I must admit the teaser left me more dubious about this movie than I initially was. Despite the animation being clearly high-quality, the repetition of some scenes from the original movie does have a tv series feel to it, especially the boat scene with Maui, which has the exact same light and colors it had in the first movie. The Kakamoras returning does not help with that, and neither does the decision of having Pua accompanying Moana on her journey, which I feel has been done exclusively due to fans demanding that. But the thing I’ve been dubious about the most ever since I’ve seen the trailer is Moana now (supposedly) now having a younger sister.
The way I always saw it, Moana was one of a kind - the first islander to be attracted by the ocean, the first daughter of a chief allowed to rule (note that when first showing her the pile of stones on the mountain, Chief Tui only mentions him, his father, and the father of his father among the leaders, and no women at all). Moana did have brothers in the early concepts, but they had the plot purpose to set her apart from the ocean and to prevent her from being taken too seriously in her concerns. I’m usually all about the “protagonist gets a younger sibling” trope, but I have two main concerns regarding her:
1. Either she doesn’t have a plot purpose at all, which would be off putting, since this means ‘she just happened’ now, and not in the 16 years before, and this would be weird;
2. Or, she does have a plot purpose, which implies something is going to happen to Moana that makes her unable to stay in Motunui and be a chief, which would completely screw up Moana’s character development (looking at you, Frozen 2)
On a more positive note, I love Moana’s new design, her hair especially is gorgeous, although I still have to get used to the side bangs. It looks particularly… islander-like? You know, that kind of hair that is never really dry because you live on an island and are in the water most of the time. I love that look.
