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What’s a Girl Gotta Do to Get Some Conflict in Moana 2?


The sequel to the 2016 hit needs better songs and better bad guys.

Moana 2, on the other hand, has a soundtrack composed by the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical team of Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, and it’s so devoid of bangers or any remotely memorable tunes that there’s nothing to distract you from the movie’s lack of clear stakes, or meaningful drama, or antagonists with any personality. After a long, fraught history of villains that were more exciting, more colorful, and invariably more queer-coded than the heroes, the entertainment giant has in recent years banked away from having clear-cut bad guys at all, opting instead for its characters to face down systemic problems, their own insecurities, or adversaries who are really just misunderstood. But off she goes, with animal sidekicks Heihei the rooster and Pua the pig, as well as a new human crew that includes shipbuilding Loto (Rose Matafeo), farmer Kele (David Fane), and folklorist and Maui fanboy Moni (Hualālai Chung).

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