rant.1 : Moana 2

!Spoilers in last paragraph and slight spoilers throughout the rest!

I was 8 years old when the first Moana came out, and ever since I saw it in theatres I was extremely obsessed, even 9 years later.  I just got back from seeing Moana 2 and frankly, I'm extremely disappointed.  

The first Moana was a beautiful story about a girl going against everything she grew up with to follow her soul and save her island along with the entire ocean.  During her quest there is so much exciting action and beautiful songs.  

Whereas, in Moana 2 the only conflict is that she has to sail a little bit further and her new little sister misses her.  Also the journey isn’t even very exciting.  The only side action is Moana’s boat falling into a hole.

The entire story is solely relying on “comedy” and “cuteness” when the comedy is just very overused tropes of a “grumpy old man” character and “insane fanboy” character.  Plus I found the “adorable” character very annoying, especially because whenever she and Moana would see each other they would yell “BIG SIS” and “LITTLE SIS” over and over, like girl you have names?

And bro don’t even get me started on the songs. The songs in the first Moana are so insanely good in my opinion.  I have 2 of them (“How Far I’ll Go - Reprise” and “I Am Moana”) in my broadway musicals playlist, which is insane for childrens princess music.

But literally all the songs in the second movie sound like very dull pop songs.  Every single song sounds genuinely the exact same to me.  Not only that but they sound the exact same all the way through, barely any switch in rhythm or anything.  Unlike in the first movie, for example “Where You Are” goes in between soft and upbeat to show Moana battling with her brain and heart.

Even with songs that don’t go between, they still don’t stay the exact same all the way through.  I remember my first time watching Moana when “Your Welcome” came on, I was like “oh I can’t wait for this boring song to be over”.  By the time the song was over I was literally giddy in my seat because of how upbeat and fun the song was.  Because not only did the song go between more dull and upbeat, but it consistently got more catchy as it went on; with the final chorus adding background vocals.

And if disney was fighting AI allegations before, they definitely will now.  Because all of the background characters have insane same face syndrome.  Like the female, and some of the male, background characters’ facial features literally look more like Moana than her own family. 

When the first song came on and the entire village was singing, and then some shirtless, saggy old man started singing “I can’t wait to retire” and “do you have to sing” I knew I’d regret going to watch it.  And then I heard “Big Sis!!” OH BROTHER

I do have some positive feedback, however.  I thought the little sister was gonna sneak onto the boat at first since she was being annoying about Moana leaving; and she didn’t, thank god.  I also really liked the ending where Moana turned into a demi-god after dying, especially since it proved matpat’s theory correct.  But the rest of the movie kinda really sucked :(