Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: in Walt Disney Pictures’ century-long quest to devote at least one major animated feature to every human community or geographic region ever, they turned their attention to the Pacific Islands for Moana, a rousing high-seas mythical adventure that featured the lyrical stylings of Lin-Manuel Miranda during his post-Broadway movie-musical phase and a strong duo at its core — Auli’i Cravalho as the titular heroine whose connection to her environment brought an end to her home island’s cursed isolation; and Dwayne Johnson (on break from like twelve other acting jobs) as the vain demigod Maui who helped save the day with his magic tattoos, animal shapeshifting, and enchanted Saw-hook.

Moana and Maui are back with Moana 2, which was conceived as a Disney+ series before execs remembered movies can make way more money than TV, especially if the movie doesn’t suck. The reworking of that proposed material may explain why we have three credited directors and only two writers (the latter of which include Jared Bush, who was one of eight on the first one), but it works well enough for anyone who simply wants more Moana and Maui and isn’t finicky about the rest. The tremendously upgraded budget helps, one befitting a Disney theatrical release rather than simply stapling together whatever rough animatics were already in the can. It isn’t perfect and the first one’s better, but it’s better than the dregs of, say, The Fox and the Hound 2.

When last we left Our Heroes, they straightened out the centuries-long inter-deific mess that prevented the citizens of Motonui from venturing off their island, reclaimed her people’s seafaring heritage, sang catchy songs courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and earned Moana an appointment to the island’s leader position, but do not call her “princess” unless you work in Disney licensing. Three years later, she’s still in charge and exploring what else lies out there on or in the ocean, which remains her best nonhuman friend and ally in times of trouble or mild needs for assistance, like Aladdin’s sentient carpet sidekick but one billion times larger.

Then she learns all the disparate islands in the vaguely broad vicinity were once a peaceful archipelago united by a special super-island called Motufetu until it tragically sank to the ocean floor, like Atlantis without any half-human fish whisperers around to save the day. Why Moana’s pal The Entire Pacific Ocean couldn’t simply raise it up isn’t satisfyingly answered, though there’s interference from an evil god who’s nowhere in sight throughout the entire main film. His anti-seacraft tyranny is enforced in absentia through magical evil weather, which he maintains for no explicit reason other than he just really likes to bully humans, without sticking around to see the looks on their faces, which is the average bully’s favorite part.

Moana’s quest is clear to her: find Motufetu, raise it from the depths, something something something, all the islands will unite once more into one big happy federation and they’ll all be friends and maybe some folks besides her can build ships and go exploring what else lies out there on or in the ocean! Apparently right now they’re not so great because they don’t have boats.

Along with her loyal but mostly useless pets — Disney utility infielder Alan Tudyk as the addle-pated chicken Heihei, and her voiceless pig Pua who failed to meet his merchandising quotas in the first one due to limited screen time — she brings three new human crew members. Loto (comedian Rose Matafeo) is a frenetic shipwright who won’t stop moving or upgrading, and nets herself a faux-Miranda speed-rap to remind everyone how good the music was in the first one. David Fane (Our Flag Means Death, Next Goal Wins) voices Kele, a cantankerous old farmer who resents being conscripted for and can’t even swim. Moni (Hualālai Chung), the token young male, is Maui’s #1 fan and has the swoons and the fan art to prove it. And that’s it, a crew of four plus two comic-relief animals plus The Entire Pacific Ocean.

Whither Maui? He’s off on his own personal, totally unrelated solo quest, which matters for all of a single scene until it coincidentally intersects with Moana’s and is swallowed whole because her name is in the title, not his. Maui inevitably rejoins Team Moana and they sail onward from one episodic escapade to the next. SEE the return of the Kakamora, those coconut-armored sea-hobbits from the first one who are the sequel’s only viable human-sized combatants! GAZE upon the towering presence of a clam kaiju, possibly the least threatening super-sized sea life imaginable since The Suicide Squad already called dibs on starfish! NOD in familiarity at the mercurial Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), an evil bat-lady minion who kindasorta harasses Maui till she changes her mind, and feels like a Hercules outtake! GAPE in awe at the final showdown that involves lots of magic cyclones, which are like Twisters except they don’t just dissipate anticlimactically on their own!

The sequential tribulations alternate between new songs not from Miranda, but from the songwriting team of Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, whose previous collaborations have titles like The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical and Mexican Pizza: The Movie. If those names fill you with joy, or if you’re a fan of singing-competition TV shows, or grew up on 21st-century dance-pop, perhaps Moana 2‘s stylings will enthrall you. I’m 0 for 3 on that count, but if you’d care to measure on your own Barlow/Bear-ometer, Mexican Pizza is a 12-minute ad — I X’d out 27 seconds in, at the first mention of “Baja Blast”. I faintly recall the opening number was fine-for-what-it-was and didn’t mind Loto’s speed-rap, though I prefer those with subtitles. (See: the Disney+ presentation of Hamilton.) I zoned out through the rest.

On the bright side, the film’s spoken-word parts come much closer to measuring up to the first one as an epic maritime adventure with whiz-bang riffs and gags flitting and zipping at Robin Williams Genie-speed. (I’m sure it’s just me, but my loudest laugh was a split-second shot involving a hyperventilation sack made of seaweed. Sometimes it’s the littlest details that tickle me.) The bigger-budget graphics advancements make The Entire Pacific Ocean brighter and more awe-inspiring and terrifying than ever, even when servicing the silly spectacle that is The Scariest Giant Clam in Cinema History. (Unless I missed a Ray Harryhausen cult contender?) Buried within the all-ages popcorn-filmmaking is a workable fable about how a dedicated team can mend a broken community and push back against the forces that profit off their divided-and-conquered mediocrity, as long as you don’t sweat dodged questions such as “Why didn’t they build a bigger boat?” or “No, really, what made Motufetu so special?”

Moana 2 is hardly innovative even by lowered sequel standards, but for anyone perfectly content with The further Adventures of Moana ‘n’ Maui, here some are, frequently funny and appealingly drawn and altogether harmless. Bonus points to the shrewd exec who correctly predicted our family wouldn’t have watched their TV series, but we were happy to spend an afternoon with them and check out the spiffy new paint job they gave to The Entire Pacific Ocean.

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Meanwhile in the customary MCC film breakdowns:

Hey, look, it’s that one actor!: Other returning castmates include the Star Wars Universe’s Clone Zero himself, Temuera Morrison as Moana’s dad; ex-Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger as Moana’s mom; Rachel House (Foundation, Time Bandits, Thor: Ragnarok) as the spirit of Moana’s late grandma; and one more for old time’s sake…

How about those end credits? To answer the burning question that MCC is always happy to verify: yes, there is indeed a scene after the Moana 2 end credits. For those who tuned out prematurely and really want to know, and didn’t already click elsewhere…

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[…insert space for courtesy spoiler alert in case anyone needs to abandon ship…]

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…the bat-lady Matangi reports back to her boss, whom we finally meet in person — the evil god Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea’i), lurking in the end-credits shadows in the manner of early Thanos. Nalo doesn’t seem to have plans for inflicting intergalactic genocide on the entire Disney Animated Universe, but perhaps that’s because he’s interrupted by an unexpected guest: Jemaine Clement returns from the first one as the giant singing crab Tamatoa! He invites himself into their nefarious scheming while also workshopping his latest musical number. Based on what little he’s written so far, I’m in.

To Be Continued someday in Moana 3! Which makes Moana 2 feel more like a mid-season finale than the center of a trilogy.

For watchers who sit all the way through, after the Moana 2 credits comes a bonus song accompanying the Walt Disney Pictures logo drone-shot toward Cinderella’s Castle. It’s not another quickie pop song, but an authentic AAPI ensemble singing in their own language, probably not trying to sell us some Chalupas.