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Of all the recent animated Disney features, 2016’s Moana was the one that lent itself to a sequel without prejudice. The film was effectively an origin story, ending with our heroine vindicated in front of her community to start a new era of exploration. The last moment is an invitation to sail through the seas. It’s a pilot episode—a first chapter that ends precisely as the journey is about to begin.

So it’s no surprise we’re back here with Moana of Motonui (Auli’i Cravalho), now a Wayfinder with the mission to find and connect with different nations. Her efforts have been fruitless so far, but she doesn’t quit, especially when a vision from her ancestors reveals what she needs – to find a particular island that connects the people from the ocean. Moana sets forth, accompanied for the first time by a crew of helpers she needs to get used to, and later joined by her demi-God buddy Maui (Dwayne Johnson) to find this special island kept hidden inside of a storm by a vindictive God.

The first film was built on the strength of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs, effortless earworms that achieved the feat of being an obsession for pre-school children, and somehow not annoying to their parents (I still stop to sing “Shiny” when my daughter plays the soundtrack). But when you think about it, it had a barebone story structure that lost some steam in the third act.

Without Lin-Manuel Miranda, likely too busy as producer, composer, songwriter, actor, and director in what seems to be 100 different projects, Moana 2 suffers from its songs not having the same gravitas as the original. The bar was high, but even then, composers Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear didn’t work as well to integrate the songs of Opetaia Foa’I as Miranda had so expertly before. The result is forgettable and sub-standard for what the studio usually offers on their animated holiday release.

But where Moana 2 hits the right notes is in the story department. In a more emotional journey, writers Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller (with the help of Australian Bek Smith and native Hawaiian Bryson Chun) refocus the plot on Moana, whereas the first film was more interested in Maui’s journey. Moana has to understand her limits and learn to trust her team. In the first film, she was the driving force to convince her family to look back in the sea; she had little agency or growth. The sequel is about all the hard things Moana has to learn and the sacrifices she has to make.

It all works well. Maybe it doesn’t have the shine of the original, and the songs cheapen it a little bit, but the emotional stakes are much larger and feel more connected to the culture. Moana 2 embraces the Pacific more openly. The language, music, and dance feature extensively, constantly reminding us of the culture Moana is trying to connect. There is no threat of colonialism (yet), and she doesn’t risk bumping into the caravel of a Portuguese explorer with missionaries and diseases on board.

Moana 2 is ultimately about bringing people together to celebrate each other. So it’s interesting this film comes to us today when Māori people in New Zealand are protesting and fighting for a treaty made to protect their identity and culture – many voice actors are Māori, including Temuera Robinson and Rachel House. It’s interesting and ironic that Cravalho is a native of Hawaii, where the local native population has been silently colonised and replaced since the XX century. It’s a sad realisation that the actions of the so-called first-world countries (including Australia) supercharging global warming may dictate the destruction of many of the Pacific Islands.

If anything, beneath its colourful and hopeful surface, Moana 2 reveals a subtext about the importance of cultural unity from people who have been artificially separated for far too long.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5
For children who were obsessed with the first film’s characters, not as much as those who only cared about the songs. And for adults who need to hear that we’re stronger if we look past our tiny little island.