The first “Moana” came out on Nov. 23, 2016 and was nominated for many awards for its songwriting, voice actors and storyline. It scored 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, showing how popular and well-liked it was. Its sequel “Moana 2” came out almost eight years later and has a high reputation to live up to.

“Moana 2” is a continuation of the first movie, focused on Moana and her successfully restoring the heart of Te Fiti, a goddess her village worships. “Moana 2” is about how Moana is a master Way-Finder and gets a call from her ancestors to find a lost island. To do this, she has to sail far away from her village and break a curse placed over the island.

I really liked the movie. For a sequel, the plot still made sense and could be tied back to the first movie without making up storylines that didn’t exist previously. The movie  was well written and the theme, overcoming your fears, is easy for kids to understand and learn.

Another thing that “Moana 2” captured well was Polynesian culture. The representation of other cultures in Disney movies can broaden children’s views of the world and others. The movie does a good job of portraying Polynesian traditions, heritage and values. 

On the other hand, there is one thing the movie missed the mark on. The songs in the second movie were not as good as the songs in the previous one. The original “Moana” had many catchy songs throughout the whole movie. They had 41 songs, while “Moana 2” only had 23. 

I can remember many of the songs from the original movie, despite it coming out years ago. I just watched the sequel and already forgot the songs that played, because there was nothing special about them. They weren’t bad by any means, but the first movie’s songwriting was fantastic and the songs were very catchy. 

Overall, “Moana 2” was a good sequel to the original. The only way the movie could have been better was if they brought back Lin-Manuel Miranda to help compose the music. Despite that, the storyline was wonderfully made and kept me interested the whole time.