Originally deliberate as a TV sequence, now a characteristic movie, Moana 2 is the sequel to Disney’s smash-hit household animation Moana from 2016, and actually it’s a vacuum-packed slice of digital IP content material, a perky ChatGPT iteration of affection, laughter and belonging.
Hawaiian-born actor Auli’i Cravalho returns to voice the function of Moana, the teenager heroine on a Polynesian island. Within the first movie, she was chosen by her wayfinding ancestors and the mysterious forces of the ocean to revive the pure order of issues, disrupted by the swaggering however in some way cute demigod Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson. Now it’s a number of years later and Moana is a a lot revered younger girl on the island, admired and imitated by the feminine inhabitants that Maui calls “Mo-wannabes”.
We discover Moana on a mission to seek out different islands and different individuals of the ocean who’ve been scattered and oppressed by the evil god Nalo with a purpose to preserve them divided; she returns to her homeland with the sensational information that the island Motufetu has been submerged with all its individuals by Nalo’s terrible curse, and if they’ll in some way elevate it, this can restore all her kindred to their rightfully united state.
So Moana has to go on one other of her quests, with the more-or-less-reliable assist of Maui, flaunting as earlier than his animated tattoos. Additionally round are her good friend Loto (voiced by Rose Matafeo), aged bad-tempered farmer Kele (David Fane), whose agricultural expertise and sources are supposedly going to turn out to be useful on the voyage, and Moni (Hualalai Chung), an enormous goofy man, nearly Maui’s mini-me, who could have a cert-PG friend-crush on Moana. They encounter as soon as extra the faintly Minion-esque little coconut-shaped marauders, the Kakamora, with whom Moana is that this time ready to make frequent trigger, and the depraved “bat woman” villain Matangi (voiced by Maori performer Awhimai Fraser) who seems and disappears within the motion extra briefly, maybe, than she ought to have performed.
It’s all inoffensive sufficient, however weirdly missing in something genuinely passionate or heartfelt, all managed with frictionless smoothness and algorithmic effectivity.
Moana 2 is launched on 27 November within the US, 28 November in Australia and 29 November within the UK.
