Moana, the plucky heroine of the Pacific Islands who didn’t need a romantic interest for her adventure, returns in “Moana 2”, but the screenplay by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller, is muddled and the music by Mark Mancina (score and songs), Opetaia Foa’i (score and songs), Abigail Barlow (songs) and Emily Bear (songs) has nothing memorable to offer.

For co-directors David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller this is, according to IMDb.com, their directorial debut on a feature film. Derrick had been a story artist for the 2021 “Raya and the Last Dragon.” Hand was a story artist for the original “Moana” and for “Big Hero 6.” Miller directed a 2008 short, “The Hollow.”

The first film was co-directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, who had directed “The Little Mermaid” (1989), “Aladdin” (1992) and “The Princess and the Frog” (2009) before coming to “Moana” in 2016.

“Moana 2” begins off an island neighboring Moana’s (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) home island. With her are her dimwitted rooster Heihei (Alan Tudyk) and her lovable pig Pua. She’s doing stunts like a Polynesian version of Star Wars’ Rey–jumping a chasm and then rolling (except she’s wearing a skirt). She then calls for Pua, as if he could follow. In the end, she has to tie Pua to her back and lug him up the cliff to unexpectedly meet Heihei. Using the large conch shell the ocean gifted to her at the end of the last movie. Blowing into her conch shell trumpet, she hopes to hear other trumpets answering her and finding other island peoples. She does find a clue: a piece of pottery that shows a double mountain symbol.

Returning to her family at the fictional Polynesian island of Motunui, we see that her people have taken to sailing. Maui (Dwayne Johnson) is nowhere to be seen except in the tapa illustrations by his biggest fan,  Moni (Hualālai Chung).

Maui is being held captive elsewhere, tied upside down and trying to convince some lumpy fish to work together to get him his magical hook between bouts of being slimed. He refuses to call upon Moana to help him. Is that his oversized ego?

Back in Motunui, Moana’s ancestors (in particular Tautai Vasa voiced by Gerald Ramsey) give her a shocking message, causing her to form a crew to venture off to find the hidden island of Motufetu and break the god Nalo’s curse. By setting foot on the island, she will be able to rejoin all the people of the Pacific Ocean. With the blessing of her parents, father Rui (Temuera Morrison) and mother Sina (Nicole Scherzinger) and even the spirit of her paternal grandmother Tala (Rachel House), she begins making plans. Moni is well-versed in the folklore of their people and tells Moana and her parents although Tautai Vasa went on a similar journey, he never returned. This scares Moana’s little sister Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda), but Moana reassures her that the ocean connects them and she will return.

Moana cannot make this journey alone. Forming a crew, she takes with her grumpy farmer Kele (New Zealander of Samoan descent David Fane), boat engineer Loto (New Zealander of Samoan descent Rose Matafeo) and Moni. This crew doesn’t know how to work together. Moni is too interested in illustrating their journey. Kele gets seasick. Loto wants to destroy and rebuild while at sea. Both Heihei and Pua are along for the ride as well. The crew will meet with those cute tranquilizing dart coconut creatures, the Kakamora from the last film.

Eventually, Moana and Maui will get back together, but with help from a questionable source, the bat lady Matangi (Awhimai Fraser).  Matangi advises Moana that sometimes getting lost isn’t a bad thing and there’s always a different way to get things done.

My Hawaii-born husband was annoyed at the prevalence of New Zealand accents. That aside, the film’s comedic timing is off. Those zany new characters that make up Moana’s crew are just too annoying and it doesn’t make sense to set out on a perilous journey with a crew that seems so inexperienced and unable to focus on the task at hand. For a series, that development into a fine-tuned working crew might have worked over several episodes, but in a 100-minute film, their characters coming together makes no sense.

While all of the crew will eventually do at least one task to help this mission, this seems more like a plot device rather than an earned character development arch like one saw in the DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon.”

While this film like the last film is filled with songs, none of them are as notable as the original’s “You’re Welcome” or “How Far I’ll Go,” the latter was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar. Some of the animated dance moves seem too modern or likely to be awkward in a skirt. Disney cosplayers will be happy to see Moana gets a costume change (although Maui does not except for his sentient and every changing tattoos).

According to “Variety (10 December 2020),” the continuing adventures of Moana was original envisioned as a series: “Moana: The Series” and set to premiere in 2023. “Deadline (4 August 2021)” reported it as a Disney+ project. “Collider” reported (22 January 2022), that Derrick was attached as the director. Some of the problematic bits have worked better in a streaming series. While it was lovely to see so many people dressed up in clothes inspired by the Pacific island cultures at the Los Angeles premiere, the film itself was disappointing although at least Moana still doesn’t need a romantic interest. Compared to the AFI world premiere of the first film, “Moana 2” had a low key Los Angeles premiere. Be sure to stay for the mid-credits scene which will answer at least two questions.

“Moana 2” had its world premiere in Hawaii (21 November 2024) at Lanikuhonua Cultural Institute, and its Los Angeles premiere on 25 November 2024 at El Capitan Theatre.

Nota bene:

There are birds of prey in the Pacific including the Hawaiian hawk, the Pacific Baza, the Hawk Owls and the Sparrowhawk.

There are 191 known bats species in the Pacific islands, including the fruit-eating flying foxes and tiny microbats.

The Kakamora have something like a blobfish. Blobfish are not poisonous.