With her dreamy beachy waves and majestic relationship with water, the Disney character Moana has left all of her young and old viewers in awe. The adventure of a young woman underestimated by a troublesome male companion sparks a sense of womens’ empowerment. The adventure in this second film was less about finding who she was and more about taking on the responsibility of unifying all the islands. The audience of the first movie has grown over the years and many have wondered where the currents would lead their aquatic-driven muse. So, the shockingly silent release of this breathtaking sequel, “Moana 2”, was quite a surprise.
Disney is not usually subtle about their movie releases, spending millions on advertising upcoming films. Sequels like “Frozen 2″ and “Inside Out 2” received the hype and buzz as expected. However, this was not the case with “Moana 2”. The film was announced in February 2024 but there was no anticipation until only a few weeks before its release. Although the overall movie was rated 88% by Rotten Tomatoes, scoring only one percent below the original movie, “Moana 2” seems to have faded into the background. This may be tied to the fact that children these days seem less enthusiastic about the movie as opposed to its audience eight years ago. With more technological advancements reaching a younger audience, it is becoming harder to impress them with colorful animations. However, this factor has not been overlooked by the producers as a few adult jokes were included to entice older audiences.
Students here at CHS have their own opinions and take to the film as well. Freshman Solani Hererra shares her thoughts.
“It seemed to have a pretty good overall theme and the quality of the movie was fine… I think that Disney could have made it better,” Hererra said.” It just didn’t seem to have a lot of nuance to it. It was a little bit simple but it was a kid’s movie so it was understandable.”
With student opinions and professional critique, it seems safe to say that this movie fell short of audience expectations. Audiences are looking forward to its redress to save the beautiful storyline, in the third part.
“I think there is going to be a Moana three because of the way they ended it… because now she’s going to need to explore this new part of her,” Hererra said.
Though lots of improvements could be made to this run-off, it leaves audiences wondering how Disney will pick up where they left off and find out where the water leads Moana next time.