Don Toliver (46:13)
Hey, it's Mike D. And this week on Movie Mike's Movie Podcast, I did a spoiler Free movie Review of Moana2 I love me some animated Disney movies, and I know I'm saying that as an adult male in his 30s, but I broke down the entire movie. There have been so many major movies coming out recently, so be sure to subscribe to my podcast to hear more spoiler free reviews. But right now, here are my thoughts on Moana 2. Let's get into it now. A spoiler free review of Moana 2. The question I want to answer by the end of this review review is was it even necessary? And yes, I know I'm an adult man talking about a movie primarily meant for kids, but it's a Disney movie. It is important. So we're here to talk about it. Pretty much what this movie is about. I hate to say it, it's basically the same thing as the first one when it comes to the plotline. Moana goes out on another big adventure. This one is going to test her levels of being a leader now. Somebody now who can speak and communicate with the ocean to a whole new level. Main problem I had with this movie, not just that the story was very repetitive from the first one. There's no real struggle. It kind of feels like the villain was a rehashed version of the villain from the first movie. It was the music. The music was so important to Moana1, really so important. In any Disney movie right now, you need that one big song. In Moana, you had that song How Far I'll Go, which is a big anthem from that movie. It is the character defining song of Moana. That is your hit from that. Every Disney musical movie needs that song to really resonate with kids, to really drive this to be a movie, that a kid is going to leave the theater and immediately want to go watch it on Disney plus even though it isn't available yet. You need that song to define your movie. Moana 2 did not have that song. It didn't have a How Far I'll go. It didn't have a you're welcome, which is another character defining song from Maui. It didn't even have the Shiny things song from one of the villains in the first movie. There were no memorable songs whatsoever in Moana 2. And what I believe it comes down to is that Lin Manuel Miranda was not a part of this movie. He did not write the songs. You have two new female writers who did all the music, and they were really just given guidance from Lin Manuel Miranda before they started making the music for this movie. He sat down with them and gave them the blueprint of what he did on the first one and what worked in that movie. And then they said he was just a phone call or FaceTime away. So maybe they used him with some guidance here and there. But you really felt his presence missing in these songs because they lacked originality. And it felt like they were given the assignment of, hey, do what we did in the first movie. Channel your best Lin Manuel Miranda and create your own songs. But you have to fit in this box. And what happens when you do that when it comes to music is you lose that creativity because you're just trying to do an impression. You're trying to cover the songs from the first one and make them your own, but you don't have that same artist doing it, and you don't have that originality. Because if Lin Manuel Miranda was given this movie and said, hey, let's see what you can do here with all these new characters, with this new storyline. What songs can you create? He's not gonna do exactly what he did in the first one. He's gonna experiment and do different things. And that is where you get the better songs. Not trying to do an impression of what you did in the first one, but trying to build upon it and create new songs. And you see this happening in movies all the time. Whenever the Batman movies lost Danny Elfman and they had to bring in a new composer and say, hey, do what Danny Elfman did and create these themes, you can't do it because you're trying to do an impression of somebody. You're not being original, and you're really not growing the music in any way. So I really felt, out of everything, that was really what was lacking in this movie. The improvements I do think they made was the animation style. And where this movie looked the best was in the nighttime animation scenes, I think on the water at night. There was a level of depth in the shading and the overall flow of these characters. I think that is where this movie really shined in those action sequences, especially in that third act. So maybe the story was kind of the same thing over and over again. The music was kind of just slapped together, but the animation really, I thought, was improved from the first one. So I think at least Disney is getting that right. Because even the comedy wasn't anything new. It was really just rehashing some of the jokes from the first one, which, again, I don't think kids are really going to care about that. In the theater, people were still laughing as this movie went along. But I think the main thing was we didn't really see a whole lot of development from the character of Moana from one to two because she went through that entire journey in one. And at the start of this movie, it almost felt like she was back at that point after going through all those things and finding out all these things about herself and being this really strong character. By the end of one, it almost like she regressed a little bit and was learning all over again instead. I would have liked to have seen her shine more at the beginning of this movie. Yes. Still been given a test that she had to overcome and do what she set out to do was find this island and connect her people with the rest of the world. That still could have been a test. But I would have liked to see her be kind of a stronger leader in the beginning because I think that would have been more impactful to kids of seeing like, oh, she learned something from the first one. She has these leadership skills now that she has to hone in. And the struggles of being a leader where even though you are strong and have proven yourself, how do you kind of advance on that? Instead, it was kind of just her from the beginning again all over and then trying to do what she did in the first one. So I think you have to give the kids, like a stronger role model at the beginning and show what comes with. Even though you have proven yourself how you have to do it again. I will say as much crap as I give the rock. He is actually a really good voice actor. I think he should stop doing live action movies and just do voice acting because he really shines as Maui. I think he really gives it his all. You can see his inflections and how much he puts a lot of his personal details into Maui. I think he has a lot of fun with it. It's probably also easier to fit into his schedule. He can just get into a recording booth, lay some lines down, and then get on his private jet and go work out for 10 hours or whatever he does. Whatever causes them to be 512 hours late to set. I think he actually does really great work in voice acting. Maui is his best character in the last 10 years. Why is Maui his best character in the last 10 years? It's because it's the only character that he portrays that actually has depth, that actually goes through something, that actually has ups and downs and doesn't win all the time. Maui loses fights. Maui also wins fights. Maui goes through sad times. All his other characters in every other movie, he's just the same thing over and over again. Wins every Fight doesn't get a scratch on him. Faces, no adversity. Maui actually has that. So I think that is why he's so attached to this character and why he's gonna do him again in the live action movie. But I'm not that excited for that. I think he should just stick to doing more animated roles. So for Moana 2, I don't think it was entirely necessary. Oh, I was even at a 2.5 for a while. But there was some clapping at the end of this movie, and I think people did leave satisfied. And I saw a lot of happy faces all around. So I think I have to give it a 0.5 just because I am an adult. Talking about an animated movie meant for a much younger demographic and if they had a good time, I think that is worth a 0.5 boost. So for Moana 2, I give it three out of five hooks.
