'Moana' Review: Dwayne Johnson returns for Disney's lazy live-action remake that resembles AI slop

It's hard to deliberation of an illustration of Disney phoning it successful amended than its unrecorded adaptation of "Moana."

Yes, "Moana" — the beloved 2016 animated movie — already has a remake little than 10 years aft its release, pursuing successful the footsteps of remade classics similar "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," "The Lion King" and "The Little Mermaid" (not to notation past year's disastrous "Snow White").

There's nary uncertainty that Disney's live-action gimmick has mostly paid off. Several of them person made implicit a cardinal dollars globally including past year's "Lilo & Stitch" remake. But if they expect radical to caput to the theatre and wage to spot 1 of their movies, Disney should warrant a film's beingness too being a currency cow.

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Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga'aia prima successful Disney's live-action remake of "Moana." (© 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

This "Moana" is virtually a shot-by-shot, beat-by-beat redo of its predecessor. Moana (played this clip by newcomer Catherine Laga'aia) is the girl of the main of the Polynesian land of Motunui, and its radical are connected the verge of starvation arsenic the land has been cursed aft the bosom of the quality goddess Te Fiti was taken from her by the shapeshifting demigod Maui (reprised by Dwayne Johnson) a 1000 years ago. So she indispensable task into the water to find Maui and reconstruct the bosom of Te Fiti to prevention her people.

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What's shocking astir this "Moana" was however overtly lazy it was made. It's expected to beryllium unrecorded enactment yet everything looks fake. All the formation scenes were intelligibly green-screened (you tin archer by the artificial lighting connected their faces). The animals don't look remotely realistic. And don't adjacent get maine started connected The Rock's ridiculous wig.

Dwayne Johnson arsenic Maui successful Disney's live-action "Moana." (© 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Not lone is it visually duller, it's duller successful each different measurement. It's little funny, the characters are stiffer, adjacent the soundtrack, replicating Lin-Manuel Miranda's archetypal music, isn't arsenic captivating.

Compare that to the archetypal "Moana" — vibrant, beautifully animated, a livelier formed of characters and unmatched vocal show by the OG Moana Auliʻi Cravalho.

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Catherine Laga'aia arsenic Moana successful Disney's live-action "Moana." (© 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Thomas Kail, whose directing credits see "Grease Live!" and the Disney+ signifier signaling of "Hamilton," brings zero originative imaginativeness successful his theatrical debut, going acold beyond relying connected the root worldly arsenic a specified blueprint. It's fundamentally a regurgitation. There's nary added constituent to abstracted itself from the animated version.

Disney has had a fistful of cartoon-turned-live-action successes similar 2015's "Cinderella" oregon 2016's "The Jungle Book." Even the "make classical villains look sympathetic" movies similar "Maleficent" and "Cruella" were interesting. This "Moana" has thing going for it.

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Rooster Heihei successful Disney's live-action "Moana." (© 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

The Verdict

Disney's "Moana" remake is truthful uninspired that it mightiness arsenic good person been churned retired by AI. Your kids oregon grandkids whitethorn bask it, but what's the constituent erstwhile you tin ticker the superior archetypal mentation astatine home?

★ ½ — SKIP IT

"Moana" is rated PG for action/peril, immoderate scary images, rude wit and little thematic elements. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes. In theaters now.

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