Ten years ago, Disney released a remarkable animated movie that brimmed with life, great music, and a story celebrating Polynesian culture, and it has made its mark in cinema. For some reason (easy money), Disney has decided in their “great” master plan to save cinema that they should do another (sigh) live-action remake of their own movie, which is great on its own, but feels that the live-action treatment should be applied to a movie that is already tried and true. The result is a film that comes across as another exercise in futility. It isn’t that the new Moana is terrible or horrible; it simply comes across as another unnecessary, weaker replica of something wonderful that is fine on its own.
I watched the new version of Moana this week, and the following day, I rewatched the 2016 animated original. As I rewatched what I consider one of my beloved Disney animated movies, I could see exactly where the new one falls short. As I watched the 2026 version of the movie, I was mostly okay with the experience, enjoying the cool visuals and appreciating the story, but the actors’ performances definitely came across as lackluster compared with the original.
For those who haven’t watched the animated original, Moana tells the story of a young Polynesian girl who loves her family and the island on which she lives but longs to see and experience a world beyond her familiar surroundings. Moana (Catherine Laga’aia) discovers that as her island suffers, either a supernatural curse or a severe drought, which threatens to destroy her home, her people should seek other resources beyond her reef. Her father, Chief Tui (John Tui), the leader of her community, strictly adheres to the rule that no one on their island should travel beyond the reef because it is way too dangerous. Galvanized by her non-traditional Gramma Tala (Rena Owen), Moana ventures out into the great beyond, far from home, to restore the heart of the goddess Te Fiti and have it delivered by the demigod who stole it, Maui (Dwayne Johnson).
Directed by Thomas Kail, with the same writer as the first movie, Jared Bush, and a new writer, Dana Ledoux Miller, Moana 2026 looks good enough but lacks the same energy, passion, and comic timing that the original film excels at. These flaws became more apparent after rewatching the animated version. The original is so vibrant and exciting, with an infectious, lovable energy that feels somewhat absent from this movie. It doesn’t matter that both Dwayne Johnson, who voiced Maui in the first movie, and Jemaine Clement, who rerecorded his voice and singing as the greedy sea crab Tamatoa, because their performances come across as contractual obligations.
I do hate to criticize the new actors for their performances, but they, too, simply lack the enthusiasm their voice-actor counterparts brought to these characters. The story is more or less the same, and any changes are negligible or unnecessary. So, as with several other Disney live-action remakes, the question remains, “Why are you doing this?”
The only answer is a lame attempt by Disney to cash in on the popularity of one of their properties with another imitation of what they have already done. Please, I implore my readers to stop giving Disney more money for these lame in-house knock-offs. If Disney has no creative plans to do anything truly different with its properties, it really needs to stop conning its fans into supporting these subpar live-action remakes. Even though I gave this movie a generous three stars (out of five) simply because I love this story, the studio heads need to get it into their thick skulls that they need to return to original, more creative ideas for their movies.