Moana (2026)

Should Disney stop this live action remake train? Critical consensus would certainly suggest so with nearly ubiquitous bad reviews, accusations of money grabbing and now, possibly, diminishing audiences.

However, is the latest addition to the roster: Moana a tad unlucky for arriving at the moment that this endeavour is really taking a bashing? I’d say the answer to that is a resounding yes.

It’s undeniable that, from a critical and filmmaking perspective, these remakes have by and large ranged from ‘pointless’ to ‘questionable’ to ‘actively bad’.

There are very few actually good films in the bunch, they are too all over the place stylistically, some are too faithful whilst others too different and they largely fail as a collective for not having an overarching consensus of style and tone.

However, this Moana remake gets a fair few things right and perhaps stands as one example of the direction that they could have gone down from the start.

Let’s not overegg the pudding, the original animation is by far and away the better film and much of the charm of it is lost in live action, as many before it.

Likewise, it’s too long and the CGI (itself a bugbear of the live action remakes) is pretty ropey.

But, by sticking so faithfully to the original this kind of works as its real life shadow.

The story is great, as you know from the animation and, likewise, the songs here are excellent too.

The setting is strong and two of the most charismatic and funny elements of the original, Dwayne Johnson and Jermaine Clement, are back in their respective parts.

Is it mostly a pointless exercise in dulling the style and character of a great animated film? Sure.

Is hewing so close to the original generally pointless for most of the audience who could just watch that film instead? Sure.

But in the larger context of these remakes does this stand as one of the most watchable and generally ‘inoffensive’ because of these points? I think so.

It may not be all that memorable and certainly still ranks below any animated effort but this doesn't fall into pantomime and, whilst it’s still hard to argue that Disney ‘know the way’ and who knows ‘how far they’ll go’, this is at least a passable watch.

⭐️⭐️⭐️