I had the costume and everything. Not just a cheap one with faux straws cut of fabric, but a handmade two-piece dress and skirt because of her, because of Moana. To see someone on the big screen doing what I’ve always wanted to do: running amok in water and being one with the sea.
I’ve aged, and I want to know one thing: has Moana aged too?
In the first movie, we follow Moana as she goes off on a journey after her island begins to decay. Moana answers a call from the sea, which pushes her to voyage into danger beyond the reef in order to restore the goddess Te Feti, the goddess of nature’s heart after the heart was stolen by the demi-god Mauito. After finding him on his island where he was trapped and separated from his magic fishhook, she convinces him to help her restore Te Fiti.
The movie Moana 2 reuses the same plot points and character arcs as the first movie but does not add anything to her character. It is more of a thoughtful grab at the nostalgia the first movie imprinted on viewers.
If you haven’t seen the first movie, you’d think the sequel expands on Moana’s character with the general message that when at first things don’t succeed, try again. But if you have seen the first one, you would know this is the same theme as the original.
The plot is also largely the same. She goes on a journey with some doubt about her success, whether it came from her or her family. The journey goes well and she gets optimistic until something fails and she’s forced to face a minor loss. Afterward, she becomes more motivated, goes after the problem, and succeeds.
The same lazy writing could also explain why the stakes don’t feel as high. In the first movie, her people could lose their harvester, which would cause them to lose their livestock and lead to famine. In the second movie, if she cannot reconnect with the people of the other islands, they would just…die? Maybe? Or as the movie puts it, “Your story will end.”
In the first movie, the coconut people (the Kakamora) serve as adversaries in Moana’s journey to restore Te Fiti’s heart, but in the second movie, they are given the same copy-paste sad, tragic, backstory to add something to make you feel sympathetic towards the villain. In Moana 2, they had lost their island and were now drifters lost at sea. The character’s lovable little faces are catered to the young children in the audience so they can fall in love with them and be sold as plushies to them.
Additionally, the mid-credit scene after the second film shows the true purpose of the movie is to set up a third movie, where she will have to fight all her enemies at once. This may explain the lack of an actual character arc for Moana: this film is just a vehicle to get us to the next one.
If you like recycled character arcs and plot points with a new suit on you will definitely enjoy this movie. Otherwise, just wait until it’s out for streaming, or you can watch it in 100 parts on YouTube’s shorts.
