Moana 4K 2026 Ultra HD 2160p

Recently, we’ve seen several film adaptations of cult-classic cartoons; the idea of adapting “Lilo & Stitch” or “How to Train Your Dragon” seemed very appealing to Disney, because everything worked out just right, everyone came out ahead—audiences with warm feelings and nostalgia, and the corporation with huge cash flows from profits. This strategy has worked time and again, and it’s quite obvious that Disney took a liking to it, since there’s no need to invest in creating something new—they can simply make a film adaptation of any cartoon and live happily ever after, and very richly at that, for many years to come. “Moana” was supposed to round out this successful trilogy on the path to a new production pipeline: the transition from sequels and prequels to film adaptations. Ideally, everything should have worked out perfectly, but since we all live in a world that is far from ideal, the new “Moana” suffered an obvious failure.

Speaking of the strengths of the project, it’s worth noting the graphics and visual effects, as well as the excellent work of the costume designers and makeup artists, and—as always—the wonderful musical score that Lin-Manuel Miranda gifted us back in 2016. However, for the most part, all of the above are merely technical details that make a significant contribution to the development of any project but do not define it.

The main component of any film is an excellent screenplay—it is, in a sense, the heart of any project—and yet this adaptation lacks a heart. The plot of *Moana* is overly simplistic, not to mention that it simply duplicates the original almost word for word. The story unfolds in the most disjointed way possible, as if we’re going through a sort of quest and moving sequentially from a hypothetical point A to point B; yet, *Moana* comes across as incredibly boring and tedious, and the fault doesn’t even lie in the fact that the plot is all too familiar—after all, if a film is worth it, you can rewatch it with great pleasure, and not just once. Furthermore, the film’s emotional core—manifested primarily in the strong friendship between Moana and Maui, who literally went through fire and water together—has faded away, and as a result, an islander, weary from the hardships of life, is forced to set off to who knows where with a teenager. When it comes to motivation, this is another miss—there’s no real passion or fire in the characters’ eyes to drive them to such feats. “Moana” feels painfully empty and run-of-the-mill; this is, apparently, the “greatest” gift—to so thoroughly ruin something that once worked well and was beautiful in its own way.

Right up until the very last minute, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Catherine Lagaya wasn’t right for the role of Moana—perhaps because of the heroine’s physical differences from the original, though that isn’t all that important—but most likely because of the way she delivered her lines; the actress lacked an inner core, a certain energy and enthusiasm born of the mere thought that Moana is about to set out on a journey so far from home. Dwayne Johnson plays his best role here—Dwayne Johnson—but it’s as if he was dragged into the project against his will and forced to play Maui once again. While a single voice was enough in the animated film, the live-action adaptation requires him to showcase his talents much more vividly; moreover, for some reason, the actor seems to have lost his “powerful charisma” along the way and appears before us as a tired, practically drained middle-aged man who has absolutely no desire to dance before us in a ridiculous wig—a performance that is completely unfunny, rather expressionless and wooden, and laced with a huge dose of self-admiration, excessive even for a demigod of the winds and seas. The animated piglet Pua and the not-too-bright rooster Hei-Hei didn’t come across as comical, but rather as unnatural and, in part, even irritating: Hei-Hei because of his appearance and behavior, and Pua because of his virtual absence from the story.

“Moana” is an exclusively entertaining film adaptation, existing for some unknown purpose; it’s like a single frozen frame on repeat, where there’s nothing new to be found—albeit with visually pleasing imagery and the much-loved compositions of the inimitable Lin-Manuel Miranda—but even those were inserted out of context and failed to salvage the overall situation.