Box Office: Moana vs Moana 2
The box office is a tell-tale sign of the success of a movie. Moana (2016) garnered $248,757,044 domestically (38.7%), $394,574,067 internationally (61.3%), and $643,331,111 worldwide. Safe to say, it was a major success for Walt Disney Studios. Part of the reason, I think, for the success of this movie is how different it is from other Disney movies. The more recent Disney princess movies focus more on an actual plot and less on romance. This movie, in particular, had a male protagonist and still didn’t focus on a love story between Moana and Maui.
Moana 2 is a different story. Historically, original movies have made more revenue than their sequels. In more recent decades however, the sequels have made more revenue than the original. The Moana franchise followed the more recent trend. The box office for this movie was even more successful than its predecessor. Moana 2 (2024) accumulated $409,157,963 (47.1%) domestically, $496,600,000 internationally (52.9%), and $905,757,963 worldwide. While both films were more popular outside of the United States, the distribution of popularity by location varied between the two. Moana was way more popular internationally, and Moana 2 was only slightly more popular internationally. Additionally, the sequel continued on with no love interest for the female protagonist.
Rotten Tomatoes: Moana vs Moana 2
In contrast to their box office numbers, the original movie was rated more on both the Tomatometer and the Popcornmeter than its sequel. Moana was given a whopping 95% on the Tomatometer with 287 reviews and an impressive 89% on the Popcornmeter with over fifty thousand ratings. Moana 2 was rated a mild 61% on the Tomatometer with 212 reviews and a decent 86% on the Popcornmeter with over five thousand verified ratings.
Furthermore, I asked a few of my friends what they thought about Moana 2. Many said the same thing; it’s good, but nothing can beat Moana. When I watched Moana 2, I thought pretty much the same thing as they did. It’s definitely a good movie, but would I rewatch it or pick it over the first movie? Most likely not.
Old Plot versus New Plot
The plot of the two movies was very similar. In the first movie, Moana famously says”I am Moana of Motunui. You will board my boat, sail across the sea, and restore the heart of Te Fiti.” many times throughout the film. That was basically the plot of the entire movie. Moana, persuaded by her grandmother, left her island against her father’s orders to find the demigod Maui and save her island from the curse set after Maui stole the heart of Te Fiti. She and Maui fightoff Te Kā, find out that she’s actually just a very grumpy Te Fiti, restore her heart, and are on their merry way back to Motunui.
Moana 2 was very similar in style. However, the plot was slightly different. Once again, our female protagonist had to sail across the ocean and fight off an evil spirit monster island thing. This time, though, she had a different reason. She got a vision from her ancestors to go to a cursed island and pull it out from under the sea to save everyone. She brings three new crew members, bacon, eggs (boat snack!), and a coconut she met along the way. She also learns that the Kakamora are not bullies and that they’re just misunderstood and have been trying to get back home this whole time. At some point during the movie, she gets sucked into a weird place, and a villain-ish woman (seriously Disney, what happened to good villains?) sings a song, and they find Maui. The gang then fights off lightning and Maui loses all of his tattoos and Moana dies (I am not ashamed to admit that I teared up when). But, since this is a Disney movie, Maui gets all of his tattoos back and Moana becomes a demigod with her own cool tattoos.
Old Songs vs New Songs
The songs in the first Moana were, without a doubt, very good. The songs in the second movie, though, are a bit lacking. I did enjoy the villain-ish woman’s song (the villain songs are always the best) and the song where Moana is singing about leaving her island. “Beyond,” in my opinion, tops all of the songs out of both movies (not “You’re Welcome” and “Shiny,” those are too good). Now, this is just my opinion, but I love the key that this song was in and Auil’i Cravalho is an exceptional singer.
Old Characters vs New Characters
Many characters from the first movie returned for the sequel: Moana (duh), Maui, her parents, her ancestor, her grandmother, the Kakamora, Heihei, and Pua. These characters did not get as much screen time as the new characters, but they were important enough to come back so I guess that says something.
There were also many new characters featured throughout this film: her little sister, the villain-ish woman, and three additional crew members. Her little sister did not have much screen time, but she was cute. The villain-ish woman was there for one song and then she didn’t appear again. The three new crew members really just tagged along for the trip. Essentially, all of them were entirely irrelevant to furthering the plot in any and every capacity. Moreover, the crew members were so annoying and just made Moana’s journey harder.
Moana 2 post-credit scene
That’s not all. The Moana screenwriters gifted us with another possible movie! In MCU-like fashion, Moana 2 had a post-credit scene that foreshadowed future movies with new villains.
So what do I think?
In general, it was a pretty boring movie. I zoned out many times and did not like how the plot was almost identical to the first one. I still liked it and recommend it to anyone who loves the first movie as much as I did when they were a kid. I think the only reason that Moana 2 made way more at the box office than Moana is because it is a sequel, and teenagers want to go back to the theater where they first saw Moana as a kid.