Alright, I’ve braced this topic before, linking my older post here, and I also did a run down on the live action Little Mermaid and Snow White movies as well.

I still feel the same way about the live actions as I did in my original post from 2023. However, now I would like to expand on those thoughts just a bit. I’ve been asked about my thoughts on the live action Moana movie and well- I haven’t seen it and actually don’t plan to see it until it comes out on Disney+, my daughter actually doesn’t want to go see it in theaters either, so don’t worry- I’m not keeping her from it lol.

I’ve heard the movie got bad reviews and did poorly at the box office, so I’m using that as further evidence to support my waiting until we can watch it from the comfort of our home. But even before reading reviews, I was not planning on going to the theatre to watch it and here’s why: the short of it is this, I don’t think a live action Moana was warranted to be honest. The original film is not that old and we literally just had the sequel released in 2024. I feel like it is a bit of an overkill to be making a live action version at this point in time.

I like to think (IMO) that the point of doing a live action version of an animated classic/hit is to bring the magic of an original movie back to life and back to the spotlight for a newer generation to enjoy. And then to further bring people back to the original films to enjoy once again- kinda like a full circle moment. The live action films so far that have performed well- Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella- were all films where their original counterparts were released years ago.

In my opinion, doing this live action Moana is really creating a fatigue in the Disney world. We haven’t forgotten or grown out of the magic of the original films to even want to jump into a live action version- at least that’s my opinion on the subject. And I think that’s why my daughter is not wanting to run to the theater either, she can probably recite the entire movie in her sleep and seeing the same thing in a different way just isn’t really appealing to her even, and she’s 5 years old.

I also want to say, I think there needs to be a real difference between creating a live action vs the cartoon. And with Moana, I feel like most of the movie requires CGI anyway to even make it “live-action,” so if it requires a lot of CGI, it’s just basically a different animation style and not really “live-action” in my opinion at all. And before anyone thinks its hypocritical since I did love the Little Mermaid live action which was basically all CGI- that’s different because they had to create an entire underwater world that would have been impossible otherwise AND they still did a beautiful job making the animated version come to life in a way that looked completely realistic and fulfilled all our little mermaid dreams, right?? The flowers and mountain scapes in Moana already look pretty realistic to me thanks to our modern animation styles.

Anyway, I know there’s a live action Tangled in the works, and I think it’s a little more warranted since the original film came out in 2010. I also feel like for that movie, they have an opportunity to make the entire animated world come to life in a way that feels real, and I’m looking forward to that!

Maybe I’ll circle back when my daughter and I finally watch it for a little movie night when it’s out on Disney+!

What are your thoughts?!?