Moana, the legend at the end of the world: a sanitized live-action version (review)

Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia tame the ocean in this adaptation sorely lacking in relief because it is too close to the original animated film.

A small Polynesian island, Dwayne Johnson all hair, and a young warrior on the water… Director Thomas Kail tackles the story inspired by Polynesian mythology which had conquered the public ten years earlier in the animated film signed by the duo Ron Clements and John Musker. Vaiana, daughter of the chief of the island of Motunui, a young teenager, decides to brave the ocean alone, to cross the reef to save her people decimated by a curse (which deprives them of vital resources), find the insolent demi-god of the wind and the sea and his imposing tattoos, Maui, and restore the heart of Te Fiti.

Ron Clements and John Musker had created an animated film on the surface of the water – faithful to the representation of Polynesian culture. Thomas Kail maintains this course by going to film on the Pacific islands but delivers a simple copy and paste without ever taking advantage of what live-action could bring or deepen. The unreal nature of the animation allows a freedom – that of imposing surreal situations or characters – that a live-action film shot with human beings made of flesh and blood allows more difficultly… Consequence, among others: the comic dimension here appears more artificial or even grotesque in spite of itself, like the image of the caricatured aspect of Maui played by a hairy Dwayne Johnson. We therefore remain largely unsatisfied. This Vaiana, the legend of the end of the world, live action version, seeks to please fans of the first part without getting too wet…

By Thomas Kail. With Catherine Laga’aia, Dwayne Johnson, Rena Owen… Duration: 1h56. Released July 8, 2026