‘Moana’ (2026) Trailer Review: How to Milk a Legacy Dry

What happens when you run out of animated classics to turn into live action? You turn to a movie that’s just short of a decade old!

I think many of us are getting tired of live action remakes (if you aren’t already). The comment section for this trailer just goes to show this.

Such comments include people exasperatedly asking if we really need this and saying they want to avoid this film. Some are comparing it to an AI parody trailer or Saturday Night Live skit. There are others poking fun at the wig Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wears throughout the trailer.

As for what I think of this: I completely agree with them. This film is not needed, it does look like a parody instead of a real Disney film, and the wig The Rock wears looks hilariously bad. But why do I think this? Well, there’s a few reasons.

The most obvious place to begin is the lighting, which looks quite awful. The type of dark, poorly lit lighting plagues modern media made by large corporations who are trying to capitalize on the live action sensation (that they artificially made).

The color balancing is very poor too, as everything looks washed out and dull. Compared to the colorful and vibrant universe of Moana (2016), this movie looks sad in comparison. It looks like everything was filmed on a cloudy day, despite what the bright sky behind the actors would have you believe.

The CG is very obvious as none of the animal characters look like they belong in the same universe as the real life characters. This is especially apparent when the real life actors are in motion compared to the CG animals. However, I will take this kind of animal stylization over the hyperrealistic animal looks of The Lion King (2019) and The Little Mermaid (2023).

The music for the film also feels artificial as it’s trying so hard to replicate the magic of the original, but noticeably falls short. The obvious autotune for the singer doesn’t help any. As for the acting, it’s quite lifeless, as if everyone’s going through the motions but not putting in emotion. It’s almost as bland as the colors you see in the trailer.

The trailer tries to do the “this is so epic” kind of thing you see in a lot of trailers where it expects the audience to cheer out of nostalgia. However, I don’t know how effective said nostalgia is going to be for a movie who’s turning 10 only a few months after its live action counterpart releases.

The reveal of The Rock as Maui feels lame, but the music tries to make it into some hype moment that everyone should be super excited about. It feels less like it’s marketing the genuine strengths of the movie and more like it’s saying “remember this?” whenever something that calls back to the original film happens. It’s cheap and tactless and is (unfortunately) going to be the selling point of the movie.

Now, adaptations like these aren’t something new. However, the fact that they’re adapting animated films that came out a little less than 10 years ago is something notable, especially considering the resistance Disney has against new, original works. Instead of creating something fresh, Disney wants to stick to what they know will do well, which is why we’re seeing such an influx of sequels and uninspired retellings of animated movies.

And the sad thing is it works. The most recent live action remake, Lilo & Stitch (2025), was a terrible movie that didn’t even include one of the main antagonists of the original film, portrayed the culture of Hawaii worse than the original 2002 movie, and butchered the message of the original film while also sending some new problematic messages.

But, despite what the internet may show you, general audiences are apathetic to such things. They’ll still go to see the new Disney movie that comes out in the summer with their kids. After all, that’s how Lilo & Stitch (2025) was able to gross 1 billion dollars to begin with; because people spent their money to go consume Disney’s halfhearted product.

In short, Disney is using its legacy as a family friendly company to get people of all ages to see their movies that rehash the plots of much better, more talented movies that had a lot of love put into them. After burning through all their old iconic animated films, they’ve turned to films from a little less than a decade ago to repackage into a soulless amalgamation.

By weaponizing nostalgia in its marketing, Moana (2026) could be a financial success. However, how much profit it generates will come down to how heavily it’s marketed and how many people decide to actually watch the film.