Moana 2 - An Enjoyable Sequel to the Lovely 2016 Animated Adventure Movie

After playing in the cinemas for few days, my wife and I finally went and see this movie in the theater very near to our home today. It's a good thing we were still able to get seats that we preferred as the studio was quite full till the next two shows. OK without further ado, here's more on the film.

Brief Story Line

After the events in the first movie, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho - Mean Girls 2024 version, The Power TV series etc) had been searching for people from other islands, but without success.  So when she got a vision about the lost island of Motufetu which would help connect the ocean, Moana decided to search for it. As advised by her family, Moana went to the ocean together with a crew that consisted of the "inventor" Loto (Rose Matafeo - Starstruck comedy series etc), the old farmer Kele (David Fane - Next Goal Wins etc) and Moni (Hualālai Chung) who was a major fan of Demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson - Red One, Rampage etc).

During their voyage, Moana and her crew had to overcome various obstacles, including the bat shapeshifter Matangi (Awhimai Fraser - Ahikaroa TV series etc) who worked for the God Nalo that sunk the island Matufetu long time ago.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was fun. My wife and I enjoyed this movie as it had some funny moments and the adventure was interesting and pretty engaging. What I liked about this film was even though it was an animated musical, the singing were not as frequent as I thought it would be. Those who have read my posts in the past would know that I am not a major fan of musical. I could enjoy them if they are lovely and enjoyable songs, and not sung every few minutes. This time it was reasonably done and few of them were nice to hear (my wife's favorite was the one sung by Dwayne Johnson titled "Can I Get a Chee Hoo?").

Aside from the quite hilarious scenes that usually involve Pua the pig and Heihei the chicken, the new characters were a joy to see too, particularly Moni whose major admiration to Maui was very amusing and the farmer Kele who was always so grumpy. Oh and the voice of Moana's younger sister Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) was very cute, like she was really a 3 year old girl despite she is older than that. In addition to the names I mentioned above, there were some people who reprised their roles from the first movie, such as Temuera Morrison (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom etc) and Nicole Scherzinger as Moana's parents, even Rachel House (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire etc) as Tala, the late grandmother of Moana.

Another part that I admired in this movie was the animation. They were awesomely done and very lifelike with various facial expressions and lips movement that resembled real people. The film was co-directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller. Derrick was the story artist for the first movie and other major hits like How to Train Your Dragon, Megamind and live version of The Lion King. It was based on screenplay by Dana Ledoux Miller and Jared Bush (writer of Zootopia and Encanto). 

The movie itself had duration of 100 minutes including closing credits. When we were watching the credits, I was surprised to hear the song in Indonesian language, though my wife already knew about it. Apparently it was the Indonesian version of the Moana theme song "Beyond" which was sung by Lyodra and translated to "Jauh Di Sana". Oh there was an interesting mid-end credit scene which was likely to set up for the next sequel. Looking at the huge box office numbers (I read that it already broke several records), I am very sure there would be a third movie about Moana's adventures. Just not sure when it would happen, cause the next movie in the franchise would be the live adaptation of the first film and scheduled to be released in 2026.

Now, although the movie had great quality animation and voice acting, plus few nice songs, I do feel that the first film was more awesome and had stronger emotions. Yes, this one also had few touching moments that affected my wife, but personally I think it was not as deep as the original. And looks like it's getting mixed reception from critics, but audience seemed to really enjoy it. Overall, my wife and I still enjoyed this movie a lot and we recommend this to be seen by whole family as it's safe for all ages. So if you like the first one, I think you would enjoy this one as well. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars