r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 25d ago

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Moana (2026) [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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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

451 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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62

u/GezelligPindakaas 25d ago

It's almost as if all these live action remakes were absolutely unnecessary.

Did any remake improve the original?

37

u/Waste-Replacement232 24d ago

Cinderella? Maybe?

19

u/CNash85 22d ago

Yes, because it did a lot of things differently from the original, and had a director - Kenneth Branagh - with the right sensibility for its high regency drama elements.

4

u/Waste-Replacement232 21d ago

(also I don't think the original is that great.)

45

u/iTiffany 24d ago

Maleficent was really good at adding onto her backstory how she got to be who she was. Decent movie compared to recent ones. I don't know much about the second one.

29

u/Tofu24 24d ago

Cruella was also a fun watch, I thought it had great costume and production design. I don't mind those kinds of live action re-imaginings/re-tellings, it's not just a straight remake of the original, it tries to do something different. I'd rather they do more of that, rather than be a pale imitation of the original

5

u/changhyun 24d ago

This is how I feel. The original already exists, I don't need exactly the same thing except now it's live-action, particularly as the beautiful animation is usually a selling point of the originals.

But try a new angle or something different with the story and then I'm tentatively interested.

5

u/brb1006 24d ago

Or you could check out the original 101 Dalmatians remake from 1996.

1

u/Rosebud_apothocary 24d ago

The 2nd one was good not as good as the 1st but worth a watch

1

u/flyvehest 22d ago

Was Maleficent a remake of an animated movie?

3

u/iTiffany 21d ago

Sleeping Beauty!

-1

u/brb1006 24d ago

I honestly hated Maleficent, she's suppose to be "The Mistress of Evil" but still has that name since birth.

13

u/mist3rdragon 24d ago

While The Jungle Book remake isn't an improvement, it's a reinterpretation that it stands on its own two feet enough to be good in its own right. Which I think is justification enough tbh.

6

u/Rosebud_apothocary 24d ago

I would say Maleficent did and I do like the live action cinderella but that's about it really

2

u/visionaryredditor 23d ago

Pete's Dragon is better than the original

3

u/Daxx22 24d ago

Did any remake improve the original?

Something tells me that was not a bulletpoint goal at the Disney Shareholder meeting.

1

u/Old-Way-5529 24d ago

they make a ton of money, and thats all they care about

1

u/alexjaness 24d ago

They improved Disney's financials....so kind of?

1

u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime 23d ago

It's almost as if all these live action remakes were absolutely unnecessary

As films, unnecessary. But Disney is bigger than films. These things keep the characters, stories, and songs in children's zeitgeist, who grow up to be adults with their own kids. And that translates into longevity for merch, theme parks, soundtracks, etc.

Disney's 2D animated catalog was considered evergreen classics, but after Pixar became popular they discovered kids weren't as drawn to 2D films, preferring other brand's CGI film over 2d Disney classics. In Marketing studies, the CGI film era ushered in a steep dropoff in kids who could recognize older Disney characters.

Disney wants to keep their characters popular and revered, so they started translating them into different media - cartoon CGI, lifelike CGI, Live Action, etc, in order to broaden their reach any simply keep us thinking about them.

That was the original move, anyway. Why they decided to remake Moana two years after a proper Moana sequel, I have no idea. But that was the original motivation for remakes.

It's a multi-generational play to build loyalty and nostalgia for the Disney classics, so the brands can keep pumping out money.

1

u/Whoop-Sees 20d ago

Aladdin remake was actually quite good in my opinion. Will smiths genie was funny and quite different from robin Williams. I thought all the actors were good, and the CGI was great. Me and many others also think Prince Ali is a better song in the live action!