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‘Moana 2’ Review: The Songs Lack That Lin-Manuel Miranda Magic, but This More Dutiful Than Inspired Sequel Turns Into a Catchy Action Fairy Tale
The songs lack Lin-Manuel Miranda's magic, but the movie has vibrant monsters and a flow of movement that keeps your eyeballs dancing.
That’s a cool image to gawk at, and there are other ticklish creatures in “Moana 2,” like a towering sea monster or this movie’s equivalent of the lava demon — the god Nalo, a purple light force embedded in ocean tornados that emit such a potent charge they knock the tattoos right off of Maui. “Moana 2” has three directors: Ron Clements and John Musker, who’ve done extensive work on animation-spin-off video games, and the cartoon screenwriter Don Hall. The songs in “Moana 2,” by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, are perky and appealing, with that electrified island drum bounce, but most of them sound like the imitation-Lin-Manual knockoffs they are.
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