Disney's animated musical "Moana" was a "medium-to-large hit" when it came out in 2016, then enjoyed an "unusually charmed" afterlife on streaming, becoming in 2023 "America's most-viewed film on any platform". Now, said Tim Robey in The Telegraph, we have the "inevitable" sequel and, happily, it's an exhilarating triumph that "absolutely romps along".
'A grand voyage'
The songs "put 'Wicked' to shame", and with a running time "that brings us briskly ashore, the film is a grand voyage in miniature".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
I'm afraid it didn't charm me, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. "A little like 'Gladiator II'", it "suffers from sequel-itis, straining to contrive the magic of the first film by more or less replicating the story". And though the animation is "magnificent", the plot feels "humdrum".
This is, in a sense, "a film that was never meant to be, having begun life as a proposed Disney+ series", said Kevin Maher in The Times. Sadly, "you can tell": the narrative stumbles forward in "fits and starts through self-contained story bites that have little impact on the wider, regrettably flabby, arc"; and the whole thing is haunted by an "eerie corporate soullessness" that no amount of singing can dispel.
-
Pipe bombs: The end of a conspiracy theory?Feature Despite Bongino and Bondi’s attempt at truth-telling, the MAGAverse is still convinced the Deep State is responsible
-
The robot revolutionFeature Advances in tech and AI are producing android machine workers. What will that mean for humans?
-
Health: Will Kennedy dismantle U.S. immunization policy?Feature ‘America’s vaccine playbook is being rewritten by people who don’t believe in them’
-
6 lovely barn homesFeature Featuring a New Jersey homestead on 63 acres and California property with a silo watchtower
-
Film reviews: ‘Marty Supreme’ and ‘Is This Thing On?’Feature A born grifter chases his table tennis dreams and a dad turns to stand-up to fight off heartbreak
-
Heavenly spectacle in the wilds of CanadaThe Week Recommends ‘Mind-bending’ outpost for spotting animals – and the northern lights
-
It Was Just an Accident: a ‘striking’ attack on the Iranian regimeThe Week Recommends Jafar Panahi’s furious Palme d’Or-winning revenge thriller was made in secret
-
Singin’ in the Rain: fun Christmas show is ‘pure bottled sunshine’The Week Recommends Raz Shaw’s take on the classic musical is ‘gloriously cheering’
-
Holbein: ‘a superb and groundbreaking biography’The Week Recommends Elizabeth Goldring’s ‘definitive account’ brings the German artist ‘vividly to life’
-
The Sound of Music: a ‘richly entertaining’ festive treatThe Week Recommends Nikolai Foster’s captivating and beautifully designed revival ‘ripples with feeling’
-
‘Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right’ by Laura K. Field and ‘The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare’ by Daniel SwiftFeature An insider’s POV on the GOP and the untold story of Shakespeare’s first theater
