Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson Star in Mediocre ‘Moana 2’

I would be less outraged if this movie was more than mediocre. While the animation is often stunning, the overall result is a throwback to the inferior direct-to-video sequels Disney used to churn out for “The Lion King” and “Aladdin.” Credit is given for continuing to put the folklore of Pacific Islanders on screen in a respectful way, but these stories deserve a better script.

“Moana 2″ continues the story of the inhabitants of the island of Motunui, home of Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) and her family. In the first film, she finds her purpose as a wayfinder, one who is connected to the sea and who seeks out new lands and people. The spirits of her ancestors, including Gramma Tala (Rachel House), help her on her journeys. Her Disney assistants include a pig named Pua and HeiHei (Alan Tudyk), a crazy-looking chicken who repeatedly cheats death.

While its title protagonist is memorable and important, “Moana’s” breakout star was Maui. Voiced by Dwayne Johnson and animated with an extraordinary level of detail, he is a striking figure covered in sentient tattoos that highlight his achievements and occasionally mock him. Maui was the trickster who stole every scene. Cravalho and Johnson created a lasting, memorable bond between their characters.

“Moana 2″ opens with Moana’s discovery of an artifact that can prove that there are places other than her island. A vision from Tautai Vasa (Gerald Ramsey), an ancestor briefly seen in the first film, prompts Moana to seek out Motufetū, another island that may hold the key to reuniting her people across the seas. “The ocean does not divide us,” she is told, “it is what connects us.”

Armed with this knowledge, she sets out to find Motufetū with a crew selected to assist her with certain tasks. There’s Kele (David Fane), a grumpy old man skilled at growing produce; skilled engineer, Loto (Rose Matafeo), who helps with repairs and redesigns of Moana’s boat; and Moni (Hualālai Chung), the island’s storyteller and chronicler, who is a big man in love with Maui.

All of these performers (especially Chung and Fane) bring life to their characters, but they don’t emerge as memorable characters on the level of “Moana’s” bling-covered crab, Tamatoa (seen briefly here in the mid-credits sequence at the end of ​​the movie) or HeiHei.

And yes, Maui is back too, but as the movie opens, he’s in pretty dire straits. Moana will encourage him to do one of the things he is famous for: lifting islands from the sea.

I was a big fan of the original “Moana” and placed it in my top 20 back in 2016. In fact, the highlight of that year for me in the theater was the moment Johnson’s demigod, Maui, opened his mouth to sing. The Rock had sung before in a movie — see 2005’s “Get Shorty” sequel, “Be Cool”; or better yet, don’t – but it was a joke. Here he delivered one full neck, nimble and fantastic reproduction of “You’re Welcome”, the best song in the movie and that Disney should has submitted to Oscar that year.

“You’re welcome,” like the movie is almost as good Oscar-nominated power ballad “How Far Shall I Go,” was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Now I know he gets a lot of flack, but the man knows how to write a catchy song. Even at his worst, he can still turn a sentence around. His earworm of some sort”We’re not talking about Bruno“, from “Encanto”, became a huge hit for Disney back in 2021.

I bring up Miranda because the songs in “Moana 2″ are mostly terrible despite bringing back the first film’s other songwriters, Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina. They suffer from the “Frozen II” syndrome of making similar songs that are bigger, noisier and not as good.

“Beyond,” the best of new songs written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, is this movie’s equivalent of “Into the Unknown” from “Frozen II.” It’s a replacement for “How Far I’ll Go,” which was cranked up to 11. As Idina Menzel did with that song, Cravalho sings the hell out of this one. I expect to see Cravalho sing this “Beyond” at next year’s Oscar show.

But the same songwriters make Maui dirty with “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?”, which is the worst song from a Disney movie since Bette Midler sang “Perfect is not easy” in 1988’s Charles Dickens-inspired flop, “Oliver & Company.”

“Moana 2″ is disappointing, but it is also watchable. I appreciated the attempt to tell a story that wasn’t based solely on the studio’s IP. And the visuals will entertain the kids too young to sit through all 160 minutes of “Wicked” this holiday season.

★★

MOANA 2

Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller. Written by Miller and Jared Bush. Starring Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Alan Tudyk, David Fane, Rose Matafeo, Hualālai Chung, Gerald Ramsey. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, Suburbs. 100 minutes. PG (intense action sequences)

Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.