On the one hand it’s hard to judge a movie based on less a minute long teaser trailer. On that other much larger hand the Live action teaser trailer so the so-called Live Action remake of Moana actually really does a great job showcasing this movie. It’s a mostly photo-realistic CG shot-for-short remake devoid of any amount of soul and purely exists to make for money.
At this point it’s just exhausting as these live-actions put a lot of focus on recreating the animation in photo-realism with sometime live actors, depends on the movie. These movies seldom take into consideration the unique strengths of the live-action medium or animation’s strengths into their recreations. This forcing the film into a difference medium with no thought to have aspects of film-making work with the strength and limits of the medium creates a cognitive dissonance for the audience.
SO now you will have actors playing Moana and Maui giving the film some kind of realistic authenticity but you will have to suffer the nightmare fuel of a photo-realistic Heihei and Tamatoa instead of either recontextualizing the characters for the medium or rewriting the script for live-action.
It’s also particularly egregious for Moana as unlike the earlier Disney live action works which are reimagining 2d animated works into 3d work, Moana was already in 3d. And since the teaser is trying to showcase that Moana 2026 is a shot-for-shot remake, no matter what it does or even if it’s somehow good it will be compared to the original version as the gap between the films is too recent plus the sequel movie that came out 2024 and it’s just a by-the-numbers remake. Had this film done its own thing or had Disney crafted its own narrative in Moana’s world it would have suffered less from the comparison.
Though the difference between the two versions could be giving Moana supernatural abilities right away much like in 2020’s remake of Mulan. And sure, that would be a difference but not a good one.
It’s just being presented a soul-less shot-shot remake of story that didn’t necessitate it’s own creation other than making money and maybe alleging giving Dwayne Johnson a safe bet at the box-office.
There are other issues like Moana’s hair having a blow-out rather than Moana’s iconic curls, which is a worthwhile conversation in it’s own right.
