as beautiful an oil painting, Moana was one of those singularly arresting efforts that stops you in your tracks, seizes your heart and captivates your eyes.
That’s a lot to match, and to be fair, delightful though it is, Moana 2 doesn’t quite reach those dizzying heights.
BUT, and this is key, it comes awfully close, replete with animation so breathtakingly lovely you feel as if you are tumbling into the luscious blue of the ocean or awash in the magical interiors of some fairly unique environments where gods play and mortals seek to best them, despite the uneven odds.
In this sequel, which was originally situated as a Disney+ series before its big screen potential was realised, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) is sailing around her home island of Motonui, vainly trying to find other people with whom her people, led by her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), can be in productive contact.
Her people are thriving and all evidence points them continuing to do so, but Moana knows that they need to find the other peoples of the ocean if they are to truly thrive, an imperative that becomes even more urgent when she is given a vision at a ceremony to induct her as a tautai (oceanic navigator or guide) by her predecessor, Tautai Vasa (Gerald Ramsey) of her people’s eventual downfall and ruin if she should fail to reconnect them to a wider community.
Turns out though that there’s a good reason they can’t find anyone else; the god Nalo long ago separated the people of the ocean, burying the central island that connects them, Motofetu under the ocean and ensuring they could never be a community again.
Reuniting through quite unique circumstances with the rambunctiously powerful Maui (Dwayne Johnson) – he is being held captive by Nalo and his enslaved servant Matangi (Awhimai Fraser) inside a giant clam which is only bested by the most unlikely of allies, the coconut-like poeplem the Kakomora – who escapes imprisonment and joins Moana and her idiosyncratically diverse crew of Maui fanboy, Moni (Hualālai Chung), engineering wunderkind Loto (Rose Matafeo) and a grumpy elder farmer Kele (David Fane), along with, of course, goofy Heihei (Alan Tudyk) and Moana’s pet pig.
Theirs is an almost impossible mission – find Motofetu, raise it from the depths of the ocean and renew the glowing ocean paths that connect all the people of the ocean just as they were in the past.
But they have to overcome, gods and demigods, ragingly destructive storms, their own self-doubt, a fairly mortal moment for Moana and some fairly powerful magic.
Helping matters, of course, is the fact that they have the tide of history on their side, but Nalo cares not for that, and while he is not an active participant in Moana 2 (the mid-credits scene is another matter, of course) – the role of Big Bad falls to Matangi who, as it turns out, is not quite as evil as she first appears and who may well surprise everyone – his presence is felt all the way through this big, ocean-spanning, magical world-inhabiting adventure.
One thing that doesn’t quite measure up are the songs which are generically inspiring but hardly memorable, with Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear replacing Lin-Manuel Miranda seemingly caught in the thrall of Disney formulaic songwriting without striking out with any real musical personality of their own.
They are a fairly new team who will no doubt grow into their obvious nascent talent but save for the song “Beyond”, sung by Cravalho, the music is enjoyable but not quite the power and force of narrative propellant and emotional fire it was in Moana.
Even so, the music has just enough punch and fire to add emotional lustre to the film’s storyline which is all pell-mell action, true, but not without moments of real character introspection which grant Moana 2 quite a bit of emotional heft, particular in the final act when so much is on the line, and while so much is gained, it appears, for a time at least, that so much is lost too.
One key element that really adds to the emotional power of Moana 2 is how close the titular character is to her father and her mother, Chieftess Sina (Nicole Scherzinger), and especially to her adorable little sister, cute-as-a-button Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) who is, in many ways, the anchor that Moana has to her home island but who is also, along with her family and people, the reason why she ventures out onto the oceans.
She is powered by her love for family, people and culture, and this is infused throughout the entire film which surges forward almost solely on the fact that Moana is entirely good and selfless, seeking the re-establishment of ties with other islands and people solely for the benefit of others.
This kind of Mother Theresa-ness might have come across as far too treacly or sentimental but Moana 2 keeps it pitch-perfect, giving us a hero who is willing to lay down her life for others but who ins’t annoyingly odious saint while she does so.
The result of all these parts is a film that soars on its cultural richness, its connection to family, community and long-held belief and which is a love song to the power of others to make the world a better place if we engage with them selflessly and for the greater good.
Moana 2 may not be quite the film its predecessor was but it is a wonderful ride through a beautiful world whose story haven’t been allowed to be told nearly enough, and with characters who bring the culture alive and the connections that underpin it in ways that enthrall, delight and make your spirit soar.