A performance with song, a broad smile from him / The entire visual space is filled by water / Skill ultimately prevails

Set against a beautiful Polynesian backdrop where everyone seems to speak with deliberate slowness, this film follows Moana (Catherine Laga’aia), who finds herself torn between her father’s insistence that she stay within the protective reef and the influence of her grandmother, a figure deeply connected to their tribe's history and traditions and unafraid of the ocean's mysteries. When their food supply begins to fa…

My complete thoughts can be found at https://www.manuelsbento.com/moana-2026-stranded-on-a-soundstage-of-pure-nostalgia/. Rating: C MOANA could have built upon the foundation of the earlier animated film, but it largely squanders that opportunity. The remake closely mirrors the 2016 version, exchanging the original’s bright and colorful visuals for a noticeably artificial look created with green screens; what w…