r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 12d ago
Official Discussion Official Discussion - Moana (2026) [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Moana (2026)
Summary
Live-action adaptation of the 2016 Disney animated film 'Moana.'
Director Thomas Kail
Writer Jared Bush
Cast
- Catherine Laga'aia as Moana
- Dwayne Johnson as Maui
- John Tui as Chief Tui
- Frankie Adams as Sina
- Rena Owen as Gramma Tala
Rotten Tomatoes: 35%
Metacritic: 45
VOD / Release Theatrical release
Trailer Official Trailer
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u/aocom 12d ago
Nearly a shot-for-shot remake that just proves how well the team at WDAS did with the original. It's really clear this director does not understand how to translate the beautiful moments (or any moment, really) from the animated film into live action, nor do they know how to give us any interesting action whatsoever. I was hoping for some really lovely visual spectacle made with live action scope in mind, but instead we get an overly described CG experience with no discernible aesthetic ambition. Hei Hei is the thing of nightmares and no child in my theater was laughing at any of his scenes (not that my showing had many people in it, much less ones who were kids).
I will say though, that the You're Welcome sequence is visually quite fun and Catherine Laga'aia is very endearing as Moana, but these are not enough to save this experience. Most of the time I was thinking about how much I want to watch the original again.
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u/-Sp0iledmilk- 12d ago
This is the biggest issue. Between this and “Lilo & Stitch”, this didn t land nearly as well
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u/GrayWing 12d ago
Lilo & Stitch was straight garbage
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u/The_Lantean 12d ago
Well, it apparently made a shit ton of money, enough to justify continuing this…
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u/oyvho 12d ago
Purely on the branding strength of Stitch. Everybody loves Stitch, and most people avoid reviews like a plague.
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u/FreeRange0929 12d ago
Took my son to Disney on ice
The biggest audience pop of the night wasn’t from Mickey or Frozen, it was Stitch by a pretty decent margin. Pretty shocking
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u/TheWatersOfMars 12d ago
$1 billion. And it was one of the cheapest to make by far, with a budget of just $100 million.
At least the sequel has to tread new ground. Of all these dumb remakes, Stitch is the one that actually has franchise potential.
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u/Enough_Sprinkles_113 12d ago
Stitch has animated sequels. And a TV series.
What new ground will it tread exactly?
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u/brb1006 12d ago edited 11d ago
The remake's sequel is set to have an original story and introducing Stitch's girlfriend Angel. According to Chris Sanders, the higher ups at Disney sent him a note telling him to "Please add Angel" for the sequel.
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u/BlueCX17 12d ago
I want Ruben and his sandwich eating ways
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u/brb1006 11d ago edited 11d ago
I hope to god somebody at Disney creates various food tie-ins for the sequel heavily focused on Ruben's love of sandwiches. I can see a lot of Subway live-action/CG ads starring Ruben promoting subway sandwiches. He's a much better spokesperson for Subway than Jared!
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u/GezelligPindakaas 12d ago
It's almost as if all these live action remakes were absolutely unnecessary.
Did any remake improve the original?
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u/Waste-Replacement232 12d ago
Cinderella? Maybe?
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u/iTiffany 12d ago
Maleficent was really good at adding onto her backstory how she got to be who she was. Decent movie compared to recent ones. I don't know much about the second one.
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u/Tofu24 12d ago
Cruella was also a fun watch, I thought it had great costume and production design. I don't mind those kinds of live action re-imaginings/re-tellings, it's not just a straight remake of the original, it tries to do something different. I'd rather they do more of that, rather than be a pale imitation of the original
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u/mist3rdragon 11d ago
While The Jungle Book remake isn't an improvement, it's a reinterpretation that it stands on its own two feet enough to be good in its own right. Which I think is justification enough tbh.
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u/Rosebud_apothocary 12d ago
I would say Maleficent did and I do like the live action cinderella but that's about it really
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u/murkler42 12d ago
hilarious because this guy is a world renowned broadway director (he directed both in the heights and hamilton i believe)
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u/Kahzgul 12d ago
Stage plays aren't films, and involve far less CGI. Is it possible the director was out of his depth?
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u/JohnCavil01 12d ago
By the same token live-action is not animation and it’s rarely “translated” well - particularly from animation to live-action.
They’re very different mediums and there’s no reason why something that works in animation should be expected to work in live-action 1:1. So this whole concept of very faithfully remaking animated movies into live-action counterparts is fundamentally a fraught idea.
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u/murkler42 12d ago
well yeah obviously, i just meant that it’s not like this guy is devoid of artistic integrity or ability. just ironically can’t pull it off here in any capacity. doesn’t help its a film controlled by committee
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u/Ikarus3426 12d ago
I'm just baffled on why they went so hard on the green screen. It's so clearly the green screen. How were so many people ok with how this looks.
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u/Personal_Comb_6745 12d ago
They did it because so much shit from the original would have to be CG'd in to work anyway. There was no point in making this thing considering it's mostly a cartoon that the actors need to pretend to interact with.
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u/amish_novelty 12d ago
Something I found funny that the corridor digital guys pointed out was that because so much of this was filmed on a sound stage, a lot of the lighting made no sense. You’d have the sun obviously be behind a character but they’d still be lit from the front and it would only make the uncannyness of it all the more apparent.
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u/blacksheep998 12d ago
I noticed the same issue in Mulan.
There was a scene towards the beginning that was clearly 4-5 shots composed together because every character in it was lit from a different angle.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 12d ago
I mean you can write a book (and I assume people have) on the absolute death of lighting discipline in movies lately.
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u/jabask 12d ago
Honestly that's the case for most movies though. Everyone is nearly always lit from behind to some extent
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u/amish_novelty 12d ago
Yeah, I think it was just extra noticeable with Moana because they’re in direct sunlight on the ocean
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u/Azenji 12d ago
We had Pirates of the Carribean shooting DAYLIGHT AT SEA 20 years ago. There’s just no excuse to this besides saving on production cost which they cant do anyway because much of the excessive CG work which somehow looks impressive than CG heavy films of the past.
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u/Snooty_Cutie 12d ago
I wonder at what point does CGI become just as if not more expensive then shooting on location.
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u/Pezington12 12d ago
To be fair. Even the director/ crew of Pirates of the Caribbean hated shooting at sea and actively warned others from doing so. It’s a fucking logistical nightmare that causes so many problems and makes your film inordinately more expensive than just faking it. There’s a reason the pirates movies were some of the most expensive movies ever at the time.
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u/recommendasoundtrack 12d ago
That’s fair, but they’ll stand the test of time way beyond any of these live action remakes. Filmmaking probably should be gruelling sometimes for the right result, especially when we can often feel and appreciate the difference as cinemagoers
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 12d ago
Yeah, which just solidifies the point that this shit looks cheap.
It is a movie about Oceania. The ocean is a central theme and literally a character. It is borrowing heavily from Polynesian myth, and dealing with things that have deep cultural meaning for the people who live on actual Islands in the real life ocean. The setting of this movie is extremely important.
So if you are a filmmaker with any kind of integrity at all, you wouldn't film the movie in a studio in California. At least not all of it. You get the money together and go film the water movie on some real fucking water.
If you're not going to put out the time and money, then maybe you shouldn't make a live action movie about Oceania.
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u/sonicgamer42 10d ago
"You get the money together and go film the water movie on some real fucking water" goes hard btw
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u/dwpea66 12d ago edited 12d ago
The concept of remaking a 10-year-old film is supremely lazy. It stands to reason everything else about the production would be, too.
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u/cfc25_ 12d ago
Honestly as much as I’d like to believe The Rock, being a proud Polynesian, would want to film on location, dude probably couldn’t be bothered to go anywhere other than a soundstage.
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u/SaveUsCatman 12d ago
Can't go around Polynesians outside of his bubble, cause he cant handle the criticism of being called an egotistical ass
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u/robimtk 12d ago
Tbf if people started shouting abuse at me every time I went outside I'd probably just not go outside too
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u/Spirited-Ad9071 12d ago
Cost cutting, it's been heavily rumored since day one that the budget for this wasn't as big as other live action remakes.
Disney were probably 50/50 on whether this would be a success or not given it's a relatively recent animated movie so it seems like they intentionally tried to make it in such a way that wouldn't result in a massive loss if it does bomb hard.
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u/LTPRWSG420 12d ago
We were in Hawaii while they were filming this, so it’s not all green screen, but yeah a lot of it is lol.
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u/-Sp0iledmilk- 12d ago
That’s my biggest issue. It’s too obvious, and it doesn’t seem like enough money was spent on all the effects.
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u/Mothman129 12d ago
I think Disney got traumatized shooting in pools and on real water after the Pirates of the Caribbean movies
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u/Craneteam 12d ago
It's so wild because Frozen, Moana, and Coco should've shown Disney that there is an appetite for new ideas and that people will support them. This company baffles me
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u/steve_z 12d ago
There is, but 6 of their top 20 grossing films are live action remakes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Pictures
And 9 are sequels.
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u/bigfatcowturd 12d ago
Wouldn’t they be more financially incentivized to push out original IP so they can sell branded toys and merch with it? No one’s going to be buying a Moana doll or shirt after seeing this train wreck.
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u/kia75 12d ago
The problem with new IP is that it's completely unpredictable what will become a hit, what will become a bomb, and what will make an average return. Previously a bunch of movies were made with the understanding that a few would be bombs, the majority would make modest returns, and a few would be hits! Now studios only want to make hits, despite nobody knowing the exact formula for a hit!
Remakes and sequels of beloved franchises are basically guaranteed money makers, even if they're bad because people love the original IP (i.e. Lilo and Stitch).
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u/Old_Employment_1090 12d ago
It's so wild because Frozen, Moana, and Coco should've shown Disney that there is an appetite for new ideas and that people will support them.
Just ignoring the many "new ideas" movies they've made recently that have completely flopped because they weren't tied to existing IP like Raya, Wish, Strange World. Not even mentioning Pixar's downturn.
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u/fiver19 10d ago
You just listed two below average movies and one dogshit one. The new IPs also have to be good since they dont have the brand recognition you are talking about.
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u/WaluigisHat 12d ago
Given how terrible the box office predictions are for this, I’m guessing Disney will be backing a dump-truck or two full of cash into Lin Manuel-Miranda’s driveway on Monday morning to come back and write some songs for an animated Moana 3 that’s properly planned as a film this time, and not some episodes of a TV show bolted together like Moana 2 was.
For such a massively popular franchise, it feels shockingly mishandled.
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u/Hairyantoinette 12d ago
This seems to imply that Disney ever learns the right lesson(s) from box office debacles and I very much doubt that's going to happen.
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u/_JR28_ 12d ago
I’ll have twenty bucks on the Rock crawling back to the WWE by the end of the year too, that’s what happened when Black Adam flopped
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u/TheDeafNarcoleptic 11d ago
Disney will be backing a dump-truck or two full of cash into Lin Manuel-Miranda’s driveway
And they should, IMO.
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u/DisneyPandora 12d ago
It genuinely feels like the Rock forced Disney to make this movie and Moana 2. That’s why it was so rushed and bad
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u/lanceturley 12d ago
The Rock walked into the Disney offices and told everyone that "The hierarchy of power in the Disney universe is about to change."
No one had any idea what that meant, so they just made more Moana movies.
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u/Bozlogic 12d ago
This is classic. As a fan of comic book movies, I was really hyped for black Adam, and I still enjoy the film. I knew ahead of time that DJ was full of shit and it was all just egotistical marketing. I just wanted to see black Adam on screen. If they had chosen ANY other actor to play that character, I’d still be just as hyped about it. The rock did well for the character but I know he’s insufferable in real life.
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u/Personal_Comb_6745 12d ago
Between that and Zachary Levi drinking the MAGA kool-aid, the whole Shazam side of the DCU was just cursed.
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u/matito29 12d ago
Which is a shame because the first Shazam was the best DCEU film that wasn’t Wonder Woman. It wasn’t a high bar to clear, but it was a fun story, and the Shazamily was charming.
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u/Bozlogic 12d ago
As soon as they announced the Shazam movie, I was hooked. The injustice game was where I first learned about them. After that, I couldn’t wait for them to do a true justice league movie like infinity war/end game. Still so bummed they fumbled the bag like that, I could have done a better job with that IP.
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u/Morgan-Moonscar 12d ago
It was more they had to make the live-action remake just to get him back for Moana 2. Since it originally started out as a Disney+ series with knockoff voice actors, then they recut it into a film and needed the OGs back. Couldn't get Lin Manuel Miranda though.
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u/IceLord86 12d ago
He did do a new song for the live action remake, but his prescence was definitely missed in Moana 2.
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u/pootsforever 12d ago
Actually the live action production of Moana happened before they decided to turn the tv show into Moana 2.
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u/AccountSeventeen 12d ago edited 12d ago
Why is everyone giving The Rock this much credit lol??
It’s literally just money.
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u/GenGaara25 12d ago
Because he was the one who announced it, and produced it along with his ex-wife and ex-brother-in-law. And was really into it
"This story is my culture, and this story is emblematic of our people's grace and warrior strength. I wear this culture proudly on my skin and in my soul, and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reunite with Maui, inspired by the mana and spirit of my late grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, is one that runs very deep for me. [...] [T]here is no better world for us to honor the story of our people, our passion and our purpose than through the realm of music and dance, which is at the core of who we are as Polynesian people."
This was coming straight off the back of his string of bombs and career mis-steps, Jungle Cruise, Red Notice, Black Adam, and his failed coup of DC. And losing his place as the highest paid actor in Hollywood.
So, to a lot of people, it read like he was running back to the safety of Moana and pushed for it to get a LA so he can play Maui and maybe claw back some public affection. To the point where he and his production company made it themselves.
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u/i_like_2_travel 12d ago
Reddit hates the Rock dawg
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u/PickleInDaButt 12d ago
It’s still real to them damnit after the Rock tried to stop Cody Rhodes from finishing his story!
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u/Ultimatum227 12d ago edited 12d ago
At least Moana 2 felt like those old Disney sequels. You know like when the quality was lower but it still had charm to enjoy.
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u/BH90008 12d ago
Totally agree. Just watched the DTV Aladdin sequel with my kids and highly recommend it. Dan Castellaneta is the genie and a lot of Homer comes thru in the songs. Jason Alexander is one of the baddies. Lots of charm as you said.
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u/theclacks 12d ago
Aladdin 3 is great too. It's basically Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade but with John Rhys-Davies playing Sean Connery's part.
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u/countdooku975 12d ago
I think Black Adam coming and going like a fart in the wind hurt his ego so he pushed Disney to make this remake in the hopes he can get another hit.
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u/WhiteSoxChartGuy 12d ago
From Day 1 of their announcing this movie, I just felt in my gut this was a Rock vanity project
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u/InItsTeeth 12d ago
I am not opposed to live action adaptations … but they should be adaptions and not remakes. Do something new… give it a unique flavor… this strange 1:1 remake that looks awful is so strange
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u/Wuktrio 12d ago
If they remake Robin Hood the same way they remade Lion King, that would be interesting. Awful, but interesting. Just a bunch of woodland animals with no facial expressions swordfighting and shooting with bows and arrows.
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u/Smegmasaurus_Rex 12d ago
I’ve been saying for years this would be the one interesting remake if they used realistic animals in costumes. The Great Mouse Detective and The Rescuers have potential as well.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 12d ago
Great Mouse Detective and The Rescuers
They only do live action remakes of popular movies that have a place in the cultural zeitgeist. Those two movies are only of interest to a very small subset of their target audience, and kids today are completely unaware of them.
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u/helpmeredditimbored 12d ago
They actually were working on a live action remake of Robin Hood, but the project was cancelled
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u/RowEmbarrassed4764 12d ago
alright you actually got me interested in that one. And I hate the photo realistic lion king lmao. But that actually sounds dope
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u/General_Kick688 12d ago
Right? That's why Cinderella and The Jungle Book are two of the best, and while Dumbo wasn't great, it tried something different.
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u/ughdrunkatvogue 12d ago
People give the live action Mulan “remake” a lot of flack - but boy did it make sure it was no substitution for the original animated movie lmao
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u/TheWatersOfMars 12d ago
They can't, because that's the whole selling point. It's the same reason you go to McDonald's - you'll never have a great burger, but you always know exactly what burger you're getting.
Parents especially don't want to risk the cost for a family of 5 on a movie that might be bad, especially when they've already got literally infinite entertainment at home. A Moana remake guarantees you and your kids an OK time. Not a great time, but not a bad time either. It's a symptom both of belts tightening (very understandable), and audiences no longer taking risks with entertainment (less understandable).
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u/Saltierney 12d ago
And if they want to do a 1:1 remake, Atlantis has been sitting there just waiting ti be amazing yet they refuse to do it.
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u/Able_Advertising_371 12d ago
They continue to make them because they’re easy to make and almost guarantee easy box office. Money talks
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u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? 12d ago edited 12d ago
I don’t want to alarm anyone but this was, uh, not good. It’s immediately obvious the second it starts as to how bad of an idea it is to do this in live action. Because everything except for The Rock and Moana on the boat is CGI and therefore animated. So they just made Moana less visually interesting and colorful and threw two actors in front of a floating green screen. Even in the beginning with the island and the tribe, it’s so obvious that the actors and the environment are in different planes of existence.
This was a lose-lose situation from the moment it was announced and I think we all know that. But I was still taken back by how hard this movie loses, how poorly it makes every decision. The action is shot very awkwardly and is clearly designed to make sure that no physical actor is actually doing anything interesting. The movie is beat-for-beat the same as the other, better movie that already exists and is still commonly watched and beloved and is also barely only a decade old. And try as this young actress might, The Rock is completely removed from any real emotion or performance. He’s having fun with the cockiness, sure, but he sounds like he’s reading side effects on a prescription bottle when he tells Moana she’s special. There's also a low point scene for Moana where she really needed to be crying and she just could not make it happen. Really drops any possible emotion out the bottom.
I guess it’s just disappointing that I really sat there and watched this whole damn thing wondering what they might do differently and I got nothing on that front, just a worse version of a movie I already appreciate. I’m sure if they’d made changes that could cause equal disdain, but at least it would differentiate itself? Maybe make its own necessity a little more clear? I don’t know, this just feels like the absolute barrel scrape move by a company that is so creatively dry and an actor who couldn’t handle not upsetting the hierarchy of the DC universe so badly that he committed an entire staff of people to four years of making a movie for absolutely no reason. Not to mention he's clearly wearing a weird body suit the whole time that looks extremely wack, so if the argument is he would age out soon I think that had passed.
The whole point of these live action remakes is to entice the elders who now have families of their own with the films of their childhood remade for a new generation. But Moana came out ten damn years ago. Those kids are barely out of college and aren’t rushing to the theater to relive a movie they watched 400 times but also not once in 5 years. Like, someone had to be aware of this before they greenlit this budget? I think the movie bored me so much I just started spinning my wheels about how this is the clear breaking point to a once profitable but never really quality trend in Disney filmmaking. 3/10.
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u/Straight-Ad6926 12d ago
Hey now give Disney some credit. It takes a lot of creative genius to look at a vibrant, masterpiece of animation and say “You know what this needs? More beige a green screen and a deeply fatigued Dwayne Johnson.”
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u/ExplorationGeo 12d ago
deeply fatigued Dwayne Johnson
Thank you! He looked so rough. He looks like he's aged 20 years in the last 5.
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u/bigfatcowturd 12d ago
He looks way too old and wrinkly to be a demigod. Why would they not cast someone younger that actually kind of looked how his character did onscreen? It’s not like he has an iconic voice. The voice for Moana clearly wasn’t that important. Also has negative charisma.
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u/Ninjamurai-jack 12d ago edited 12d ago
Funnily Enough, the new Supergirl is kinda like that.
The difference is that at least the director, Craig Gillespie, had a vision (that was just not well executed), to turn a colorful comic inspired by True Grit into a dark, gritty and dirty space western to be “more unique”. Tbh kinda makes sense when you compare It with the stuff Gunn does, James is simply much more silver age in this aspect.
Oh, and Craig used more practical effects too.
While Moana doesn’t try to do anything lol
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u/COHERENCE_CROQUETTE 12d ago
Step 1: Make timeless animation.
Step 2: Convince everyone it's now outdated because of the inferior remake.Who greenlights these things?
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u/SearchForSocialLife 12d ago
It always has been this passive aggressive additude towards the original for me. The way the actors from the new The Lion King-movie tried to tell me its actually so much better than original because this time it looks ""real"" still makes my blood boil
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u/ProfPeanut 12d ago edited 12d ago
This is reminding me of why I hated the Lion King live action so much, whose success they really were trying to recapture here
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u/bassman2112 12d ago
At least we get more tamatoa I guess
Schaffrillas will have some more reaction images to work with
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u/Pezington12 12d ago
Imma be honest, I think his deep seated hatred of live action remakes would bar him from using any shot of this movie as a reaction image. His soul would not let him do so. Even if tamatoa looked incredible in live action, he wouldn’t do it.
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u/ghastlychild 12d ago
Something tells me that the day he even considers using one of those stills, would be the day his soul dies inside a little
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u/Waste-Replacement232 12d ago
If I’m gonna say one good thing, at least it didn’t pad itself out with subplots like other live action remakes.
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u/Shout92 12d ago
It's genuinely impressive that it's only 8 minutes longer than the original and not the average half hour the others are.
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u/Waste-Replacement232 12d ago
I’m interested in how the events line up compared to the original.
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u/ultranonymous11 10d ago
Shot for shot remake with a handful of minutes worth of extra scenes (solely to flesh out existing stuff - nothing actually new).
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u/SPEK2120 12d ago
I swear there was a quick jump cut or a couple frames missing at one point (close up on Maui towards the beginning of the scene where he tries to kick Moana off the boat). I couldn’t believe it.
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u/NewWaysToDream 11d ago
I don’t remember if it’s exactly there’s scene but there’s one shot where Moana is running towards her boat and then there’s a cut and shows her climbing up but I feel like we skipped a whole few seconds between that.
Also Moana randomly blurts out she isn’t a princess but I don’t recall Maui saying it in the line before. TBH I was falling asleep at points.
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u/chrisychris- 11d ago
I’m p sure that shot happened the same way in the original. Also Maui does call her a princess
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u/AdrenalinDragon 12d ago
It’s 99% the exact same movie as the original Moana from 10 years ago. Everything is weaker and Dwayne Johnson does not work nearly as well in Live-Action here and is way more flat compared to his voice performance in the Animated one. Just watch the original. This one literally offers nothing. 3/10
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u/BL00D_ZA 12d ago
I’m yet to find a live action movie that was even half as good as the original animation. Real life physics will never allow the same amount of freedom as animation. It’s just not possible.
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u/piggypudding 12d ago
The acting was really . . . Bad? Like cringe-worthy. Chief Tui was painful to watch and somehow the Rock was delivering Maui’s lines with less inflection in full-costume than he was able to do in a sound booth. Just odd, really. The best actor was Catherine Laga’aia but even she wasn’t spectacular.
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u/Ender_Stark 12d ago
He's 10 years older and burnt out so that isn't really surprising.
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u/Waste-Replacement232 12d ago
I was not impressed with Laga'aia's singing compared to Cravalho's...especially in the final "We Know The Way".
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u/piggypudding 12d ago
I agree, Cravalho has the better singing voice. She had a lot more inflection while singing too
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u/TensorForce 12d ago
You know shit's bad when even the Rock's bland as fuck performance is more soulless than usual.
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u/JediTrainer42 12d ago
I feel like a comparable experience for me is the remake of The Producers. I absolutely adored the broadway play and thought Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were hilarious and amazing.
And then the film version came out and it was so poorly directed and shot in a way that completely baffled me. The jokes were still there. The music was still there. But it was missing a soul. Same thing here with this Moana remake. It’s just poorly made.
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u/youwillcomedownsoon2 12d ago
Agree about The Producers for the most part but I’d argue that the entire Springtime for Hitler sequence was terrific.
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u/ICUMF1962 12d ago
I didn’t completely hate it but it felt very devoid of soul. This was just a vanity project tailor made for a grown man who was upset that he couldn’t get his superhero franchise. The main girl is also just okay. There were times I swear her S’s sounded like she was saying things like “shomething”.
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u/WillingBand5254 12d ago
I also noticed the S --> Sh thing when I listened to the soundtrack on Spotify! I also had to relisten to the start of How Far I'll Go many times because I'm pretty sure she sings "Dive been" instead of "I've been". Also I don't think her singing is quite as expressive as the original
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u/MattMamba 12d ago
i hope some higher-up checked first if The Rock can act good enough to do the original movie justice before greenlighting this. he was god-awful that it brought down the experience for me
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u/bigfatcowturd 12d ago
I hope this shows studios that people are not interested in seeing him on screen anymore. He’s old and comes across as bitter. Time to hang up your action pants and step into some more mature roles if you want to keep acting, grandpa.
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u/Ckdk619 12d ago
Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I enjoyed it for what it was. I was sufficiently entertained, visually, and Catherine Laga'aia's acting was quite decent. OST was also enjoyable.
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u/mist3rdragon 11d ago edited 11d ago
You know what's crazy to me? Disney have made a lot of live action remakes of their previous works, in which they've inserted completely pointless songs into their second acts (often at the expense of things like theme and pacing) to make feeble grabs at best original song nominations. Yet, here in a remake of Moana, a film that's biggest weakness is that it has a slightly weak middle and could maybe do with an extra song in the second act, they commissioned a new song... just to play over the end credits. As misguided as their earlier remakes were, at least they used to try to do something new or different or maybe fix flaws with the original. Here it's just a worse version of every scene beat for beat.
The worst thing is that this film only ever really works at all during the musical scenes because the original soundtrack of Moana 2016 is just that great, so it would probably benefit from an additional song even more than the animated version would.
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u/t1tanium 11d ago
The rocks acting in this just didn't seem to fit. I don't know if it's he's older, less motivated, or just playing himself instead of Maui. But the energy of the cartoon is just not there. And come on, Maui was fat, why is the rock just trying to show off his body? And same with the songs. The originals were sung great, but many of these songs feel a bit flat in here?
Moana's acting is ok, but still feels flat a bit compared to cartoon.
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u/DanOlympia 12d ago
Is the new Lin Manuel Miranda song good at least?
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u/WillingBand5254 12d ago
I listened to it on Spotify and it's just okay, like a pop song. I also imagine it slows down the pacing because it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, even if you've never seen the original. Just a generic "Your ancestors are with you on your journey across new horizons on the unpredictable sea", and it also felt meta because the ancestor is voiced by the original Moana actress
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u/SincerelyMarc 11d ago
The song really does slow down the pacing of the credits. ./s
Spoiler: thankfully it's not in the movie and just a song for the credits.
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u/trizzo0309 12d ago edited 12d ago
I don't know how much more Hollywood needs to see for The Rock to stop getting as much work as he does but... this was an abomination. He could not have phoned it in more or looked goofier in that outfit.
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u/Mr_Tigger_ 12d ago
And we needed this live action remake of an excellent animated move because….??
Answers on a postcard please.
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u/samsaBEAR 12d ago
Cold hard cash, although that said (and I'm no financial expert) spending a lot of money on a film to get not a lot of money back at the box office is a very interesting strategy.
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u/FellowSaganist 12d ago
It looks like it was fully shot in studio. What's going on with the lighting?
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u/my_throw_away12343 11d ago
The movie lost me from the very opening scene and never got me back.
All of the humor doesn’t translate well into live action (animation is inherently more silly and lively).
There were some genuinely great moments from the movie, but overall it was a shot for shot remake, but as if it were done from a high school production.
“You’re Welcome” was the best part because they allowed themselves to be sillier + add animation to it. The rest of the film took itself too seriously.
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u/CaptainLawyerDude 12d ago
The Rock’s wig might be the only thing worth watching in the film.
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u/Minifig81 Suddenly, I have a refreshing mint flavor. 12d ago
I got in to see this for free and still forgot I saw it an hour later. That's how forgettably bad this was.
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u/jayeddy99 12d ago edited 11d ago
Watching clips of the original fight after watching this . In the OG Maui has some moments of him being just straight goofy that were lacking in this one . The rock either stiff acting or refusing to look too goofy and just came off stoic . Maybe the body suit restrained his actual ability to be physically funny. Also this Maui felt like he was stuck on that island maybe a few months / years rather than thousands
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u/scoobidoo112 12d ago
I... liked it? I mean it's not as good as the OG, and the shiny crab song had some dodgy visuals, but aside from that I had a great time.
Visuals looked great to me in IMAX, loved the music, the story, the characters, it even got some emotion out of me on multiple occasions.
Definitely miles ahead of garbage like Snow White and Alladin.
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u/SatyrSatyr75 11d ago
I know it’s ridiculous because he’s very rich, famous.. but I feel kinda sorry for the rock. He looks awful and way too old for the role of this trickster demigod with a teen swagger and mind.
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u/Greenwayyyyyy 11d ago
It’s kind of amazing that the “live action” remake looks drastically more animated than the animated original. Very impressive!
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u/WrongLander 12d ago edited 12d ago
This movie doesn't feel real. Even as I was sitting there watching it (spoiler alert to the surprise of nobody: it's terrible and the most pointless, carbon-copy remake yet). My eyes and ears perceived it, right there in front of me, but my brain just continues to reject it as an actual thing. Like, this glossy, computer-generated artifice on the screen cannot be something a major studio would put out as a serious tentpole. It has to be a gag.
Side note: I want to take a moment to make sure we're all aware that the legendarily awful Wish is partially to blame for the shithole of a situation the previously-revered Moana IP is now in. WDAS openly claimed that because that turd bombed, they cancelled their next original starring a Persian princess and, to appease investors, rushed to turn the upcoming Moana TV show into 'Moana 2' in six months' time; its mediocrity thus leading to the reduced box office numbers we are seeing here and a general fatigue around the brand. I know that I for one am tired of Moana suddenly being Disney's go-to 'break glass' franchise.
Fuck Wish, man. That movie gets ragged on all the time and it still isn't hated enough.
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u/hockeynut15 12d ago
I share the same opinions of many in here but.. my kid absolutely loved it, just like the original, and I can’t help but feel like like you have to look in the mirror and ask yourself “who is this really for?”
Children and stakeholders… the answer is children and stakeholders.
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u/HarIow_Quinzel 10d ago
Anyone else think it was a little crazy Moana put Hei Hei in foster care to go study fish at the end?
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u/tfhaenodreirst 11d ago
The bottom line is that I like both, I just like this a little less. Like a high 7/10 while the original is a solid 8. As for more granular comparisons I noticed last night:
- I’d definitely prefer adorkable Moana to the more bratty one we got in this version.
- I thought “The what?” in “Where You Are” landed better as a joke when Moana herself asked it instead of a bunch of random villagers.
- Hei Hei was definitely too uncanny valley, but I did like Te Ka. And the reveal of the shark head was great the way it started with the camera looking directly at Moana, as opposed to the cartoon when we’re watching both of them from the side. Like they knew we were waiting to see how they were going to do it.
- I was glad that they replaced Logo Te Pate with Malaga Ki Ei, because I like that new song better sound-wise but I still really like that scene.
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u/generalosabenkenobi 12d ago
You'd think this movie was the antichrist; it was totally fine and my kid loved it. It's still Moana at the end of the day
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u/CyanLight9 12d ago
If most live-action remakes are completely unnecessary and uninspired, what's this one? Anti-necessary and anti-inspired?
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u/Various-Watch8467 12d ago edited 12d ago
I admit I was tired going in, but I did not expect to doze off during that giant cgi crab Shiny scene in the middle of the movie.