Disney’s anti-princess, ancient Polynesia’s livewire teenage adventurer Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho), returns in this lush, handsomely animated sequel. Originally intended as a series for Disney+, the story sits relatively comfortably within the feature film format, give or take a bit of missing background information. A mythic romp that unfolds at sea and inside the bioluminescent guts of an immense monster clam, this instalment is set three years after the events of the 2016 original. Moana, a fully paid-up wayfinder gifted with the ability to interact with the waves, has been searching for other island communities, with limited success.
But through a vision she receives an urgent message from the elders. Moana recruits a crew for her canoe catamaran (regular sidekicks the anxious pig and dimwit chicken are joined by an eager fanboy, an axe-happy inventor girl and a sourpuss farmer) and sets out once more, to be reunited with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who, for reasons not fully explained, has been imprisoned in a bat cave which appears to be located in the clam’s capacious digestive system.
The songs are decent; the slightly cluttered storyline moves at a brisk enough clip. Much of the charm of the film is in the vividly realised, self-contained world; apart from a brief TikTok-style dance routine and a mention of “fanfic”, there’s very little to jar us out of Moana’s realm. But the main selling point remains Moana herself: the sparkiest and most intrepid Disney heroine of them all.
In UK and Irish cinemas
