Moana (dir. Thomas Kail)

by Jack Martin | Jul 11, 2026

Certificate: PG

Running Time: 115 mins

UK Distributor: Disney

UK Release Date: 10 July 2026

WHO’S IN MOANA?

Catherine Laga’aia, Dwayne Johnson, John Tui, Frankie Adams, Rena Owen, Jemaine Clement

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Thomas Kail (director), Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller (writers), Beau Flynn, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia and Dwayne Johnson (producers), Opetaia Foa’i, Mark Mancina and Lin-Manuel Miranda (composers), Oscar Faura (cinematographer), Melanie Oliver (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Moana (Laga’aia) teams with the demigod Maui (Johnson) for an adventure across the ocean – but in live-action this time…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON MOANA?

It’s a question that is asked with every single one of Disney’s live-action remakes, but it rings especially true for the studio’s new take on Moana: why, dear God why, does this exist?

I mean, we all really know why: after all, Disney has spent the past fifteen or so years exploiting the nostalgia audiences have for its vast back catalogue of animated classics, by recreating them almost exactly but without anywhere as much soul or passion and sitting back to watch the money roll in. It’s a scheme that’s certainly upped their overall financial stock, but at the stark price of their creative integrity and imagination that has long defined the studio.

The thing is, with the likes of The Lion King, Snow White, The Jungle Book and even last year’s Lilo & Stitch, there was at least a wide enough gap between those original animated classics and their (mostly) soulless photorealistic clones, which is to say a minimum of twenty years, for them to be appropriately remade for a newer generation. Moana, on the other hand, is barely ten years old as of writing, and is still a massive draw for young viewers who have full access to it at home, to where it is arguably coming close to outpacing even Frozen in terms of Disney’s most popular original animated properties. Needless to say, it hasn’t yet reached that nostalgia phase of its existence.

As a result, interest in this live-action version of Moana – as “directed”, a term used very loosely in this context, by Thomas Kail – couldn’t be any lower. Very few people have expressed a genuine desire to see this movie, especially when they have a perfectly good version of it at home, to where it’s currently shaping up to be a major box office disaster for Disney. Even if their curiosity does win out in the end, they’re essentially getting the exact same movie but worse in so many ways, whether it’s the flat direction or the copy-and-paste writing or the weirdly unenthusiastic performances or the off-putting visuals that somehow make the vast Polynesian ocean landscapes feel bland.

So, I must ask again, for what reason does this movie exist and for whom? Who knows, other than I suppose we now know what we’d get if we ordered a copy of Moana via Temu.

The plot is… wait, why bother going into it? If this movie doesn’t care enough to change up the story for a movie most already know inside and out, then neither should I in my description of it. Basically, it’s the exact same plot as the original, beat for beat and line for line, except many of the characters are now real actors, with Moana herself now being portrayed by Catherine Laga’aia, while the demigod Maui is still Dwayne Johnson but in a robust nipple-less body suit and a Tommy Wiseau wig. Other than that, it’s practically identical, from the Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned songs to the designs of certain non-human entities, to certain shots that are now recreated on the most artificial-looking soundstage.

Like with the majority of these remakes, the animated original is all you’ll be thinking about while watching this version, as well as how much funnier, more emotional, and smoother in its visuals it is. Nothing that Kail or any active head of department on this film can do is enough for it to stand as its own entity, as it replicates the script of the original so much that little if anything at all comes as a genuine surprise anymore, since you’ve literally seen it all before. It amounts to not much more than a generic reenactment, the kind you’d see either at any Disneyland location or your local community theatre production, though I reckon in both cases the performances would be stronger, because here Johnson is operating at half-capacity in a role that he’s already delivered a fairly good vocal rendition for, and while Laga’aia is doing what she can to bring her interpretation of Moana to life, the direction she’s given has left her with a blank expressionless demeanour that makes this beloved heroine so painfully uninteresting in live-action form.

Moreover, the whole production feels awkward, like something is always off in the way that these shots are being framed or how the constant bombardment of CGI – the latter of which makes adapting the CG-animated original feel even more pointless – distracts from the actual characters. You never feel the enthusiasm as much as you did when it was all just a cartoon, a format in which they could get away with certain things that they’re trying and failing to replicate here, such as vast overexaggerated character designs and set-pieces that can only work in animation. It’s easy to tell that there’s no real passion brought to the set by anyone, as though every member of the cast and crew are mere hostages forced to perform in front of a camera, with a certain mouse aiming at them with a sniper rifle should any of them think of fleeing.

All of that said, is Moana one of if not the worst of these Disney remakes? No, there are worse ones out there that irritated me a lot more than this one did. But is it among the most unnecessary, even in a category of movies that are by definition unnecessary? Very much so, because in remaking something far too recent Disney has further exposed its own corporate cynicism with an empty and wasteful product that reveal how little respect the studio has for both its audience and its own property.

However, if the expected underperformance of this movie does indeed mark the beginning of the end of this creatively drained era of Disney movies, then we’ll definitely be hearing a more enthusiastic version of the words, “you’re welcome.”

SO, TO SUM UP…

Moana is an overwhelmingly pointless remake of the animated original that replicates everything from that movie but with far less enthusiasm and much worse quality, making it one of the most creatively bankrupt examples in a long line of similarly cynical remakes.