Disney animation film “Moana 2” is a middling second chapter compared to its promising predecessor, and that is a big disappointment for all of us. Sure, it looks as terrific as you can expect from any decent Disney animation these days, but it feels relatively deficient due to its weak storytelling without much narrative development, and it only comes to function as a mere prelude for whatever may come next.

 At the beginning, we see how much things have been changed for Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) and her island people since she saved the island as well as her clan via her epic adventure depicted in “Moana” (2016). Becoming more confident than before, Moana is quite willing to sail further from her island for finding any other island and people out there, and her father, who is incidentally the chief of her clan, is certainly ready to support her more just like many other members of her clan.

However, Moana suddenly has a striking vision not long before she embarks on another exploration across the ocean. It turns out that there is a certain mythic island which has been hidden by some powerful entity for many years, and she must find that island for restoring the broken connection among many other people living across the ocean. Knowing that this exploration will be much more demanding than the previous ones, she recruits several other members of her clan, and most of them gladly join her as expecting to have a lot of fun and excitement together, though they are all quite inexperienced to say the least from the very beginning.

Meanwhile, the story also focuses a bit on Moana’s demigod friend Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), who happens to be stuck in a big trouble due to that powerful entity and Matangi (voiced by Awhimai Fraser), a mysterious figure supposedly working under that powerful entity. Again, Johnson has some fun with his character’s irrepressible swagger, but, to our frustration, this subplot simply meanders with some silly gags before eventually joining the main narrative of the story (This is not a spoiler at all, folks). 

The film unfortunately spends too much of its running time before our plucky heroine joins her demigod friend, and, to makes matters worse, the story does not have enough personality and substance to justify that. While Moana’s pet pig and chicken are surely your average animal sidekicks as before, Moana’s three companions are no less than perfunctory plot elements despite their colorful attitudes and appearances, and the film sadly does not allow much character development as hurriedly rolling its main characters from one narrative point to another.

The film certainly serves us a series of visual spectacles as expected, but none of them are particularly inspired in my trivial opinion. Sure, they look crisp and colorful, and that was quite evident to me when I watched the film at the Dolby Cinema screening room of a local theater, but they are not impressive or original enough to linger on your mind. As watching the climax full of storm and thunder, I could not help but reminded of what I saw from “Twisters” (2024) several months ago. As observing those little coconut creatures appearing in the middle of the film, I could not help but think of “Minions” (2015). As beholding the huge and complex spaces inside a certain giant creature, my mind instantly went back to another recent Disney animation film “Strange World” (2022).

Moreover, a number of songs in the film are not very memorable even though they serve the story and characters fairly well on the whole. I will not deny that I smiled a bit as listening to Awhimai Fraser delightfully performing “Get Lost” with some gusto, but the soundtrack of “Moana 2” is mildly pleasant while being merely passable in the end, and you may come to miss more of those catchy songs in “Moana”. To be frank with you, I still fondly remember how powerfully Auli’i Cravalho performed Lin-Manuela Miranda’s Oscar-nominated song “How Far I’ll Go” in “Moana” and then at the following Academy Awards ceremony, and I have to tell you that the soundtrack of “Moana 2” does not have anything equal to that, though I appreciate how it respectfully utilizes the ethnic musical elements throughout the story.

While it is a shame that the film does not have enough space for their good chemistry, Cravalho and Johnson still click well together during their several key scenes later in the film, and I wish to see much more of that in the next film. In case of several other voice cast members of the film, Hualālai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Temuera Morrison, and Rachel House dutifully fill their respective spots as required, and Morrison and House deserve some praise for doing a lot more than required despite their rather brief appearance.

In conclusion, “Moana 2”, directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, is not a total waste of time at all, but it is dissatisfying for just warming up a bit for the next sequel instead of sailing further than what was promised at the end of its predecessor. It is surely well-made in technical aspects, but we all know well that Disney Animation Studios can do better than this, and we can only hope that it will really enchant and entertain us in our heroine’s next adventure.