According to Cellspex that's exactly what happened. This was supposed to be a streaming show, but streaming isn't profitable so Disney strung together some episodes cleaned up the visuals and dropped it in theaters to make a quick buck.
@@MrDj232 and now they’ll continue to do this because it’s making decent money. Mostly because of people like me. Who are taking their family to watch it, but my girls are 7 and under. They might enjoy it. I’ll enjoy the snacks.
For me, Disney is the only studio that should actively avoid making sequels, specially if it's a princess movie. The story is already told, the heroes learned their lessons and the villain was defeated. *Let it go*
That's the trouble with trying to pick these stories back up when they were so self-contained. They had to 180 Moana's motivations in this one and it feels so jarring
@@gregowen2022 They didn't really have to. Her people had a history of exploring the ocean, and she was free to do so at will by the end of the first movie. They could have easily made a movie about her seeking out the first island they came from, pursuing another mythical being, or picked any story from hundreds of polynesian myths to adapt into the Moana world. They even could have done a Maui prequel to capitalize on Dwayne Johnson's star power. There's lots of ocean to explore here, unlike happily ever after stories like The Little Mermaid. Disney just wasn't interested in putting in the effort.
Ya, I thought of some good sequels and then realized they were all pixar. Devil's advocate: I loved the Aladdin sequels when I was a kid. I rewatched them as an adult and realized they are bad, but if they entertain kids they aren't meritless... Just not classics. Maybe they should just go direct to streaming. This was still better than the live action remakes, though
@@gregowen2022they tried to lampshade it with a line from her grandmother's ghost about how last time she was too young to know what she should fear, but your right that it was badly done. They could have built it up better, maybe have her actually struggle and fear for her safety earlier and shake her confidence. I dunno... Maybe that's not empowering enough or too scary for the little girl fans? Like you said, the first one is good in part because of how well it's contained, so a sequel was always going to struggle.
Remember that time Disney decided not to give tangled a sequel movie and gave it an entire series to flesh out the lore and well thought out world and created a full new cast of fun characters all with fabulous voice talent and amazing songs and character development and the show even took a risk with a new art style and everyone really liked it and the show was a hit and basically revived the tangled fandom that had fallen a bit out of mainstream… they should try that again
If you think about it, the villain trying to become more powerful by lowering the status and living standards of the islanders is a perfect metaphor for strong female characters in modern movies.
This was a Disney+ series squashed into a feature film after Wish flopped. We were riding high with The Wild Robot, Transformers One, and Inside Out 2. But now we have this.
My two 13 yr old girls said “It was a sequel that didn’t need to be made. This one is strictly a streaming show”. I would translate that as “not a hit”.
I was at the store the other day and say a Moana 2 display in the kids section. My thought was "I didn't know they're making Moana 2, that's cool!" then after a second of thinking about it, I went to "Oh no, they're making a Moana 2"
The whole “it felt like 3 episodes of a Disney+ show” critique is absolutely correct. Most movies these days u feel could easily be cut down by about half an hour, but this one was the opposite. I thought it could’ve used more time to explore and set up all the story beats it was trying to include.
Im in my 20 and even not interested in this movie, but your review format is really interesting in this section. I also saw your deconstruction of the acolyte and Leslie Headland, its great. This channel is refreshing.
I heard this was supposed to be a TV show and if that's the case then that could explain a few things. I haven't seen the original so I can't judge. Either way here's a list of good Disney Direct-To-DVD sequels. Aladdin 3, the King of Thieves, Cinderella 3 a Twist in Time, Lion King 2 Simba's Pride, Peter Pan 2 Return to Neverland, Bambi 2 [is not the best but the good moments are really good] and Atlantis Milo's adventure which was also supposed to be a TV show was really fun as well. And of course, my favorite Winnie the Pooh Search for Christpher Robin. Watch those instead
Aladdin 3 and Peter Pan 2 were some of my favorite Disney movies as a kid, cheaper visuals be darned. Aladdin working through things with his dad and Wendy's daughter going to Neverland were good, fun stories and no one can convince me otherwise.
Heard this was supposed to be a spinoff TV show...but because WISH was a steaming pile of MID...they turned this into a movie😂. So I guess that explains the aimlessness if this movie
Yeah my 6 year old went to see it with my wife. I asked her if she liked it and I quote “ I mean it’s good not my favorite but the chairs you can lay down in.” If the biggest takeaway are from the movie theater was the seats you know it was forgettable. But Disney just wants “wins” from the movies they released because recently they haven’t had many of those. This was probably a safe bet that this would make a profit.
I ended up seeing wicked and the greatest Christmas pageant ever this weekend. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll continue to skip disney until they get creative again.
I took my 12yro daughter to see the film, we walked out feeling "meh" about the whole thing. In her words, she felt the movie was rushed, didn't need to be made and that not much was different other, than the storm was purple this go around.
I don't watch disney movies on opening weekend anymore, except Deadpool & Wolverine. Nowadays, I wait for reviews such as yours, Critical Drinker's, Nerdrotic's, Nerd Cookies's, & a few others. Everything you said about it, good and bad, was pretty much what I expected. My kids didn't care to see it.
Greg, if you can, please take your kids to see Flow in theaters. It's one of the best animated movies I've seen in years and I think it would be a huge breath of fresh air for you and the family.
I will say it was cute and funny taking my kid to her first movie that SHE needed desperately to see because she’s old enough now to have a sense of brand loyalty
I'm going to vote with my wallet and skip this one altogether. If it's not worth watching in the cinema, it's not worth forking out on D+ either. 🤷🏻♂️ As usual, great advice from the OG Greg.
@@gregowen2022it will be the biggest hit in years…it is quite funny…the desperate try by „professional“ critics to stop the success…while all normal people love it..some even more than Moana 1… especially the songs…I am pretty sure that your daughters love it…are just too afraid that Daddy or husband gets a tantrum lol …all the critics are in a bubble…hilarious
Definitely one of the movies of all time. Our 5 year old liked it, our 3 year old did not. My wife and I both collectively agreed it was rather bad. 3-4 out of 10 (5 average). The only reason we went was because my wife's very nice mother got everyone tickets.
It was... okay at best. The most memorable thing about it is that it's the first movie that I saw in theaters with my whole family and my girlfriend which was fun because her reactions mirrored the reactions of my mom (they both get emotional lol) but yeah... it really was phoned-in...
This movie showed me the power of ad-blockers as the first time I ever learned of the movie's existence was from UA-cam thumbnails only a a week or so ago. Maybe I've seen promotional art of it on grocery store products?
I took my 4 year old daughter. It was her first time at the theater and she liked it, wasn't scared, and sat still the whole time. So I consider it a complete success. It will always have a special place in my heart for this reason. As an actual movie, it's a decent watch but a bad sequel. It didn't ruin the original, but like you said much of the plot made no sense. I'm assuming the new bad guy is from Polynesian mythology, but he has literally no personality until the credits scene (not that Te Fiti had much in the original, but this one is set up less competently). Cute, inoffensive, messy, much inferior to the original, but with some laughs. The music is servicable, but not nearly as great as Moana. If you want a day out with the kids it's fine.
Apparently it broke a few box office records, but this claim is made for so many films these days that I wouldn't care even if I had cared about box office records. Literally everything is saturated these days.
I had no plans to see Moana 2 in theaters, and instead chose to watch Red One a second time. Having heard your family's review, I can now feel more confident that I've made the right decision. Speaking of Red One, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it if you get the chance to see it. I wouldn't recommend the whole family, as there is a good amount of swearing throughout the film, but I definitley had a good time watching it.
TV show vibes throughout the ENTIRE movie. As someone who unironically loves the Tangled series with my daughter, they should have done that. But Dwayne is waay too expensive for episodic anything so I can understand why we got what we got.
An interesting test to do with musicals is to see how much you need to rewrite if you remove the songs. In other words, how much do we learn about the world, the characters, and their places in said world by the music. Moana 1 has a song where you learn Moana feeling called by the Ocean juxtaposed with her father explaining the world and her place being on that Island. Maui explains his lore and his ego in his song. Even Shiny teaches us about who this villainous character is. I wonder, how much do we learn in the songs of Moana2?
Apparently, this was originally supposed to be a D+ series and then Bob Iger announced that it was instead a movie sequel and they had to chop and remix it in less than a year to shove it into theaters…
My 5 y.o. daughter is excited to go to see this. I just hope it doesn't undermine too much the impact of the first movie's plot. I hate when sequels do this.
I can't ignore IgnoreThis. Against all my expectations, coffee blended with a little butter is actually pretty decadent and delicious. It's how my wife takes hers every day
To put it simply, Greg, this is a Universal-Dark-Universe style AD for the next movie that's all it is, just to hype up the next movie with the real big bad as if Moana is a cinematic universe which... I'm surprised Disney hadn't done with with the princesses
Honestly, I'm surprised too. I'm shocked they haven't had a princess invent a time machine and done team-ups with Belle and Mulan on some weird adventure. It would indeed be weird, but if I'm being honest, the premise doesn't immediately turn me off. It could be fun, but it would be difficult to pull off
@@gregowen2022 I think the closets one was Sophia the first and also Mickey's House of Mouse where all character came to a night club to watch movies, order food and hang. I loved that show for that premise like HISHE's villain pub or I guess the 100th anniversary short
How are you channeling exactly what was going through my head when I was awake in the theater with my grandkids? You nailed this on perfectly. It was mostly harmless.
I heard from another critic that it was originally supposed to be a Disney+ show, and it shows. They really are copying the model of the 90s. Frozen and Moana are classic Late Disney Renaissance . One great song, one ok song, bunch of terrible songs; Enjoyable story; irritating snowman/gargoyles. And now Disney is copying the Post Renaissance where all they did for years was kick out half-baked Direct to Video sequels. Except these are getting cinema release because they make bank.
No but literally Moana 2 was pitched as a series, but then they smashed the episode hooks together to make a rushed movie to bring in some money into the studio. Like exactly what happened to the sequel for Atlantis, which also sucked so much a$$. That's why it feels so wonky and disjointed, like it was supposed to be a kid's tv series.....because that was the OG pitch!
“You’re taking it too seriously, it’s a kids movie” is an argument I hear a lot and it’s so stupid. Disney has been known for years as a company who made *family* movies. A good example of a family movie vs a kids movie would be Finding Nemo vs almost all straight to dvd sequels. Family movies are just that; movies that the entire family can enjoy. It’s funny for kids and has a message embedded inside that will resonate with older viewers. Kids movies have a much more obvious message and are typically a lot goofier. I’m 25 and I adore animated movies. So I wish they’d stop slopping together these crappy sequels and give us movies with depth and an actual story.
I was sadly very disappointed by this film. Everything that I loved about the first film felt absent, the new characters were forgettable and even the story felt lacking to me. I just couldn’t get on board for the journey beyond the reef this time. Great review 👍
The songs were decent... and the fact that they don't get stuck in your head is good when compared to the pathologically catchy and annoying songs of Frozen or Lin Manuel Miranda.
Taking the family to watch it this Saturday. My expectations are not high. It’ll give my daughters (7,5,3) some interest for a few hours. And I get some popcorn and a slushy for it.
@ yep. Going with two other families all bringing their daughters as well. So it’s just a big celebration before one of the families moves away. Looking forward to the experience at least!
I don’t understand how all of the sudden after 1,000 years they know the last magical wayfinder’s history and the village was now in on it. They had a 1,000 year old scroll with the pictorial on it? Oh even funnier was Moana finding that 1,000 year old boat and they were able to use parts from it….yea it wouldn’t be usable exposed to the elements after 1,000 years, that rudder would be dry rot.
I actually enjoyed this movie. The songs were fine. Hot take: prefer the Wish songs cause atleast they were memorable and catchy. Its a 8.3 only downside ls are the songs aren't catchy and Im disappointed that Matangi wasnt the villain, wven though it was claimed that she will be the threat in the beginning.
can't say i'm planning to see it at all (was waiting for reviews and they aren't favourable lol) but get lost is a goddamn banger and i will stand by that lol
I'm honestly having trouble remembering the tune, but I DO remember thinking in the theater "Hey, I'm glad they are getting back to the show-tune style instead of pop tracks", so that's a plus.
Its so werid cause its pretty easy to patch. You just have it that ships keep vanishing, with unnatural storms. And the evil lady is the culprit who was entombed in her own magic to survive the first films curse but has now awake. Boom, no conflicts and a active villian to quest out go stop
In the old days something like this would go directly to VHS and you'd pay $2 for your kids to see at home. For that price, you don't expect as much and are satisfied with it keeping your kids attention for couple of hours. These days going to the theater is much more expensive than it was during the Disney renaissance. However, in less than a week the theatrical release will have made $400 million worldwide, so financially producing a sequel was the right decision. Too bad it turned out to be so inferior to the original.
It is crazy to think Moana and Frozen had 8 and 6 years separation between original and sequel respectively and they still managed to produced underwhelming results.
Not all the direct to video sequels are "failed" tv pilots (i.e Atlantis, Belle's Magical World, Cinderella 2) A handful of them work as legit sequels: Return to Neverland, Lion King 2, Extremely Goofy Movie, Aladding: King of Thieves, Cinderella 3: Twist in time.
I remember when some images first starting floating on the internet for Moana 2 that I legit thought they gave Moana a daughter and was kind of curious if she was maybe passing on the desire to sail to her or if it was a sort of Little Mermaid 2 thing where the kid is learning about their families’ past and find trouble along the way. Then I learned it was actually a little sister that really was only there to let Moana exposition dump and act all sweet to, and thus lost interest. If they wanted to include a sister, fine but at least do something more with her. Like, maybe when that lightning thing hit and the adults and Moana are discussing things, little sis thinks it’s her call to adventure and tries to head out on her own. Or maybe Moana takes her sailing and an evil force, trying to stop Moana from fulfilling her Way Finder role, kidnaps little sis and that starts up the adventure. Or to add more fun to the mess, the evil force is actually from someone who never wants to see re-unification of the various tribes so calls on the dark force to sow mistrust in Moana’s tribe towards others and it becomes a sort of mystery on which tribe or individual is responsible, and may reveal it’s actually the individual and the evil force on its own volition trying to stop Moana. The movie could have Moana learning who she can trust, how to diplomatically navigate such a tense atmosphere, help everyone get along better, and Maui can act as an anchor for everyone to work together initially becomes a demi-god says to and then morph into actual trust and respect for each other. Little sis could also be doing what she can to figure out what’s happening, and we can tease a bit of her connection with the sea by having her slip clues to Moana or the sea itself protects her when the villain(s) are around. All that I came up with at the top of my head having not seen the movie and wanting a genuine desire to see an introduced sibling character actually have a role in the story. DreamWorks managed to shove 6 new sibling characters (Cooper and Prince D from Trolls 2, Brozone and Viva in Trolls 3) in their movies and managed to have them all tie into the plot in some way, rather than just being character motivation cut outs for the MC to project out to. Which is too bad as little sis seems cute enough, but there really isn’t anything beyond cute and “sister bond” going for her. I also heard the gal marketed as a villain is actually just “misunderstood” and the post-credit scene was the closest they got to hinting at her more sinister motives. Lame.
It wasn’t even made clear why the lightning happened ⚡️ At the moment I assumed it was an attack by the powerful island storm god, but that was never revisited, like many aspects of the movie. As the Critical Drinker would say “Why did the lightning hit the hut? Don’t know.”
I skip Moana 2 in fact just ignoring it. So I decided to watch West Side Story (wss) remake, Your Monster, The Wild Robot and possibly Wicked due to musical exp w/ WSS
This seems like the sort of Direct-to-Video sequel I would love as a little kid (just because my favorite characters are in it), only to come back to it years later and realize it was very meh.
TBH, I'm not super excited about it. My best friend loves the original Moana and asked me to see it with her since we're movie buddies. It looks very okay. I'm not clamoring to go see it, but I'm looking forward to hanging out with my bestie.
Our are older now, but my wife and I just watched the 1st Moana last night for the first time, we thought it was kind of boring compared to other disney animated movies, we won't bother with the second.
I was thinking of going to watch this movie since I love the first one and the trailers made me think maybe this won’t be too bad but after seeing the reviews and the fact this was supposed to be a tv series this will be a pass. Going to wait for Sonic movie 3 to watch with my family! Here’s to hoping it beats mufusa
My 12 year old is the type to spend hours on FNF and big into FNAF lore and music these days. I think we'll pass. She usually mentions movies shes interested in and I haven't heard anything about this movie until seeing this video.. 🤷🏾♂️ I still appreciated this breakdown.
I’m going to see this in theaters cause my little one loves Moana’s but 2 reviews have already made it sound like something that didn’t really need to be made and not worth the price I’m going to pay😅. Think I will get the good robot and transformers one to make sure my kids has some to counterbalance this.
Moana 2 was fine; it would have greatly benefited from better songs and no dance numbers. Maui's song was poor, and the 'villain's' song was horrid. At least the Kakamaras got some character development.
I have a five year old who went as Moana for Halloween. I have zero choice about whether we're going to see it. But so far, everything I've heard tells me they have wasted the potential for a TV series which would have let Moana explore the breadth of Austronesia and the various cultures thereof for what would have once been a direct-to-VHS sequel. Le sigh.
Alas. Not like pointing all this out matters. The only thing that most are gonna take away from it is "Box Office Success over all" so whatever production issues, problems with the clearly truncated script or what this is ultimately going to mean for animated productions going forward for Disney is gonna fall on the wayside because "Box Office Success means more content!" Hell, there are already plans for a "Gladiator III" and all I can wonder is how they are gonna rehash the old script again until people get bored of it.
I agree, and it makes me sad to see how well this is doing and how awful Transformers One did, which was a vastly superior movie. Disney will take all the wrong lessons here and we will continue getting half-baked, phoned in garbage. Here's hoping that Dreamworks picks up the slack
My 10 yo son liked it, especially some of the songs, my 13yo daughter, my wife and I thought it was a serious let down. All the songs are poppy and have no soul, plot was pointless, and the extra characters are the standard disney side characters, brilliant and perfect female engineer, check! Big scared but strong nerdy guy, check! Grumpy older person you can play off of and eventually win over, check! Pointless animal sidekicks, check!? Why intentionally bring a single pig and a rooster on a long ocean voyage? I mean other than to eat them, obviously. Should have been a lackluster D+ series
I have no plans to see this film. Partially because the first movie wrapped up so well- and partially because I’m sick to death of Dwayne Johnson. His personality and his fake, almost commercialized, “nice guy” persona has been proven to be a total act (not that I really bought it but I was indifferent until his ego couldn’t help but assert itself) and I mean- kudos to him for being convincing to some, but now that I’m absolutely sure he’s a pottle deep malt horse- he doesn’t need one more dime of my money.
Surprised the 16 year old liked it that much, its definitely for kids. I kinda liked Moana 1 okay but barely remember it and remember NONE of the songs. Odd choice for a sequel.
Ugh. Just saw the phoned in Frozen 2 made about $1.5 billion. I hate when a meh movie makes this kind of money as it is a signal to Hwood: quality does not matter. And boy, do they hear the message.
This is a bad year for movies, Inside out 2, Deadpool 3 and now Moana 2 doing well shows Disney that they literally don’t have to give a damn and will just keep making these sequels till we’re dead.
This is a huge comeback for Hollywood after last year. Last year only Barbie and mario made a billion. This year we might get 4 including Moana 2 and probably Wicked. So what do you mean. Also it's you're guys fault for letting every original Disney/Pixar movies from this decade flopping at the theatres.
Wait...Did you forget to mention that we should press the thumbs up and subscribe button? Well, I'll double check. Oh yes, this is your rental AI bot comment generator. Thanks for the message ( not for the modern audience). Happy holidays.
It's a literal return to the era of "Direct to Video sequels which are in fact 3 episodes of an aborted tv show stitched together"
100%. It was all over the place and full of kids TV jokes and dialog
According to Cellspex that's exactly what happened. This was supposed to be a streaming show, but streaming isn't profitable so Disney strung together some episodes cleaned up the visuals and dropped it in theaters to make a quick buck.
Totally true wdw pro already covered this portion of it.
i heard it was supposed to be a tv serie but Disney forced the creators to make it into a movie
@@MrDj232 and now they’ll continue to do this because it’s making decent money. Mostly because of people like me. Who are taking their family to watch it, but my girls are 7 and under. They might enjoy it. I’ll enjoy the snacks.
For me, Disney is the only studio that should actively avoid making sequels, specially if it's a princess movie.
The story is already told, the heroes learned their lessons and the villain was defeated. *Let it go*
That's the trouble with trying to pick these stories back up when they were so self-contained. They had to 180 Moana's motivations in this one and it feels so jarring
@@gregowen2022 They didn't really have to. Her people had a history of exploring the ocean, and she was free to do so at will by the end of the first movie. They could have easily made a movie about her seeking out the first island they came from, pursuing another mythical being, or picked any story from hundreds of polynesian myths to adapt into the Moana world. They even could have done a Maui prequel to capitalize on Dwayne Johnson's star power. There's lots of ocean to explore here, unlike happily ever after stories like The Little Mermaid. Disney just wasn't interested in putting in the effort.
Ya, I thought of some good sequels and then realized they were all pixar. Devil's advocate: I loved the Aladdin sequels when I was a kid. I rewatched them as an adult and realized they are bad, but if they entertain kids they aren't meritless... Just not classics. Maybe they should just go direct to streaming.
This was still better than the live action remakes, though
@@gregowen2022they tried to lampshade it with a line from her grandmother's ghost about how last time she was too young to know what she should fear, but your right that it was badly done. They could have built it up better, maybe have her actually struggle and fear for her safety earlier and shake her confidence. I dunno... Maybe that's not empowering enough or too scary for the little girl fans? Like you said, the first one is good in part because of how well it's contained, so a sequel was always going to struggle.
Remember that time Disney decided not to give tangled a sequel movie and gave it an entire series to flesh out the lore and well thought out world and created a full new cast of fun characters all with fabulous voice talent and amazing songs and character development and the show even took a risk with a new art style and everyone really liked it and the show was a hit and basically revived the tangled fandom that had fallen a bit out of mainstream… they should try that again
If you think about it, the villain trying to become more powerful by lowering the status and living standards of the islanders is a perfect metaphor for strong female characters in modern movies.
This was a Disney+ series squashed into a feature film after Wish flopped. We were riding high with The Wild Robot, Transformers One, and Inside Out 2. But now we have this.
My two 13 yr old girls said “It was a sequel that didn’t need to be made. This one is strictly a streaming show”. I would translate that as “not a hit”.
Are they twins or was one held back a year?
I was at the store the other day and say a Moana 2 display in the kids section. My thought was "I didn't know they're making Moana 2, that's cool!" then after a second of thinking about it, I went to "Oh no, they're making a Moana 2"
The whole “it felt like 3 episodes of a Disney+ show” critique is absolutely correct. Most movies these days u feel could easily be cut down by about half an hour, but this one was the opposite. I thought it could’ve used more time to explore and set up all the story beats it was trying to include.
Im in my 20 and even not interested in this movie, but your review format is really interesting in this section. I also saw your deconstruction of the acolyte and Leslie Headland, its great. This channel is refreshing.
I heard this was supposed to be a TV show and if that's the case then that could explain a few things. I haven't seen the original so I can't judge. Either way here's a list of good Disney Direct-To-DVD sequels. Aladdin 3, the King of Thieves, Cinderella 3 a Twist in Time, Lion King 2 Simba's Pride, Peter Pan 2 Return to Neverland, Bambi 2 [is not the best but the good moments are really good] and Atlantis Milo's adventure which was also supposed to be a TV show was really fun as well. And of course, my favorite Winnie the Pooh Search for Christpher Robin. Watch those instead
Aladdin 3 and Peter Pan 2 were some of my favorite Disney movies as a kid, cheaper visuals be darned. Aladdin working through things with his dad and Wendy's daughter going to Neverland were good, fun stories and no one can convince me otherwise.
Kronks new groove!!!
@@cosmicwombat07 I never watched it but I did hear it was good
Heard this was supposed to be a spinoff TV show...but because WISH was a steaming pile of MID...they turned this into a movie😂. So I guess that explains the aimlessness if this movie
You can really feel the disconnection here. The bat lady CLEARLY was supposed to be a recurring character
Thanks for the honesty. Liked the fact you had the movie theater popcorn mug for reviewing the movie you saw in the theater. :)
Yeah my 6 year old went to see it with my wife. I asked her if she liked it and I quote “ I mean it’s good not my favorite but the chairs you can lay down in.” If the biggest takeaway are from the movie theater was the seats you know it was forgettable. But Disney just wants “wins” from the movies they released because recently they haven’t had many of those. This was probably a safe bet that this would make a profit.
I ended up seeing wicked and the greatest Christmas pageant ever this weekend. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll continue to skip disney until they get creative again.
Greg's second oldest is clearly the discerning critic of the family (Greg aside), respect haha
I took my 12yro daughter to see the film, we walked out feeling "meh" about the whole thing.
In her words, she felt the movie was rushed, didn't need to be made and that not much was different other, than the storm was purple this go around.
3:57 Yooo this is a HUGE throwback for me. That show is a CLASSIC😌👌
The fact that you so easily reference these kids shows proves you're my kind of people😅
Also with no disrespect, I don't trust Greg's family's judgment. They gave Wish way to high of a review and that was the 13th layer of hell for me.
Hahahaha, that's fair, we were definitely on the positive side of that one
I don't watch disney movies on opening weekend anymore, except Deadpool & Wolverine. Nowadays, I wait for reviews such as yours, Critical Drinker's, Nerdrotic's, Nerd Cookies's, & a few others. Everything you said about it, good and bad, was pretty much what I expected. My kids didn't care to see it.
These are literally the worst ones except him.
Greg, if you can, please take your kids to see Flow in theaters. It's one of the best animated movies I've seen in years and I think it would be a huge breath of fresh air for you and the family.
I will say it was cute and funny taking my kid to her first movie that SHE needed desperately to see because she’s old enough now to have a sense of brand loyalty
I didn't even know it came out today. 😂
YES. My roommate and I saw it last week and by far our favorite part was the coconut. I will buy a coconut pop.
I was going to see it, but I was skeptical. Now, I'm going to save my dollars and wait for it on Disney ➕️
I think that's the right call. It's just not a full-on theater experience. Extremely average, if not a little below
I'm going to vote with my wallet and skip this one altogether. If it's not worth watching in the cinema, it's not worth forking out on D+ either. 🤷🏻♂️
As usual, great advice from the OG Greg.
@@gregowen2022it will be the biggest hit in years…it is quite funny…the desperate try by „professional“ critics to stop the success…while all normal people love it..some even more than Moana 1… especially the songs…I am pretty sure that your daughters love it…are just too afraid that Daddy or husband gets a tantrum lol …all the critics are in a bubble…hilarious
Definitely one of the movies of all time.
Our 5 year old liked it, our 3 year old did not. My wife and I both collectively agreed it was rather bad. 3-4 out of 10 (5 average).
The only reason we went was because my wife's very nice mother got everyone tickets.
It was... okay at best. The most memorable thing about it is that it's the first movie that I saw in theaters with my whole family and my girlfriend which was fun because her reactions mirrored the reactions of my mom (they both get emotional lol) but yeah... it really was phoned-in...
This movie showed me the power of ad-blockers as the first time I ever learned of the movie's existence was from UA-cam thumbnails only a a week or so ago. Maybe I've seen promotional art of it on grocery store products?
Thank you for your awesomene service ❤️
I took my 4 year old daughter. It was her first time at the theater and she liked it, wasn't scared, and sat still the whole time. So I consider it a complete success. It will always have a special place in my heart for this reason.
As an actual movie, it's a decent watch but a bad sequel. It didn't ruin the original, but like you said much of the plot made no sense. I'm assuming the new bad guy is from Polynesian mythology, but he has literally no personality until the credits scene (not that Te Fiti had much in the original, but this one is set up less competently). Cute, inoffensive, messy, much inferior to the original, but with some laughs. The music is servicable, but not nearly as great as Moana. If you want a day out with the kids it's fine.
Yeah. I hear you. Because of my kids’ experience, I remember “Home on the Range” fondly but I doubt I could sit through it now.
Apparently it broke a few box office records, but this claim is made for so many films these days that I wouldn't care even if I had cared about box office records. Literally everything is saturated these days.
Inflation corrected records or nominal records?
I had no plans to see Moana 2 in theaters, and instead chose to watch Red One a second time. Having heard your family's review, I can now feel more confident that I've made the right decision.
Speaking of Red One, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it if you get the chance to see it. I wouldn't recommend the whole family, as there is a good amount of swearing throughout the film, but I definitley had a good time watching it.
TV show vibes throughout the ENTIRE movie. As someone who unironically loves the Tangled series with my daughter, they should have done that. But Dwayne is waay too expensive for episodic anything so I can understand why we got what we got.
An interesting test to do with musicals is to see how much you need to rewrite if you remove the songs. In other words, how much do we learn about the world, the characters, and their places in said world by the music. Moana 1 has a song where you learn Moana feeling called by the Ocean juxtaposed with her father explaining the world and her place being on that Island. Maui explains his lore and his ego in his song. Even Shiny teaches us about who this villainous character is. I wonder, how much do we learn in the songs of Moana2?
Apparently, this was originally supposed to be a D+ series and then Bob Iger announced that it was instead a movie sequel and they had to chop and remix it in less than a year to shove it into theaters…
My 5 y.o. daughter is excited to go to see this. I just hope it doesn't undermine too much the impact of the first movie's plot. I hate when sequels do this.
That coffee mug actually frightens me. I can't help tasting butter flavored coffee on my tongue.
Hmm, unsalted butter in coffee is actually great. With some coconut mct oil it's called 'bulletproof coffee'.
I can't ignore IgnoreThis. Against all my expectations, coffee blended with a little butter is actually pretty decadent and delicious. It's how my wife takes hers every day
More interested in your thoughts on Wicked, I had a feeling Moana 2 would be underwhelming!
To put it simply, Greg, this is a Universal-Dark-Universe style AD for the next movie
that's all it is, just to hype up the next movie with the real big bad as if Moana is a cinematic universe
which... I'm surprised Disney hadn't done with with the princesses
Honestly, I'm surprised too. I'm shocked they haven't had a princess invent a time machine and done team-ups with Belle and Mulan on some weird adventure. It would indeed be weird, but if I'm being honest, the premise doesn't immediately turn me off. It could be fun, but it would be difficult to pull off
@@gregowen2022 I think the closets one was Sophia the first and also Mickey's House of Mouse where all character came to a night club to watch movies, order food and hang. I loved that show for that premise like HISHE's villain pub or I guess the 100th anniversary short
The mid credits scene felt like an avengers teaser ripoff. The big bad was even purple.
@@admthrawnuru yeah this just felt like a bad attempt at some cinematic universe in Moana
How are you channeling exactly what was going through my head when I was awake in the theater with my grandkids? You nailed this on perfectly. It was mostly harmless.
I heard from another critic that it was originally supposed to be a Disney+ show, and it shows.
They really are copying the model of the 90s. Frozen and Moana are classic Late Disney Renaissance . One great song, one ok song, bunch of terrible songs; Enjoyable story; irritating snowman/gargoyles.
And now Disney is copying the Post Renaissance where all they did for years was kick out half-baked Direct to Video sequels. Except these are getting cinema release because they make bank.
No but literally Moana 2 was pitched as a series, but then they smashed the episode hooks together to make a rushed movie to bring in some money into the studio. Like exactly what happened to the sequel for Atlantis, which also sucked so much a$$. That's why it feels so wonky and disjointed, like it was supposed to be a kid's tv series.....because that was the OG pitch!
“You’re taking it too seriously, it’s a kids movie” is an argument I hear a lot and it’s so stupid. Disney has been known for years as a company who made *family* movies. A good example of a family movie vs a kids movie would be Finding Nemo vs almost all straight to dvd sequels. Family movies are just that; movies that the entire family can enjoy. It’s funny for kids and has a message embedded inside that will resonate with older viewers. Kids movies have a much more obvious message and are typically a lot goofier. I’m 25 and I adore animated movies. So I wish they’d stop slopping together these crappy sequels and give us movies with depth and an actual story.
I unironically loved frozen. I will wait till the reviews are in before watching Moana 2. Ive got bills to pay.
I was sadly very disappointed by this film. Everything that I loved about the first film felt absent, the new characters were forgettable and even the story felt lacking to me. I just couldn’t get on board for the journey beyond the reef this time. Great review 👍
Love your content. Are you planning on reviewing Wicked? Love to see your take on it.
I might. I never did see the musical, but I do like musicals, so I'm interested to see how it is
The songs were decent... and the fact that they don't get stuck in your head is good when compared to the pathologically catchy and annoying songs of Frozen or Lin Manuel Miranda.
Taking the family to watch it this Saturday. My expectations are not high. It’ll give my daughters (7,5,3) some interest for a few hours. And I get some popcorn and a slushy for it.
Ya, get them some munchies and relax. Young kids will think its fine. My 4 year old daughter enjoyed it
@ yep. Going with two other families all bringing their daughters as well. So it’s just a big celebration before one of the families moves away. Looking forward to the experience at least!
Watched it with my best friend yesterday, personally we enjoyed it 7.5/10 me 8/10 him
I don’t understand how all of the sudden after 1,000 years they know the last magical wayfinder’s history and the village was now in on it. They had a 1,000 year old scroll with the pictorial on it?
Oh even funnier was Moana finding that 1,000 year old boat and they were able to use parts from it….yea it wouldn’t be usable exposed to the elements after 1,000 years, that rudder would be dry rot.
I actually enjoyed this movie. The songs were fine.
Hot take: prefer the Wish songs cause atleast they were memorable and catchy.
Its a 8.3 only downside ls are the songs aren't catchy and Im disappointed that Matangi wasnt the villain, wven though it was claimed that she will be the threat in the beginning.
This was in development as a streaming series, but got rushed into a movie when the Mandalorian movie got delayed. 😢
can't say i'm planning to see it at all (was waiting for reviews and they aren't favourable lol) but get lost is a goddamn banger and i will stand by that lol
I'm honestly having trouble remembering the tune, but I DO remember thinking in the theater "Hey, I'm glad they are getting back to the show-tune style instead of pop tracks", so that's a plus.
I'm really happy for you and I'm gonna let you finish, but "We know the way" is the best Disney adventure song of all time.
@@admthrawnuru AWAY AWA- dammit, it's in my head now
Back in my day when a sequal built from the corpse of a tv show was made it would just be on vhs and not in the theater
It was more entertaining than the average UA-cam video.
The brood father tells the tale of Moana 2. All hail the brood father
Its so werid cause its pretty easy to patch. You just have it that ships keep vanishing, with unnatural storms. And the evil lady is the culprit who was entombed in her own magic to survive the first films curse but has now awake. Boom, no conflicts and a active villian to quest out go stop
People online are like "it's a kids movie! It doesn't need to make sense, be logical or smart. Leave it alone" 😂
In the old days something like this would go directly to VHS and you'd pay $2 for your kids to see at home. For that price, you don't expect as much and are satisfied with it keeping your kids attention for couple of hours. These days going to the theater is much more expensive than it was during the Disney renaissance. However, in less than a week the theatrical release will have made $400 million worldwide, so financially producing a sequel was the right decision. Too bad it turned out to be so inferior to the original.
It is crazy to think Moana and Frozen had 8 and 6 years separation between original and sequel respectively and they still managed to produced underwhelming results.
I didn’t think the first one was that well written especially since Maui wasn’t needed at all for any of the story
I heard it was mid at best and decided to wait. Hoping the falloff next weekend is just as record breaking as the box office this weekend.
Not all the direct to video sequels are "failed" tv pilots (i.e Atlantis, Belle's Magical World, Cinderella 2) A handful of them work as legit sequels: Return to Neverland, Lion King 2, Extremely Goofy Movie, Aladding: King of Thieves, Cinderella 3: Twist in time.
not surprising that this was originally supposed to be a tv series that got converted into a movie.
I remember when some images first starting floating on the internet for Moana 2 that I legit thought they gave Moana a daughter and was kind of curious if she was maybe passing on the desire to sail to her or if it was a sort of Little Mermaid 2 thing where the kid is learning about their families’ past and find trouble along the way. Then I learned it was actually a little sister that really was only there to let Moana exposition dump and act all sweet to, and thus lost interest.
If they wanted to include a sister, fine but at least do something more with her. Like, maybe when that lightning thing hit and the adults and Moana are discussing things, little sis thinks it’s her call to adventure and tries to head out on her own. Or maybe Moana takes her sailing and an evil force, trying to stop Moana from fulfilling her Way Finder role, kidnaps little sis and that starts up the adventure. Or to add more fun to the mess, the evil force is actually from someone who never wants to see re-unification of the various tribes so calls on the dark force to sow mistrust in Moana’s tribe towards others and it becomes a sort of mystery on which tribe or individual is responsible, and may reveal it’s actually the individual and the evil force on its own volition trying to stop Moana.
The movie could have Moana learning who she can trust, how to diplomatically navigate such a tense atmosphere, help everyone get along better, and Maui can act as an anchor for everyone to work together initially becomes a demi-god says to and then morph into actual trust and respect for each other. Little sis could also be doing what she can to figure out what’s happening, and we can tease a bit of her connection with the sea by having her slip clues to Moana or the sea itself protects her when the villain(s) are around.
All that I came up with at the top of my head having not seen the movie and wanting a genuine desire to see an introduced sibling character actually have a role in the story. DreamWorks managed to shove 6 new sibling characters (Cooper and Prince D from Trolls 2, Brozone and Viva in Trolls 3) in their movies and managed to have them all tie into the plot in some way, rather than just being character motivation cut outs for the MC to project out to.
Which is too bad as little sis seems cute enough, but there really isn’t anything beyond cute and “sister bond” going for her.
I also heard the gal marketed as a villain is actually just “misunderstood” and the post-credit scene was the closest they got to hinting at her more sinister motives. Lame.
It wasn’t even made clear why the lightning happened ⚡️ At the moment I assumed it was an attack by the powerful island storm god, but that was never revisited, like many aspects of the movie. As the Critical Drinker would say “Why did the lightning hit the hut? Don’t know.”
@ maybe it was just the Shaman calling down the lightning 😆
Trolls movies are all hot garbage.
Yes! Comment for the algorithm as an extra up-vote for referencing the Aqua Teen Hunger Force!
I skip Moana 2 in fact just ignoring it. So I decided to watch West Side Story (wss) remake, Your Monster, The Wild Robot and possibly Wicked due to musical exp w/ WSS
This seems like the sort of Direct-to-Video sequel I would love as a little kid (just because my favorite characters are in it), only to come back to it years later and realize it was very meh.
TBH, I'm not super excited about it. My best friend loves the original Moana and asked me to see it with her since we're movie buddies. It looks very okay. I'm not clamoring to go see it, but I'm looking forward to hanging out with my bestie.
Wow this is the earliest I’ve been here
I'm glad you're here!
Our are older now, but my wife and I just watched the 1st Moana last night for the first time, we thought it was kind of boring compared to other disney animated movies, we won't bother with the second.
I was thinking of going to watch this movie since I love the first one and the trailers made me think maybe this won’t be too bad but after seeing the reviews and the fact this was supposed to be a tv series this will be a pass. Going to wait for Sonic movie 3 to watch with my family! Here’s to hoping it beats mufusa
My 12 year old is the type to spend hours on FNF and big into FNAF lore and music these days. I think we'll pass. She usually mentions movies shes interested in and I haven't heard anything about this movie until seeing this video.. 🤷🏾♂️ I still appreciated this breakdown.
Yep, good call. If you have D+, catch this one in February or March. It's not awful, but one view will be plenty
But but the ads on tv say it’s only in theater? You mean Disney would lie to me? 😂
I heard that it was originally going to be pilot for tv show... and it really sounds like one
I’m going to see this in theaters cause my little one loves Moana’s but 2 reviews have already made it sound like something that didn’t really need to be made and not worth the price I’m going to pay😅. Think I will get the good robot and transformers one to make sure my kids has some to counterbalance this.
So, we have what used to be direct to video Disney sequel, where VHS is long dead.
I expect nothing.
Yeah, it was cute
Moana 2 was fine; it would have greatly benefited from better songs and no dance numbers. Maui's song was poor, and the 'villain's' song was horrid. At least the Kakamaras got some character development.
I have a five year old who went as Moana for Halloween. I have zero choice about whether we're going to see it.
But so far, everything I've heard tells me they have wasted the potential for a TV series which would have let Moana explore the breadth of Austronesia and the various cultures thereof for what would have once been a direct-to-VHS sequel.
Le sigh.
No thanks! I’ll just watch the first one again.
What a let down. We were walking back to the car and my 9yo daughter said "I already forgot all the songs".
Alas. Not like pointing all this out matters. The only thing that most are gonna take away from it is "Box Office Success over all" so whatever production issues, problems with the clearly truncated script or what this is ultimately going to mean for animated productions going forward for Disney is gonna fall on the wayside because "Box Office Success means more content!" Hell, there are already plans for a "Gladiator III" and all I can wonder is how they are gonna rehash the old script again until people get bored of it.
I agree, and it makes me sad to see how well this is doing and how awful Transformers One did, which was a vastly superior movie. Disney will take all the wrong lessons here and we will continue getting half-baked, phoned in garbage. Here's hoping that Dreamworks picks up the slack
I saw this last week and My first though was 'What is Greg gonna say about this?'
My 10 yo son liked it, especially some of the songs, my 13yo daughter, my wife and I thought it was a serious let down. All the songs are poppy and have no soul, plot was pointless, and the extra characters are the standard disney side characters, brilliant and perfect female engineer, check! Big scared but strong nerdy guy, check! Grumpy older person you can play off of and eventually win over, check! Pointless animal sidekicks, check!? Why intentionally bring a single pig and a rooster on a long ocean voyage? I mean other than to eat them, obviously.
Should have been a lackluster D+ series
My little girl had a good time, but I was disappointed
ok
I have no plans to see this film. Partially because the first movie wrapped up so well- and partially because I’m sick to death of Dwayne Johnson. His personality and his fake, almost commercialized, “nice guy” persona has been proven to be a total act (not that I really bought it but I was indifferent until his ego couldn’t help but assert itself) and I mean- kudos to him for being convincing to some, but now that I’m absolutely sure he’s a pottle deep malt horse- he doesn’t need one more dime of my money.
Pottle?
6 children is insane
I like Moana 2
I actually like the movie
4 people gave it an IGN 7. noice 😆😆😆
This did a lot of brand damage to a brand that absolutely did not deserve any brand damage (Moana).
Surprised the 16 year old liked it that much, its definitely for kids. I kinda liked Moana 1 okay but barely remember it and remember NONE of the songs. Odd choice for a sequel.
Ugh. Just saw the phoned in Frozen 2 made about $1.5 billion. I hate when a meh movie makes this kind of money as it is a signal to Hwood: quality does not matter. And boy, do they hear the message.
This is a bad year for movies, Inside out 2, Deadpool 3 and now Moana 2 doing well shows Disney that they literally don’t have to give a damn and will just keep making these sequels till we’re dead.
This is a huge comeback for Hollywood after last year. Last year only Barbie and mario made a billion. This year we might get 4 including Moana 2 and probably Wicked. So what do you mean. Also it's you're guys fault for letting every original Disney/Pixar movies from this decade flopping at the theatres.
@ who dafuq is we what was I supposed to force everyone to go watch the original stuff?????
@@gladd8869 With we I meant the whole world. Cause it gets released to the whole world.
@@Simbala-bq5vy The issue isn't that they didn't make money, it's that they suck.
Moana 2 feels like written by A.I. which probably is.
I knew just by the trailers that this movie was gonna be cheesy and sterile. It really never needed to exist at all.
Is the movie better if you have not seen the first one?
Hey aleast Frozen 2 went all Rocky 4 and turned her into a superhero.
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