Moana (2026)
6.152 /10
250 Reviews
Rate This Movie:
Teenage Moana answers the Ocean's call and, for the first time, voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with infamous demigod Maui on an unforgettable journey to restore prosperity to her people.
Videos & Photos
cast
... Moana
... Maui
... Gramma Tala
... Chief Tui
... Sina
User reviews
Check out my full review @ https://www.manuelsbento.com/moana-2026-stranded-on-a-soundstage-of-pure-nostalgia/
Rating: C
MOANA had every chance to expand on its animated predecessor, and it wastes almost all of it. Beat for beat identical to the 2016 original, this remake trades vibrant, sun-drenched color for green screen sterility, turning musical numbers that once felt joyously alive into stiff, mechanical spectacle. The lead performance brings real warmth to the title role, and the central chemistry has its moments, but neither is enough to disguise a film that never once asks why it needed to exist.
Director:
Writer:
Jared Bush (Original Film Writer)
Ron Clements (Original Film Writer)
John Musker (Original Film Writer)
Jared Bush (Screenplay)
Dana Ledoux Miller (Screenplay)
Release Date:
2026-07-08
Run Time:
115 min
MMPA Rating:
PG
Reviews of
Moana
Check out my full review @ https://www.manuelsbento.com/moana-2026-stranded-on-a-soundstage-of-pure-nostalgia/
Rating: C
MOANA had every chance to expand on its animated predecessor, and it wastes almost all of it. Beat for beat identical to the 2016 original, this remake trades vibrant, sun-drenched color for green screen sterility, turning musical numbers that once felt joyously alive into stiff, mechanical spectacle. The lead performance brings real warmth to the title role, and the central chemistry has its moments, but neither is enough to disguise a film that never once asks why it needed to exist.
On a gorgeous Polynesian island where they all...speak...very...slowly, the young "Moana" (Catherine Laga'aia) is conflicted by her father's (John Tui) warning never to venture beyond the reef that protects their home and her grandmother (Rena Owen) who is embedded more in the tribe's ancestral and mystical roots and who has little fear of the open ocean and what lies beyond. When their crops all start to die, she is reminded of the legend of the demi-god "Maui" (Dwayne Johnson) who took the heart-stone from the benign goddess from whom all life sprang, and so she determines to find him and his magical hook and then restore the ornate stone to this font of all goodness. Perhaps that will reverse the process that is killing everything? Ten years on from the original animation and this doesn't really add very much to a story that was always a bit cheesy and thin. Here, it's at least forty-five minutes before the film really gets going and Johnson enters the fray and even then it's all just a little too formulaic. He does look like he's enjoying himself, but Laga'aia hasn't much by way of charisma to match and my favourites - the dart-blowing, sea-going, coconut critters - barely feature at all. The two songs that underpin this are familiar enough by now, but the rest of the music is borderline bland and by the rather hastily arrived at conclusion of this perfectly watchable but entirely forgettable rehash, I was wondering if they were already cannibalising the set from the "Lion King" on stage ready for the next iteration of "Moana" - the musical. It's pretty to look at but isn't much more than expensively crafted wallpaper, sorry.
She sings, he grins wide / Water swallows the whole screen / Talent wins the day
#filmreviewhaiku
Cast & Crew of
Moana
Cast
... Moana
... Maui
... Gramma Tala
... Chief Tui
... Sina
... Tamatoa (voice)
... Moana (4 years old)
... Moana (8 years old)
... Village Fisherman
... Coconut Farmer
... Coconut Farmer
... Tulafale
... Elder Luaʻiufi
... Elder Ope
... Village Elder
... Village Elder
... Tautaivasa
... Younger Navigator
... Villager
... Pushy Farmer
... Fale Kid
... Maivia
... Fale Kid
... Fale Kid
... Young Boy
... Village Kid
... Villager on Beach
Crew
... Supervising Art Director
... Producer
... Producer
... Executive Producer
... Producer
... Executive Producer
... Producer
... Director
... Director of Photography
... Hairstylist
... Hairstylist
... Production Supervisor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Aerial Director of Photography
... Original Music Composer
... Art Direction
... Art Direction
... Costume Design
... Stunt Coordinator
... Makeup Artist
... Casting
... Art Direction
... Hair Department Head
... Second Assistant Director
... First Assistant Director
... Production Sound Mixer
... "A" Camera Operator
... Underwater Director of Photography
... Executive Producer
... Property Master
... Special Effects Technician
... Set Decoration
... Gaffer
... Production Design
... Special Effects Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... Digital Effects Supervisor
... Compositing Supervisor
... Utility Stunts
... Visual Effects Producer
... Second Unit Director of Photography
... Casting
... Producer
... Executive Producer
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Animation Supervisor
... Visual Effects Producer
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Animation Supervisor
... Animation Supervisor
... Executive Visual Effects Producer
... Executive Visual Effects Producer
... Visual Effects Producer
... Visual Effects Producer
... Editor
... Dialect Coach
... Location Scout
... Location Scout
... Second Assistant "B" Camera
... First Assistant "A" Camera
... Second Assistant "A" Camera
... First Assistant "B" Camera
... First Assistant "C" Camera
... Stunts
... Utility Stunts
... Utility Stunts
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Utility Stunts
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Stunt Double
... Stunts
... Utility Stunts
... Stunt Double
... Stunt Double
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Supervising Sound Editor
... Sound Designer
... Sound Re-Recording Mixer
... Choreographer
... Songs
... "B" Camera Operator
... Second Unit First Assistant Director
... Key Hair Stylist
... Original Film Writer
... Original Film Writer
... Original Film Writer
... Screenplay
... Screenplay
... Songs
... Songs
... Visual Effects Producer
... CG Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... Compositing Supervisor
... Compositing Supervisor
... Compositing Supervisor
... Compositing Supervisor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Stunt Double
... Visual Effects Production Manager
... Creative Consultant
... Visual Effects Producer
... Visual Effects Producer
... Visual Effects Producer
... 2D Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... Animation Supervisor
... Lead Animator
... Compositing Lead
... Visual Effects Art Director
... Co-Producer
... Associate Producer
... Associate Producer
... Associate Producer
... Second Unit Director
... Sound Effects Editor
Similar Movies To
Moana
Flying Saucer Rock 'N' Roll (2006)
3/10
Flying Saucer Rock N Roll is the debut feature film from the father-son duo Eric and Joe Callero. The year is 1957 as a group of rockabilly and beatnik teens are visited by weed smoking Martian zombies who have come to take their earth women. Filmed with respect for classic horror films and full of laughs as the viewer is taken on an adventure like no other.
Release: 2006-03-16
The City of Lost Children (1995)
7.248/10
A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.
Release: 1995-05-17
The Three from the Filling Station (1930)
6.238/10
Willy, Kurt and Hans are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station. Then, they all fall in love with the same girl.
Release: 1930-09-15
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
7.016/10
A year in the life of a turn-of-the-century middle class family, leading up to the opening of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Release: 1944-11-28
Cars (2006)
7.049/10
Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs. On route across the country to the big Piston Cup Championship in California to compete against two seasoned pros, McQueen gets to know the town's offbeat characters.
Release: 2006-06-08
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
7.501/10
An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.
Release: 1960-10-12
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
7.122/10
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Release: 1931-07-30
Perfect Strangers (2022)
6.8/10
Seven friends who attend a dinner and decide to play a game with their cell phones. Unfortunately, the game ends in disaster when their dark secret is revealed.
Release: 2022-10-20
Silver Fang -The Shooting Star Gin part 1- The Ties of Friendship (2019)
0/10
Based on the Japanese manga series "Ginga -Nagareboshi Gin-" by Takahashi Yoshihiro, this stage musicals follow the story of an Akita dog Gin, the son of the mighty hunting dog Riki. In order to take revenge on the ferocious killer bear Aka-Kabuto for his family, Gin joins the army of Ohu who also chases Aka-Kabuto. Together, they embark on an adventure to look for new comrades and fight against the killer.
Release: 2019-07-20
All the Love Heaven Allows (1952)
0/10
A shoe salesman and a tailor respectively fall in love with two sisters, Yuk-sin and Yuk-ling, both reputed singers on the radio. The men devise various schemes to meet the two women. Fourth Aunt, the sisters' mother, treats the two women as commodities to be traded off to the highest bidder, greedily making money off their talents by arranging lucrative concerts. The shoe salesman and the tailor disguise themselves as rich men to get close to their dream lovers. Finally, the sisters are won over by true love.
Release: 1952-04-19
Hot Summer (1968)
5.958/10
In this East German teen musical, a group of girls are planning to take their summer vacation together on the Baltic coast. When a loud and obnoxious group of boys intrudes on their holiday, the girls are horrified to learn that the boys have the same vacations plans as them. The two groups quarrel with each other and compete over a number of things, but gradually an attraction starts to form.
Release: 1968-06-20
Poppety in the Fall (2012)
7/10
In this animated short, a terrible curse deprives Balthasar's kingdom of its stories. Taking the unicorn's horn back into The Belly of the Earth is the solution. Poppety will lead an expedition, by chance uncovering a hitherto closely guarded family secret.
Release: 2012-10-10
Whale Rider (2003)
7.034/10
A contemporary story of love, rejection, and triumph as a young Māori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
Release: 2003-01-30
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
8.1/10
In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.
Release: 1952-04-10
Kolobakha (2008)
8/10
The world is split into two camps, Russia and China vs. the US. The US have lost the competition of political systems and are destroying the planet's climate. For 80 years Russia and China have been sunk into internal winter, while the US enjoy eternal summer. Young Russian scientist Andrey Khvorobaev disccovers that the climate can be controlled by means of the Perelman Axis, located in Buryatia. The US Imperialist sharks, led by the president and driven by greed, let loose a grim Nazi executioner, Professor Gubke, who conducts horrible, inhumane experiments that turn American boys into zombies to defend the Perelman Axis. An expedition of Russian scientists, sent to Buryatia to fix global injustice, is looking for the Russian end of the Perelman Axis. They battle the merciless creations of the Nazi criminal Gubke. The expedition fails, but Andrey lives and fights on, supported by his Orthodox faith and the love of his homeland, embodied by the Buryat girl Vera.
Release: 2008-05-20
Evie
0/10
Evie, a young girl of Armenian and French heritage, is torn between the two cultures. As she navigates family expectations and her own identity, she confronts the challenges of living between two worlds.
Release:
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
6.741/10
After the death of his mother, a young boy calls a radio station in an attempt to set his father up on a date. Across the country, an engaged woman becomes convinced that they belong together, despite their never having met. Will their paths collide despite the odds?
Release: 1993-06-24
Toy Story (1995)
7.987/10
Led by Woody, Andy's toys live happily in his room until Andy's birthday brings Buzz Lightyear onto the scene. Afraid of losing his place in Andy's heart, Woody plots against Buzz. But when circumstances separate Buzz and Woody from their owner, the duo eventually learns to put aside their differences.
Release: 1995-11-22
Toy Story 2 (1999)
7.619/10
Andy heads off to Cowboy Camp, leaving his toys to their own devices. Things shift into high gear when an obsessive toy collector named Al McWhiggen, owner of Al's Toy Barn kidnaps Woody. Andy's toys mount a daring rescue mission, Buzz Lightyear meets his match and Woody has to decide where he and his heart truly belong.
Release: 1999-10-30
Planet of the Apes (2001)
5.778/10
After a spectacular crash-landing on an uncharted planet, brash astronaut Leo Davidson finds himself trapped in a savage world where talking apes dominate the human race. Desperate to find a way home, Leo must evade the invincible gorilla army led by Ruthless General Thade.
Release: 2001-07-26