’Moana 2’ gets a weak ‘chee hoo’ from me
I wanted to love the ‘Moana’ sequel, but it’s missing the heart of its predecessor — and the seams from its past life as a TV series are way too obvious.
If you’ve been reading Popculturology for the past few years, you know I’m a huge fan of Moana. It’s not just one of my favorite animated movies, it’s one of my favorite movies period.
Despite having to share 2016 with Zootopia (and somehow losing the Oscar for Best Animated Feature to it), Moana is arguably the strongest feature from Disney’s second renaissance period. (Yes, we all love Frozen, but Moana is the one film from that era that I keep coming back to.)
And while Disney and Pixar haven’t hesitated to release sequels to a bunch of their films — Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Inside Out, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Toy Story have all been turned into franchises — Moana was going to live out its future as very popular movie on Disney+ with a TV series promised in the future.
That future radically changed when Disney announced earlier this year that it had transformed the Moana series into a feature film that would get a prime Thanksgiving release in theaters.
It’s now Thanksgiving week. And I saw Moana 2 on Tuesday night.
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