Summary
Disney has been full steam ahead with adapting all of its animated features into live-action films. FromBeauty and the BeasttoThe Little Mermaid, it looks like Disney intends to adapt its entire vault of movies for live-action. Some of these make sense as many of the adaptations are of projects from circa 1950. However, that’s about to change as 2025 looks to be the year that Disney starts remaking its more modern films.
Still reeling fromBlack Adam’sfailureat the box office, Dwayne Johnson announced he and Disney were getting to work on a live-action remake ofMoana. Moanapremiered in 2016 to overwhelming praise from fans and critics alike. It followed a young, strong-willed Polynesian girl who wanted more than what her parents had planned for her. Despite its success, Disney hasn’t announced a proper sequel, which makes more sense than a live-action remake.
John Musker, Ron Clements
Writer(s)
Screenplay by Jared Bush, Story by Ron Clements, John Musker, Chris Williams, Don Hall, Pamela Ribon, Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell
Cast
Auliʻi Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Tudyk
Box Office
$682.6 Million
Moanafollowed Moana of Motunui, who left her island home searching for the demigod Maui. Long before the movie’s events, the brash and arrogant Maui stole the Heart of Te Fiti, a small pounamu stone with the power to create life and raise islands. This disrupted the delicate balance of nature, giving rise tonefarious forcesand nature’s corruption. One such force was Te Ka, a god and the embodiment of wrath itself. Te Ka guarded the island that once housed the Heart of Te Fiti, making it impossible for anyone to return the heart save for the shapeshifting demigod with a giant fish hook. At least, that’s what everyone thought.
After Moana finally convinced Maui to return the Heart, he faced the wrathful lava god Te Ka and nearly lost his fish hook in the process. Struggling to shapeshift after Te Ka’s powerful attack that cracked his hook, Maui decides he doesn’t want to lose his hook again and leaves Moana to finish the quest herself. At first, she gives up all hope, but a little nudge from the spirit of her grandmother reinvigorates her to follow through with her quest and take on Te Ka herself.
Just as Moana broke through Te Ka’s defenses, she discovered that there was no Te Fiti. The island that she once formed was nothing but a shell of its former glory. However, Moana quickly realized that Te Fiti wasn’t missing, she was simply in a state of rage and took on the form of Te Ka. Moana didn’t need to return the Heart to Te Fiti, she needed to give it to Te Ka, and she did just that. Doing so returned Te Fiti to her natural state of existence and put an end to thecorruption spreadingacross the ocean. She even gifted Maui with a new hook to replace the one that shattered after he returned to help Moana because he finally did something for the sake of others and not himself.
Why Moana 2 Would Tell a Good Story
The ending ofMoanasaw the people of Motunui undergo a significant cultural change. They began the movie as island-living people settled into their ways who never go out to sea. At most, they stick to the shallows. By the end, however, they return to their seafaring roots, led by their new Wayfinder and chief, Moana. Following Moana and her people as they sail across the seas could bring them into contact with a great many obstacles. The filmmakers behind the making ofMoanabased the film onPolynesian mythology, leaving plenty to be seen in a sequel.
Fans want more of Tomatoa, for sure. Who wouldn’t want to see Moana tango with that coconut crab again as he serenades her with the song of his people? Witnessing the people of Motonui struggle to adapt to their new island-hopping life would be an exciting story to watch unfold.Moanadabbled with the heroine coming to grips with her role amongst her people, and the sequel could either show her adjusting to life as the one they look up to or it could focus on an entirely new chief.A sequel could dealwith deeply symbolic themes, just as the original film did.
Moana 2 Makes More Sense Than a Live-Action Remake
Fans released a collective sigh of indifference when Johnson announced a live-action remake of Moana was underway.
While it would be the first remake of a Disney property that premiered after 2000, nobody asked for it. A remake should elevate the original project in some way and modernize it for the current generation. However, Disney already did that when it madeMoana.RemakeThe Lion King? Sure. Something that premiered in 2016, though? It seems desperate. Not evenFrozenhas received a live-action adaptation, a property that’s moving into trilogy territory.
A direct sequel to the animated musical would serve the property better than a live-action adaptation. It would expand on the mythology and potentially connect to the animatedDisney+ TV seriesthat’s under development. Dwayne Johnson made a point to inform fans that the remake will feature the same characters, songs, and story. If that’s the case, what’s the point? It feels more like Dwayne Johnson’sBlack Adamdidn’t do as well as he hoped, so he convinced Disney executives to give one of his most successful projects the live-action treatment as a means to cleanse either his or his fans' palate.
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