Moana Review

The animated Moana came out ten years ago, which is the first problem: there is no generation for whom this is the version they grew up on, so the remake has to justify itself. Thomas Kail, the Hamilton director making his first narrative feature, chooses not to try. Tasha Robinson found virtually every line, beat and song identical; Wilson Chapman called it the most faithful any Disney remake has ever been.

Catherine Laga'aia is the reason it is not a disaster. A first time actor still in her teens, she sings well, holds the frame and plays the character's stubbornness rather than her sweetness, and the scenes on the water with a real canoe and a real horizon are the only stretches where live action earns anything. Dwayne Johnson is game and loud as Maui, but the film keeps asking him to imitate the cartoon.

Critics filed it under pointless: 32 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, 42 on Metacritic, and Alissa Wilkinson calling it the worst of the studio's remakes. Families gave it an A minus CinemaScore and 322 million dollars worldwide, which against a 250 million dollar budget is a loss Deadline put above a hundred million. The 2016 film is one click away.