Say what you will about them, but the have at least given us a choice. Which would you rather see? A spirited, soaring, animated 鈥淢oana,鈥� or a purposeless remake featuring Dwayne Johnson with Fabio hair?
The sea is wide, my friends. Yet Moana, the Polynesian wayfaring princess, has seemingly been stuck swimming laps since she first emerged on our screens 10 years ago. She鈥檚 one of Disney鈥檚 greatest heroes. The original movie, computer animated by hand-drawn masters Ron Clements and John Musker and buoyed by Lin-Manuel Miranda鈥檚 energetic songs, represents the height of Disney animation this century.
But since then, the waters have been rough. 鈥淢oana 2,鈥� , did little to expand the tale. And the new live-action remake does even less. Few of the live-action remakes, regardless of , are covered in glory. But 鈥淢oana,鈥� directed by 鈥淗amilton鈥� veteran Thomas Kail, feels especially off course, offering little more than a lamentable swap of cartoon imagination for live-action do-over. The lifeless result veers perilously close to 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥� parody or one of those joke parallel universes in the .
The new 鈥淢oana鈥� is an often shot-for-shot, note-for-note remake of the original, with small pockets of new material. This is understandable, to a certain degree. The songs are still great. Catherine Laga驶aia, who plays Moana, sings beautifully. The ocean, in digital splendor, is even bluer.
But all inventiveness has gone out to sea. One of the great things about animation is that it can do anything with a snap of the fingers. You can sense imagination at play. The glories of the original 鈥淢oana鈥� lied both in its rich Polynesian connections and its cartoony fun: the goofy shape-shifting of the demigod Maui (Johnson), the toe-tapping moves of the giant crab Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement), the way the ocean heaves Moana back aboard the ship.
Making these things physical realities isn鈥檛 just an update in format; it saps them of their animated soul. The result comes across more like play acting than genuine artistic creation. There is, I would wager, no one who ever saw the little coconut pirates in the first 鈥淢oana鈥� and said to themselves: 鈥淚 need a more realistic looking Kakamora.鈥�
The greatest benefit of the live-action update comes in the recreation of Moana鈥檚 native Motunui. If the original 鈥淢oana鈥� was crafted in homage of Polynesia culture, the presence of real people makes that more tangible. John Tui, a New Zealand actor of Tongan descent, is especially good as Moana鈥檚 chief father.
But more often than not, the leap from animation to live action comes at a loss. This is especially true of characters destined to be cartoons, like the rooster Heihei. And it鈥檚 painfully the case with Tamatoa, whose 鈥淪o Shiny鈥� tune was once an undeniable highlight but is now perhaps the most awkwardly staged scene of the movie.
None of this is any fault of Laga驶aia, whose lively performance is the film鈥檚 primary source of forward momentum. Maui 鈥� boastful, slyly comic, inevitably heroic 鈥� is among Johnson鈥檚 most perfectly suited roles. So, it鈥檚 a surprise how much his performance here struggles to match the verve of the animated Maui. It could be that Johnson, who鈥檚 been recently, has aged out a character who was a fantasy to begin with, and a wig isn鈥檛 enough to cover the discrepancy.
With Christopher Nolan鈥檚 鈥淭he Odyssey鈥� soon to sail into theaters, it鈥檚 an unusually good time for ocean-faring myths about gods and homecomings. No one knows how far this franchise will go 鈥� a third animated film is in development. But Moana is in increasingly desperate need of some new waters to explore.
鈥淢oana,鈥� a Walt Disney Co. release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for action/peril, some scary images, rude humor and brief thematic elements. Running time: 115 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
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