Disney looks to be staging a take-over at the Christmas box office. After the critical and box office disappointment that was last year’s Wish – remember it? — it's putting some real weight behind two family movies for the holiday season. Given the current climate, it's no surprise that one is a sequel and the other a prequel, but their names alone could be more than enough to put bums on seats over the next couple of months. We have to wait a little longer for Mufasa: The Lion King, Barry Jenkins' live-action re-working of the studio's much-loved classic, but first comes Moana 2, taking us back to the Polynesian sunshine just as the winter sets in.
The original Moana from 2016 doesn't quite make it into the higher echelons of Disney animations but, with a global box office of $687 million, it ranks ahead of perennial favorites like Wall-E, Ratatouille and The Incredibles. Set in Oceania, a group of Polynesian islands, the first film featured the princess of the title setting out to save her home from destruction. Now she's back, once again voiced by Auli'I Cravalho, answering the call of her ancestors to reunite the other islands in her father's kingdom. It means calling on her right-hand man/demi-god from her first adventure, Maui (the voice of Dwayne Johnson), and setting sail into uncharted waters in search of the secret that will bring them all together.
