After Moana 2, we owe Lin-Manuel Miranda an apology

Without him every song would be there Moana 2 is just as thin and disposable as the last.
Photo: Disney

For parents of young children, it may be a blessing that there isn’t a single song in it Moana 2 that the children sing as they leave the theater or that it is repeated in the following months. For that to happen, there would have to be a song on the soundtrack to remember, and every number in the latest Disney sequel feels just as flimsy and throwaway as the last. That alone would be disappointing enough, but the sequel follows the almost universally beloved 2016 film Moana and its score, which represents the pinnacle of the modern Disney era. That makes this film nothing less than an egregious downgrade.

Moana 2 is less of a complete disaster and more of a needless cash grab that has a hard time disguising its roots as a Disney+ series. It at least overcomes the very low bar set by the catastrophic year of 2023 Wisha critical and box office success that was heavily promoted to mark Disney’s 100th anniversary. But the music of Moana 2 is the biggest sign against it, with derivative melodies and clunky lyrics that bring the action to a screeching halt. When the songs occasionally insert a line or motif from the original Moana score, it has the effect of a drop of water in the desert, reminding us of how far we have fallen.

To be fair, the first Moana is a hard act to follow. Its soundtrack, including the Oscar-nominated “How Far I’ll Go,” helped propel the titular princess to Disney icon status. Key to the film’s musical success was composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who collaborated on the songs with Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa’i. Together, they created a sound steeped in the Polynesian culture from which the film draws, with Miranda’s tirelessly catchy melodies turning each song into a catchy tune. But his writing is just as important – his trademark wordplay and attention to detail deepen the characters and drive the story forward. While there is no Moana Without one of the artists who helped make the score indelible, the impact of Miranda’s specific contributions cannot be overstated.

Back in 2016, the composer’s work on the film was widely celebrated, including the aforementioned Oscar nomination (losing to “City of Stars,” which isn’t even Best Song). La La Land), and his star was on the rise. Moana was released a year after the seismic Broadway debut of Hamilton, which earned Miranda several Tonys, a Grammy and a Pulitzer and made him a household name. In the years since, Miranda’s unprecedented success sparked, as it often does, a backlash. A 2020 Rolling Stone The report analyzed “Why Generation Z Turned Against Lin-Manuel Miranda,” while in 2021 BuzzFeed News looked at “How Lin-Manuel Miranda Went From Cool to Cheesy.” What often gets lost in the criticism of Miranda’s disgustingness (still not a crime!) is that he is also an exceptionally gifted artist. And the failure of Moana 2His mild facial expressions remind us that we shouldn’t take him for granted.

It’s also about more than Moana: Over the past decade of Walt Disney Animation Studios releases, Miranda’s music has proven to be the secret to greatness. Apart from the non-musical outstanding postalFrozen Years – Zootopia And Big Hero 6Among other things, the animated musicals that tried to recapture the magic of Disney’s ’90s Renaissance era failed without Miranda as director. Frozen II was a box office hit without a coherent story to latch on to or a single song that came close to the cultural ubiquity of “Let It Go.” Wish was a stunningly awkward mix of Disney properties that came and went with astonishing speed. And Moana 2regardless of its inevitable box office dominance, is the kind of superficial sequel that relegated Disney straight to VHS.

Meanwhile, Miranda gave us the 2021 score Encantoup there with Moana as the best Disney soundtracks of the last decade. The film itself initially failed at the box office, but its positive word of mouth and inescapable songs gave it major streaming success and brought it back to theaters. Even more than with Moanathe music of Encanto is its strongest selling point. While “Dos Oruguitas” received the Oscar nomination, “Surface Pressure” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” broke out as huge crossover hits – the latter being Disney’s longest-reigning hits billboard Hot 100 chart-topper in studio history. “Let it go” wishes.

No song in it Moana 2 will come close Frozen or Encanto Chart numbers. Instead of Miranda, the sequel features songwriting team Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, known for their concept album from the 2021 TikTok series. The unofficial Bridgerton musical. The couple Bridgerton-inspired songs exploded in virality and achieved rare offline success – the album’s Grammy is the first awarded to music created on TikTok! – but hers Moana 2 These offerings are unlikely to attract new fans. Even with Mancina and Foa’i back, the soundtrack constantly reaches for something far beyond its reach. This is particularly notable in Moana 2is the song “I want” that our heroine sings to communicate what drives her on the journey ahead. You could call “Beyond” a “spiritual sequel.” Moanais “How Far I’ll Go,” but that’s a generous way of saying “sapless retread.”

Comparing these two numbers provides a clear distillation of what Miranda has achieved Moana and what Barlow and Bear are missing. In MoanaThe song “I Want” tells us everything we need to know about the title character, her worries, and her ultimate fate. “I wish I could be the perfect daughter / But I come back in the water no matter how hard I try” is a classic Disney film – the theme of personal desires clashing with parental expectations is present in it The Little Mermaidis “part of your world” Mulan‘s “Reflection” and Aladdin‘s shortened “I want” song, “Proud of Your Boy”. At the same time, “How Far I’ll Go” is unique enough to make “Moana” stand out from the long line of Disney protagonists, few of whom could handle a tongue-twister like “If the Wind Stays in My Sail on the Sea” behind me .”

Moana 2However, the rendition of the “I want” song says very little, instead relying on our existing knowledge of the character and vaguely promising something more expansive than the first film. If the original film asks how far Moana will go, the sequel asks if she can go… even further! While the lyrics resemble Miranda’s just enough to make “Beyond” sound familiar, these similarities only serve to highlight Barlow and Bear’s limitations. “I know the path that must be chosen / But this is bigger than ever” and “There’s fate in motion / And it’s only just begun” are clunkier, less interesting ways, Miranda’s “Every turn I take “To articulate every trace” I pursue / Every path I take, every path leads back / To the place I know I can’t go / Where I long.” The new composers understand the function of a ” I want” song, but not how to make it sing.

Getting these musical moments right is crucial. “I want” songs aren’t a Disney invention – they’re fundamental to storytelling in musical theater. However, they became an integral part of the brand during the Disney Renaissance, with composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman bringing their Broadway backgrounds to films like… The Little Mermaid And Beauty and the Beast. It’s this story that Miranda draws from when she said in a 2016 interview with Vulture: “I’m a big Howard Ashman fan, especially in his work for Disney, because he brought a realism to the Disney characters in his writing “I don’t think it’s always been there.” This is at the heart of what makes Miranda’s Disney music so unique: a specificity and deep understanding of the characters that requires a generational talent to get right. And the structured precision of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” will always prevail over the empty platitudes Moana 2“Can I get a Chee Hoo?” (Sample text: “Moana, come on, unlock your destiny.”)

Of course, Miranda isn’t perfect. His work on the Disney live-action films – an inherently doomed endeavor since he is asked to contribute to already perfect films – contains some of his greatest failures. (Let’s not forget “The Scuttlebutt,” performed by Awkwafina as a CGI goofball.) Still, he managed to do something with the genre that no one else has come close to recently. Menken and Ashman understood that the key to unlocking the Disney magic was treating these films like the movie musicals they are; Miranda has proven herself, in Menken and Ashman’s understanding, to be a worthy heir to their legacy. Disney can continue to try out lively composers like Barlow and Bear, but the failure of theirs Moana 2 Score – and that of Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice Wish Soundtrack – shows the danger of hiring songwriters who understand the sound but not the content. Even with Moana 2 The Disney musical brand is poised to reach new record heights, but disposable music is putting it in danger of extinction. It’s time to overcome any negative Miranda feelings and help him right the ship.