{"id":14725,"date":"2026-07-11T15:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14725"},"modified":"2026-07-11T15:01:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:01:59","slug":"moana-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/07\/11\/moana-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Moana"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Moana<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Musical-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action\/peril, some scary images, rude humor, brief thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Thomas Kail\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Mark Mancina\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oscar Faura\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 10, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Catherine Laga\u2019aia, Dwayne Johnson, Rena Owen, John Tui, Frankie Adams, Jemaine Clement.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0The problem with the live-action Moana<\/strong> isn\u2019t that it\u2019s a bad movie. It has the same problem as most other live-action remakes of Disney\u2019s classic animated films. It\u2019s unnecessary. In fact, it might be the most unnecessary one yet. It\u2019s only been ten years since the animated original came out. The sequel Moana 2 is less than two years old. Disney definitely jumped the gun with this one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Should I even bother with a plot description? There aren\u2019t any major differences between the animated and live-action versions of Moana<\/strong>. It\u2019s the same movie save for a few minor details (e.g. the tweeting joke is gone, the dad\u2019s backstory is slightly changed). The one new song, \u201cAlong the Way\u201d by Catherine Laga\u2019aia, Dwayne Johnson and original Moana voice Auli\u2019i Cravalho, is played over the end credits. You may as well just cue up the animated OG on Disney+.<\/p>\n

\u00a0[Insert audible annoyed sigh here] Alright, fine. I\u2019ll do it (again). HOWEVER, I\u2019m going to do it the easy way. I\u2019ll be copying the PD from my review of the animated version and pasting it here (with a few slight alterations). Work smarter not harder I always say.<\/p>\n

Moana (newcomer Laga\u2019aia), the 15YO daughter of a Polynesian village chief, is next in line to inherit the title, but she dreams of a life on the ocean. Her father (Tui, Hobbs & Shaw) says it\u2019s too dangerous to travel beyond the reef and for good reason. Legend has it 1000 years earlier; the demigod Maui (Johnson, the Fast & Furious movies) stole the heart of island goddess Te Fiti, angering her and turning her into a lava monster.<\/p>\n

\u00a0All her life, her father and mother (Adams, The Expanse) have repeatedly told her to stay away from the water. That\u2019s a lot to ask considering the ocean chose her, as a small child, to restore the heart of Te Fiti. It\u2019s her destiny. The only one that understands is her grandmother Tala (Owen, Once Were Warriors). The two share a deep bond over their mutual love of the water. At one point, the older woman takes the girl to a secret cavern where she learns the real history of her ancestors. They were once voyagers, but gave it up when Maui\u2019s actions made the ocean unsafe for travel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Te Fiti\u2019s curse has started to affect Moana\u2019s home. The survival of her people is at stake. She can\u2019t get her father to listen to her about how to fix the problem. The plucky teen finally decides to take matters into her own hands. Along with her dimwitted pet rooster Heihei, she sets off beyond the reef to save her home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A typhoon strands her on a small island where Maui, stripped of his powers, has been living a prisoner since the whole Te Fiti thing went down. Moana needs the disgraced demigod to come with her and return the purloined object to its rightful place. It\u2019ll fix everything. It takes a bit of persuading, but he agrees to help her. First, he needs to retrieve his magic fishhook, a gift from the gods that gives him the power to shapeshift.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t think of a single good reason for Moana<\/strong> to exist. Thomas Kail (Fosse\/Verdon), who directs listlessly, brings nothing new or extra. \u00a0It has no visual allure. Although it was shot on location in Hawaii, the lighting imbues it with an artificial feel like it was made in a studio. The CGI is okay, nothing special. To its credit, the chicken Heihei is nowhere near as creepy as the seven dwarfs in last year\u2019s Snow White fiasco. Sadly, this is of no consequence. There isn\u2019t anything eye catching in Moana<\/strong>, not even the sequence with the crab Tamatoa (Clement reprising his role from the OG) or any of the musical numbers. It\u2019s dull and lifeless to the point of inducing sleep.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While I can\u2019t justify the existence of Moana<\/strong>, I think I might know why Disney chose to do it now rather than later. Dwayne Johnson, who looks like he\u2019s having fun here, is 54 and not getting any younger. He\u2019s in great shape and can still do the physical things the role requires. That might not be true in another ten years. By then, Disney will have to replace Johnson and we all know how that tends to go. I\u2019ve never met a soul who admits to liking Will Smith (taking over for the late Robin Williams) as Genie in Aladdin (2019).<\/p>\n

\u00a0This is the film debut of Catherine Laga\u2019aia. She\u2019s something of a novice. She acted in a few episodes of the Australian miniseries The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (as the younger version of Moana co-star Frankie Adams\u2019 character) before she was cast in the title role of her first movie. She\u2019s easy on the eyes, but that\u2019s about it. Her acting leaves a lot to be desired. For whatever reason, Laga\u2019aia seems like she isn\u2019t into it. She\u2019s fairly wooden in the role. The character should be more animated (if you\u2019ll excuse the term).<\/p>\n

\u00a0It doesn\u2019t say much for Moana<\/strong> that a little girl (about 4YO maybe) in my row couldn\u2019t sit still. She chattered the whole time, repeatedly saying \u201cIt\u2019s too long!\u201d out loud. If a movie like Moana<\/strong> can\u2019t keep a child interested, I\u2019d say it fails in its mission. And fail it does! It\u2019s not the worst of its kind, but its further proves what I\u2019ve been saying about these live-action Disney remakes. They need to stop and NOW! Seriously, save yourself the time and money and just rewatch the animated versions with your children. Keep the classics alive.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moana (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Musical-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action\/peril, some scary images, rude humor, brief thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Thomas Kail\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Mark Mancina\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oscar Faura\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 10, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Catherine Laga\u2019aia, Dwayne Johnson, Rena Owen, John Tui, Frankie Adams, Jemaine Clement. Rating: ** \u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Moana-POSTER.jpg?fit=1000%2C1482&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14729,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725\/revisions\/14729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}