Moana (2026)
Directed by Thomas Kail
Teenage Moana answers the Ocean's call and, for the first time, voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with infamous demigod Maui on an unforgettable journey to restore prosperity to her people.
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33 films that influenced Moana
What critics say influenced Moana
Cinderella deepened its characters and emotional stakes without betraying the original.
But this isn’t Cinderella. Moana can’t relocate to Seattle and rediscover herself running a paddleboard rental company.
…the "Cinderella" remake gave the princess and the prince a little time to bond before their nuptials…
A few examples precede that, like 2014’s Maleficent or 2015’s Cinderella…
The studio hasn't gone a year without making at least one live-action remake since Cinderella in 2015.
But at their best — say, Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella, for one — they can put a fresh sparkle on beloved material…
The Jungle Book succeeded because it reimagined its source material while preserving its spirit.
While not as technologically sound as The Jungle Book and not as irritatingly animated as The Lion King, Disney has made a film that feels as if most of it was shot in a studio, with water added in post-production.
…the same year that Disney released their remake of "The Jungle Book"…
…the run that started with The Jungle Book in 2016…
The result was a generation of Disney films like The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, and Robin Hood…
The Jungle Book (2016)…
Like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and its sequel, Snow White or even worse, Guy Ritchie’s dreadful Aladdin, these live actions reboots seem to suck the life out of IP that were just fine in their animated incarnations…
Jon Favreau, the director of the 2019 remake of "The Lion King," noted that his movie shouldn't be considered animated…
While not as technologically sound as The Jungle Book and not as irritatingly animated as The Lion King, Disney has made a film that feels as if most of it was shot in a studio, with water added in post-production.
The Lion King 2019…
Disney’s live-action remakes of its popular animated properties have included such photorealistic versions as Alice in Wonderland (2010), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019), all of which opened to more than $100 million domestically.
…far brighter and more vivid than most of the dreary live-action remakes (thanks, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland)…
…it wasn’t until 2010, when Tim Burton’s colourful live-action re-imagining of Alice In Wonderland earned a cool billion at the box office, that the Mouse House’s remake floodgates opened…
…a trend that began properly in 2010 with the release of Tim Burton's shockingly successful "Alice in Wonderland"…
Disney’s been full steam ahead on live-action remakes since Alice in Wonderland was a major hit sixteen years ago…
Alice in Wonderland (2010)…
Disney’s live-action remakes of its popular animated properties have included such photorealistic versions as Alice in Wonderland (2010), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019), all of which opened to more than $100 million domestically.
Tim Burton's "Dumbo," which managed to be a deliberate anti-Disney, anti-corporate-entertainment screed.
Like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and its sequel, Snow White or even worse, Guy Ritchie’s dreadful Aladdin, these live actions reboots seem to suck the life out of IP that were just fine in their animated incarnations…
Their "Beauty and the Beast" remake addressed online accusations of Belle's Stockholm Syndrome, for instance.
2017’s Beauty and the Beast, for example, added a whole section of the ending with platformer-style action…
…similarly so-so adaptations like Beauty and the Beast 2017…
Other remakes took advantage of longer runtimes to add new scenes, such as Cinderella or even Beauty and the Beast.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)…
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…arriving 10 years after the OG cartoon Moana, considered a new Disney classic…
Thomas Kail’s Moana is Disney’s latest act of artistic duplication, remaking John Musker and Ron Clements’ 2016 animated classic…
The 2026 “Moana” is basically a duplicate of the 2016 “Moana” with real bodies in place of the computer-generated drawings.
Original voice of Moana, Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho…
It's been a decade since Disney introduced audiences to the Chief's daughter in the animated feature, Moana.
When Disney announced that their 2016 animated hit Moana would be remade as a live action film and released just under a decade after the original…
Like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and its sequel, Snow White or even worse, Guy Ritchie’s dreadful Aladdin, these live actions reboots seem to suck the life out of IP that were just fine in their animated incarnations…
Their "Aladdin" remake addressed the mostly all-white casting of Persian characters.
…a watered-down version of Robin Williams’ genie from Aladdin…
Aladdin (2019)…
…directed by longtime Disney vets John Musker and Ron Clements of “Aladdin” fame…
…while films like The Little Mermaid update the original for modern audiences…
Even the studio’s more divisive remakes, like Snow White and The Little Mermaid, at least attempted to reinterpret familiar stories through a different lens.
Like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and its sequel, Snow White or even worse, Guy Ritchie’s dreadful Aladdin, these live actions reboots seem to suck the life out of IP that were just fine in their animated incarnations…
One could see the profit motive behind earlier remakes like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King…
…the latest dud in a run of on-again/off-again run of remakes in the Disney+ era: The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, and Snow White ranged from underwhelming to awful…
The Little Mermaid (2023)…
It likely explains why we haven’t seen a live-action version of the overwhelmingly white Frozen reach the big screen.
Walt Disney Animation Studio's biggest hit since Frozen…
…where the studio released movies like “Frozen” and “Zootopia” to critical acclaim and healthy box office numbers…
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…which is basically Gus Van Sant’s “Psycho” in that it’s essentially a shot-for-shot remake…
…a shot-for-shot facsimile on par with Gus Van Sant’s “Psycho.”
In some cases, such as Maleficent and Cruella, the story is reimagined from another character’s perspective…
Others flipped the story on its head by telling it from the villain’s perspective, even humanizing them in the case of Cruella.
…origin story Cruella had fun by taking things in a completely different direction…