Disney live-action remakes are over-hated.
“Beauty and the Beast” (2017) had gorgeous visuals and a pretty good cast. “Aladdin” (2019) was fun and made interesting deviations from the original story. And I thought “Cinderella” (2015) was just better than the original in almost all ways. But “Moana” (2026) differs from this positive trend — like many of the recent live action remakes such as “Mulan” (2020) and “Snow White” (2025) — by falling far short of being a good remake.
First of all, unlike something such as “Beauty and the Beast” — whose animated counterpart premiered in the 1990s — there is no bank of nostalgia to draw from.
You know who was a kid when the original “Moana” came out in 2016? Me. I was 12 years old when “Moana” first came out. This means that my parents have no nostalgia for it, and 10 years isn’t enough time for me to build up nostalgia for it either.
So, who is this for? If you’re going to do yet another remake, do something like “The Emperor’s New Groove” (2000) or “The Princess and the Frog” (2009) that those my age saw when they were much younger. At least give a film the dignity of 15 years to rest in peace.
Second, “Moana 2,” the direct sequel, came out only two years ago. So, it's not like we were really missing out on fresh Moana content.
Third, it’s a shot-for-shot remake, which is a term I don’t use lightly.
People have thrown that term around a lot for the remakes I mentioned previously, but they don’t even come close to the issue I’m talking about here. I mean if you put “Moana” (2026) side by side its animated counterpart, 90% of the cinematography and editing would be identical, especially the musical numbers.
“But why is that a problem? Isn’t it supposed to be a remake?” Well, yes, it is supposed to be a remake, but remakes aren’t supposed to be identical. That’s boring.
Let’s recount all the new additions we get in this movie. There are a couple new jokes, like Maui (Dwayne Johnson) saying “oar-tograph” when signing Moana’s (Catherine Laga’aia) oar. There’s maybe 30 seconds of a new song at the end when Moana puts a shell on the top of the pile of rocks. And I guess the island to get to the realm of monsters looks different?
But you know what the most obvious new change is? Editing and storyboard issues.
The editing was so horrifyingly bad.
For example, when Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement) is chasing Moana and Maui, with the amount of camera angle changes and cuts, I could not tell that they were running out of his cave until they were standing in front of a geyser outside of it. And there were moments where characters just seemed to teleport to locations not shown previously.
As for storyboarding, I think the montage where Maui regains his shapeshifting abilities is the most egregious example. He starts his training by turning into a beetle, something small to regain his powers slowly, just like he did in the original movie. And in the animated one, he then turns into an iguana, a shark, a giant hawk and finally a whale to show his progress. So, tell me why Maui turns into a whale as the second animal transformation in this film. It made no sense; zero growth, zero progress.
As for the acting, I genuinely think that Johnson was the worst possible choice you could make for this film.
Yes, he voiced the original Maui — but his voice is not the issue here. I could not fathom what emotion he was trying to express during the entire duration of this movie. This left me having to rely on my knowledge of the original film to remember his character arc and dynamic with Moana.
Plus, the CW-budget wig didn’t help. Seriously, any drag queen could have done a better wig job than the stylists in this movie.
Add that to the fact that no one would ever look close to Maui’s massive original design, so having him as the only returning cast member from the previous film, besides Tamatoa’s voice, seems weird.
Laga’aia, who made her film debut with the movie, wasn’t perfect, but most of her shortcomings I’d blame on directing. She sounds enthusiastic but sadly misses the mark for me. It was most apparent when she sang “How Far I’ll Go,” the emotional “I want” song of the film. She sounds great, but she has no variation of emotion on her face when she sings different lyrics which causes the song to lose some of its impact.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning the uncanny animals in this film.
Whatever they do, apparently Disney can't get animals right in these remakes. If you make them too realistic like in “The Little Mermaid” (2023) people will say they’re too creepy. Well, in this film they go in the opposite direction, and the animals ended up looking almost identical to their animated versions. Something that makes what is supposed to be a live-action remake look really strange. Like, yeah, that’s certainly HeiHei, but chickens don’t look like that. Pigs don’t have anime eyes. And don’t even get me started on Tamatoa.
Overall, I would have loved a version of this film that wasn’t afraid to take risks. Make Maui have new and interesting powers. Make Moana a demi-god. Give HeiHei the power of the sun. I literally don’t care.
If I wanted to watch “Moana,” I would just go watch Auli’i Cravalho do a much better job.
