Movie Review: Moana 2
My takes on the new Moana movie 🌊
Today, I was able to go to the movie theater and see Moana 2! I stopped on the way and got me a Diet Coke and I was ready. This will be a no spoiler review, so don’t worry 😉
My thoughts:
Overall, I thought this was a great movie that followed the first film beautifully. Going in, I had some hesitations… New composers, format, etc (I will go over these in a minute). I was nervous, Moana is in my top 5 Disney movies so I was very very interested how they were going to follow it up.
Starting with the format. This movie was originally announced as a Disney plus series, not a movie. As we know, Disney and their Disney plus originals can be very hit or miss. Adapting what is meant to be a series into a film is no easy feat, but this movie didn’t feel off or odd in any way.
Next the music. Imagine being chosen to follow Lin Manuel Miranda, a very popular and critically acclaimed composer. Lin not only worked on Moana and Encanto for Disney, but composed Hamilton and In the Heights on Broadway. These are some tough shoes to fill but I believe that the composers killed it with this. Abagail Barlow and Emily Bear were selected to compose the music for this sequel. Although they are young, don’t let that fool you. Barlow & Bear are Grammy Award winning composers and artists for their Musical Theatre Album, “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album”. The show stopping song, Beyond, perfectly captures the themes of the movie while showcasing Auli’i Cravalho’s voice. In this movie, Moana is older and has grown into a natural leader of the village, her tone and perspective on the world has changed. With that, her vocals in this movie have truly stepped up and Auli’i is not only singing a more vocally challenging score, but the lyrics tackle the feelings and emotions of growing up. I have seen some people online say that Barlow & Bear didn’t live up to the previous movie, but I severely and truly disagree.
Lastly, I wanted to talk about the themes of this movie. They added a new character of Simea, Moana’s baby sister. Their relationship was what really drove the theme of family and togetherness. Moana in her song Beyond, shares that she is nervous to go because what if she never comes back. That is something that I think anyone can relate to, missing family and not being there for those you love. Her sister Simea also highlights the theme of the future. Moana has to go on her new mission because she is looking towards the future and along every step of the journey, she is doing this for her little sister and for her future. She is sacrificing the possibility of death for her sister and her people.
Final Thoughts: Moana always has a good ending and this movie was no different, a heartfelt and beautiful moment at the end. I thought the minor villain (similar to Tomatoa from the first movie) was very fun. Her name is Matangi and she is a bat lady😳. I want to see this movie again and again and I can’t wait for it to get released on Disney plus.
I hope you all liked my movie reviews and comment below if you want more!!
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Ryan😊