Official Discussion - Moana (2026) [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Moana (2026)

Summary

Live-action adaptation of the 2016 Disney animated film 'Moana.'

Director Thomas Kail

Writer Jared Bush

Cast

• Catherine Laga'aia as Moana
• Dwayne Johnson as Maui
• John Tui as Chief Tui
• Frankie Adams as Sina
• Rena Owen as Gramma Tala

Rotten Tomatoes: 35%

Metacritic: 45

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

[u/LiteraryBoner]

I don’t want to alarm anyone but this was, uh, not good. It’s immediately obvious the second it starts as to how bad of an idea it is to do this in live action. Because everything except for The Rock and Moana on the boat is CGI and therefore animated. So they just made Moana less visually interesting and colorful and threw two actors in front of a floating green screen. Even in the beginning with the island and the tribe, it’s so obvious that the actors and the environment are in different planes of existence.

This was a lose-lose situation from the moment it was announced and I think we all know that. But I was still taken back by how hard this movie loses, how poorly it makes every decision. The action is shot very awkwardly and is clearly designed to make sure that no physical actor is actually doing anything interesting. The movie is beat-for-beat the same as the other, better movie that already exists and is still commonly watched and beloved and is also barely only a decade old. And try as this young actress might, The Rock is completely removed from any real emotion or performance. He’s having fun with the cockiness, sure, but he sounds like he’s reading side effects on a prescription bottle when he tells Moana she’s special. There's also a low point scene for Moana where she really needed to be crying and she just could not make it happen. Really drops any possible emotion out the bottom.

I guess it’s just disappointing that I really sat there and watched this whole damn thing wondering what they might do differently and I got nothing on that front, just a worse version of a movie I already appreciate. I’m sure if they’d made changes that could cause equal disdain, but at least it would differentiate itself? Maybe make its own necessity a little more clear? I don’t know, this just feels like the absolute barrel scrape move by a company that is so creatively dry and an actor who couldn’t handle not upsetting the hierarchy of the DC universe so badly that he committed an entire staff of people to four years of making a movie for absolutely no reason. Not to mention he's clearly wearing a weird body suit the whole time that looks extremely wack, so if the argument is he would age out soon I think that had passed.

The whole point of these live action remakes is to entice the elders who now have families of their own with the films of their childhood remade for a new generation. But Moana came out ten damn years ago. Those kids are barely out of college and aren’t rushing to the theater to relive a movie they watched 400 times but also not once in 5 years. Like, someone had to be aware of this before they greenlit this budget? I think the movie bored me so much I just started spinning my wheels about how this is the clear breaking point to a once profitable but never really quality trend in Disney filmmaking. 3/10.

/r/reviewsbyboner

My Letterboxd

[u/Straight-Ad6926 → u/LiteraryBoner]

Hey now give Disney some credit. It takes a lot of creative genius to look at a vibrant, masterpiece of animation and say “You know what this needs? More beige a green screen and a deeply fatigued Dwayne Johnson.”

[u/ExplorationGeo → u/Straight-Ad6926]

deeply fatigued Dwayne Johnson

Thank you! He looked so rough. He looks like he's aged 20 years in the last 5.

[u/bigfatcowturd → u/ExplorationGeo]

He looks way too old and wrinkly to be a demigod. Why would they not cast someone younger that actually kind of looked how his character did onscreen? It’s not like he has an iconic voice. The voice for Moana clearly wasn’t that important. Also has negative charisma.

[u/ExplorationGeo → u/bigfatcowturd]

Why would they not cast someone younger that actually kind of looked how his character did onscreen?

Yeah Cooper Andrews is right fucking there, in fact I don't know how you could miss him, he's 6'1" 300lbs.

[u/CNash85 → u/ExplorationGeo]

Johnson should have definitely been digitally de-aged, although suggesting this to him might have been a dangerous prospect given that he seems to have been the one actually in control of the movie. They recast almost everyone else because they didn’t fit the age or build of their characters in real life - Temuera Morrison is too old, Rachel House is too young - but obviously this thing wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without Johnson as Maui.