Matt Singer’s review published on Letterboxd:
It’s tough to take a movie seriously when it doesn’t follow its own advice. In Moana 2, the title character gets an important assist from a mysterious sea witch named Matangi. The witch — Witch? Sorceress? Mutant bat lady? The film leaves this unclear — tells Moana that if she wants to truly earn the title of wayfinder, she will need to “stop playing it safe.” After all, she reasons, how can you get somewhere that’s not on any map if you don’t get a little lost?
Sound guidance — that Moana 2 resolutely ignores. This is a playing-it-safe sequel through and through, one that follows the path charted by its popular predecessor every step of the way. Brave island voyager Moana (voiced again by Auliʻi Cravalho) sets off on a journey far across the ocean in order to confront a mystical adversary and break a magic curse, with an assist from a shape-changing demigod named Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and occasional breaks for songs that could be described as “South Pacific meets the actual South Pacific.” Technically, the songs are different this time — and, somewhat fatally, they are nowhere near as good as the ones in the first Moana — but otherwise, the song remains the same.
Full review at ScreenCrush.
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