Disney has once again taken one of its biggest animated hits of recent years and turned it into a live-action remake – but the new take on 2016’s Moana has been panned by most critics.
Dwayne Johnson reprises his role as demigod Maui, with 19-year-old Australian-Samoan newcomer Catherine Laga’aia playing Moana, the teen daughter of a Polynesian chief.
However, the movie, which was released on Friday, has been described in reviews as “flat”, “dull” and “dismal”.
There were some more positive voices, including Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, who said it “escapes the remake blues – in fact it soars above them”.
Walt Disney Picture of Catherine Laga’aia as Moana in the 2026 live-action remake of the filmWalt Disney
Catherine Laga’aia takes on the lead of Moana in the live-action film
Gleiberman added that the film “truly delivers ‘Moana’ – the beauty, the comic personality, the fairy-tale enchantment”, and described Johnson’s “fit” for the film as “perfect”.
Peter Bradshaw disagreed in The Guardian, calling the film a “competent but pointless and unexciting back-to-basics live-action remake” in his two-star review.
He said Johnson’s performance was “on autopilot, like a piece of software” and criticised the use of CGI, which he said was “so deeply embedded” it feels like “another animation”.
Bradshaw ended his review by saying it “feels like a superfluous piece of monetisable content”.
The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey called Moana “a waste of everyone’s time and talent” in her one-star review.
“Is the situation really so dire that we’ll now accept Dwayne Johnson repeating the exact same voice performance he gave a decade ago?” she wrote.
She also criticised the animated feel of the movie, writing: “Supposedly, some scenes were shot on location in Hawaii and not in a studio in Atlanta – I couldn’t tell you which.”
Walt Disney Catherine Laga’aia seen holding a pig in a still from the 2026 live-action film MoanaWalt Disney
The film has been criticised for leaning heavily on CGI and animation, despite being billed as live-action
Empire’s John Nugent said Johnson’s character “feels like an AI interpretation”, and to call the film “live action feels like a misnomer” because of the heavy use of animation.
His two-star review said the remake feels “so pointless” when the original film was “a fun, funny, poignant coming-of-age yarn with fantastic music and a winning Polynesian spin on the Disney Princess template”.
Kevin Maher from The Times said 54-year-old Johnson was “three decades too old to play Maui”, with “his performance oddly lacklustre and restrained”.
Maher, in his one-star review, also described the film as “a lazy cash grab for shareholders”.
“This live-action remake takes everything that was sprightly, expansive and ambitious [from the original] and makes it leaden, limited and dull,” he wrote.
‘Could have been AI’
The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin was also not a fan – writing that it “could have been made by a ChatGPT prompt”.
Giving the film two stars, he said there “is barely a moment in it which feels as if it couldn’t have been achieved by typing: ‘What if this scene from Moana was remade in live action?’ into a prompt box”.
Positive reviews were relatively rare, but there was one from the Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney, who described it as “captivating family entertainment that deserves to find an audience – brimming with visual interest, vibrant color, gorgeous design elements and alluring tropical settings”.
The script has been adapted by the original screenwriter Jared Bush, with the music from Lin-Manuel Miranda remaining too while Hamilton stage director Thomas Kail makes his film debut.
In the past 15 years there have been more than 20 live-action remakes of Disney classics – with varying levels of success.
In 2023, The Little Mermaid was not a box office hit, but the corporation bounced back in 2024 with Mufasa: The Lion King.
Then last year Disney lost $170m with its Snow White live-action remake, but quickly recouped costs a couple of months later when live-action Lilo & Stitch became one of the biggest films of the year, making $1bn.
