With the phenomenal success of 2016’s Moana, making over $680 million at the box office, making it the 16th most successful animated features of all time, a sequel was inevitable.

But with the fluid nature of the media landscape right now, with streaming seemingly king, Disney were keen to create content for their Disney+ streaming site, so they decided that the sequel to Moana will be a miniseries.

But much like the tides that turn, so did Disney, when Walt Disney Studios president Alan Bergman told the team behind it that, after seeing early footage, it deserved the big screen treatment after all. And it turned out to be the right call, as far as box office returns are concerned.

Three years have passed since Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) had her adventure with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), and she now spends her days sailing, exploring the ocean in search of other people with whom her people can connect with.

She then has a vision, telling her why her people are so disconnected from everyone else: the storm god Nalo wasn’t keen on humans joining forces, so he created a curse that sunk the island of Motufetu – a hub where humans could find each other – making sure to keep communities apart.

Armed with this knowledge, Moana decides that it’s down to her, and a small crew, to find Motufetu and break this curse once and for all. One question remains though – how?

There was something warm and charming about the first film, so it was easy to see why it was a success. And that success has most definitely followed with this sequel, which joined the impressive billion dollar club. But that doesn’t tell the full story.

And that’s this film’s biggest issue – a story that is cumbersome and complex. Much of it finds Moana at sea, with the story much like its heroine much of the time – lacking direction. Then she finds an island of coconuts, inexplicably, who it has to be said are probably the most entertaining aspect of the film, in much the same way the minions are in the Despicable Me films.

She then finds herself inside a giant clam, lair to some kind of witch, and it’s all visually bleak and depressing.

There are some songs, of course, to stretch out proceedings, and that’s certainly what it feels like, but as it was initially down as a miniseries, original songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda didn’t sign on and moved on to other projects, and his absence is very noticeable; the songs are pretty and bouncy enough, but nothing memorable.

With a narrative that’s hard to follow, you can imagine it being a turn off for its core young audience, as much as it was for us.

There may be some good news on the horizon however, with a live action version due to be released July 2026, starring Catherine Lagaʻaia as Moana, and Dwayne Johnson reprising his role as Maui, although very much in the flesh this time around.

Perhaps the miniseries was the way to go after all as far as this sequel is concerned, with even the post-credit scene hinting that there’s more to come – like a further episode – that really should have been included here to give the story some substance, because as is, this sequel is just too wishy washy.