The island of Motunui is on the brink of famine with the coconut orchard succumbing to disease and the fish leaving the lagoon. Moana (Catherine Laga’aia), daughter of Chief Tui (John Tui) and next in line, listens to the stories of her voyager ancestors from her Grandmother (Rena Owen) and sets out across the open ocean to find Maui (Dwayne Johnson), the demigod. One thousand years ago, he stole the heart of Te Fiti, the goddess of nature, and until he returns the heart to her, the world will continue to decay.

In the latest live action adaptation from Walt Disney Studios, Thomas Kail is tapped to direct Moana, not only as a narrative feature debut, but also only a mere 10 years since Ron Clements and John Musker helmed the animated, Polynesian adventure. Jared Bush returns to write the script with assistance from Dana Ledoux Miller on the page, and the pair, bucking the trend of extending the runtime in these modern reimaginings, deliver a beat-for-beat adaptation clocking in at 115 minutes, a mere 7 minutes longer than its predecessor. Also returning is Mark Mancina providing an island score along with the meteoric soundtrack from Lin-Manuel Miranda with the later also penning an original end credits song, shoring up the studio’s efforts to squeeze out a shiny, gold Oscar between this and Taylor Swift‘s end credits ditty for Toy Story 5 (2026).

There is very little to say about this film as it owes absolutely every single element of every single frame, every joke, and every story beat to its original. To the benefit of audiences, at least that means that the story remains incredibly engaging, resolving in a thrilling third act full of beautifully idealized and rendered mythos. With that being said, and with so much of this film being lacquered in animated visual effects, there are large swathes of the film where we are left wondering why we are not watching the modern classic from the studio’s namesake Animation branch as this lifelike animation style is often time unsettling. It is not as egregious an experiment as Jon Favreau’s The Lion King (2019), but it is not far off. The one thing we can hope is that much of this film’s reported quarter of a million-dollar budget went back into the Hawaiian local industry, but in reality, it was most likely just laundered through Industrial Light & Magic. That ILM was tapped at all is something audiences should be thankful for – and admittedly, all of this is simply making a feast out of crumbs – as for a while many of the Maui effects were going to be outsourced to Metaphysic, an AI company, but ultimately production pivoted away from that route.

Looking at what is on screen, the most engaging aspects of the film are in the background when Oscar Faura‘s camera sweeps across the village extras, dancing, toiling, and otherwise just going about daily island life. Kail can not spend as much time in the mundane as Robert Flaherty did a century ago with his own Samoan-set docufiction, Moana (1926), but in these brief b-roll scenes, there is a reverence and respect for history and culture that is so enthralling, and the entire cast seems to be filled with an infectious joy and pride that ultimately does help us further align ourselves with Moana’s goal of saving her island. As for Laga’aia taking over the title role, she is given a near insurmountable task of having to take a beloved character and transpose her in front of a green screen. As an actress, she does well and hits all the right notes, but as we begin to fall back into the pace of the story and quote or sing along in our heads, Auli’i Cravalho’s original performance is what we hear so Laga’aia’s work always feels like an imitation.

Originally set to be released in 2023 as part of Disney’s 100 Year Celebration, one wonders why chose Moana because, sure, it was massively popular upon release in 2016 and surged at home on Disney+ during and after the pandemic, but Frozen (2013) outgrossed Moana by more than $150mil at the domestic box office in its initial run. Simply put, Cravalho, while filling an executive producer slot on this remake, does not have the same name recognition as Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel. The duo of Bell and Menzel have such a hold over the property that Arendelle seems truly frozen out of the conversation of a live action remake since production is already underway on Tangled (2028); though audiences will still be reunited with Elsa and Ana in Disney Animation’s Frozen 3 (2027).

Returning to Laga’aia performance, it is not a truly fair criticism to make, but rather, it is one borne from the actress being given a not truly fair shot at actually making this role her own. Comparing instead, Johnston’s performance today from a decade ago, even he struggles to recapture that lighting in a bottle that made Maui such a fan favorite. For the animated film, he was forced by the very nature of voice acting to bring all of his character’s charm out through the vocal performance while the animators could bring an additional and unique charm through the visuals. Here, not only is he forced to hit the same beats, but he is asked to shoulder all of the work the animators did before as well. It simply does not translate. Many of the jokes do not land nearly as well when it is real people we see on screen in the same way that we are able to laugh at the antics in a Looney Tunes sketch but wince in our seats if that same sketch were to play out with real people. The artifice of the animation is necessary for the joke to land, and even the animated tattoos do not work as well against a backdrop made to look like human skin.

Disney has once again proven themselves to be creatively bankrupt, and while they wallow in the landscape they helped create, it will be interesting to see how Josh D’Amaro tries to navigate himself away from the list of flops that, while he was not CEO when these projects were greenlit, he will be the one breaking the not so great news to the board and shareholders; but hey, a family of four will have to shell out close to $1,000 just to walk through the gates of the Florida park so the Mouse’s coffers will remain plenty full. Already having weathered a box office embarrassment with Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026), Moana did not even pull in $50mil across its opening frame. The too-big-too-fail Avengers: Doomsday (2026) will certainly help the Q4 and 2027 Q1 numbers, but one can not help but to think that we have already seen this parade of one trick ponies trotted out before with Joe and Anthony Russo returning to direct and the stunt casting of Robert Downey Jr. trading in Iron Man’s techsuit for Dr. Doom’s cloak and mask. Something here desperately needs to change, and it is a task that not even Moana of Motunui is equipped to do, nor was this title ever designed to usher in a change; it is just more pomace.

Walt, it is long past time to thaw yourself out and right your company because even when you drew from the deep wells of myth and fable, there was still an artistry that could not be denied. Even at the start of the live action endeavor, there was a discernible spark seen through the efforts of Gore Verbinski and Tim Burton, and while their work, especially that of the former, can be seen as the first iteration of the current house style guide, there was still something new and exciting to look at in those early aughts endeavors. There was a passion in the art of filmmaking more so than just a reverence to the intellectual property and nostalgia. As companies across all industries are cutting corners and synthesizing down to reduce cost while inflating growth, so too has Disney allowed their films to homogenize into grey, murky swill. While Moana has more color than most of its live action contemporaries – though it still pales in comparison to the source – it is nevertheless longing for some heart and intention to be placed into its filmmaking, breaking down the layer of crust and crud, revealing something truly vibrant, awe inspiring, and lifegiving.