{"id":89683,"date":"2026-10-02T18:28:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T10:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=89683"},"modified":"2026-10-02T18:28:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T10:28:58","slug":"disney-tries-to-justify-live-action-moana-flop-says-it-was-an-excellent-film-hit-by-unusual-circumstances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=89683","title":{"rendered":"Disney Tries to Justify Live-Action Moana Flop, Says It Was an &#8216;Excellent Film&#8217; Hit by &#8216;Unusual Circumstances&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Disney president Dana Walden has blamed &#8220;unusual circumstances&#8221; for the live-action Moana movie&#8217;s disappointing box office, and defended the project as an otherwise &#8220;excellent film.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Speaking this week at the Bloomberg Screentime event (via Variety), Walden framed Moana&#8217;s poor performance as a result of the movie industry being competitive, and the film simply launching at the wrong time.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;It&#8217;s so competitive right now that you have to have&#8230; the right film at the right time, with audiences feeling a certain degree of demand,&#8221; Walden stated. &#8220;I would say our live-action Moana, which is excellent, I think it was hurt by the proximity to our second animated version of Moana, which came together under unusual circumstances, but premiered about 18 months before this one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Ranking the Best Live-Action Disney Remakes<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"Disney dabbled in live-action remakes of its classic animated movies in the '90s -- see: 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians -- but once the House of Mouse struck gold with 2015's Cinderella and 2016's The Jungle Book, there was no going back. And then when 2017's Beauty and the Beast remake crossed a billion? Forget about it.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#10;&#10;We've decided to paint the roses red with our own list of the Best Live-Action Disney Remakes. To some Disney die-hards, these live-action remakes are a hard pass. And regardless of how many feel about the &quot;cashing in&quot; aspects of these films, or whether or not you think they're soulless compared to the original animated version, there are some gems in the bunch. There are also some directors behind these films who have reverence for the material and actually bring the stories to life in new, poignant ways.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#10;&#10;(Oh, and this list is for remakes only -- not prequels, sequels, or re-imagined takes on characters like your Maleficents, Cruellas, Christopher Robbinses, etc.) \" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2277167929 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The unusual circumstances Walden is referring to here relate to Disney&#8217;s relatively last-minute pivot that saw Moana 2 change from launching as a Disney+ series to a theatrical movie. This resulted in the project being slotted into Disney&#8217;s film schedule awkwardly just a year and a half before the long-gestating plans for a live-action film. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;Perhaps there was not enough time to create a lot of pent-up demand for another film,&#8221; Walden concluded. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">While most would agree the timing was indeed awkward, it&#8217;s fair to point out that this issue is one entirely of Disney&#8217;s own making. (Perhaps the live-action movie would have performed better if it was held back until a year later, with Moana 2 more of a distant meory?) <\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">But then there&#8217;s also the matter of the movie&#8217;s quality. While Walden is unlikely to say anything other than the film being great, the majority of critics disagreed. Moana sits with a 33% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 4.8\/10. Pre-release, the film&#8217;s trailers were also subject to audience criticism over the movie&#8217;s CGI backgrounds and a slew of memes over Dwayne &#8216;The Rock&#8217; Johnson&#8217;s luscious wig. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;Dwayne Johnson returns as Maui opposite newcomer Catherine Laga&#8217;aia in this frame-by-frame retelling of the Disney animated musical that doesn&#8217;t do enough to justify being made,&#8221; IGN wrote in our live-action Moana review, awarding the movie a 6\/10. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">While the Moana franchise will continue with a third animated film following the breakout success of Moana 2, there&#8217;s no word of a live-action sequel being made. You&#8217;re welcome, indeed.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"author-sign-off\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><span class=\"stack jsx-59817748 jsx-1927875859\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-444076027 jsx-1730475047 profile-thumb jsx-2141281959 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-1-1\"><img alt=\"Tom Phillips Avatar\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image profile-thumb-img jsx-249361588 jsx-2338608387 expand\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/682ae571844d33001df37887\/bafkreidcdvzaebn4npc6hj3ffj6fzlg3kqnfpgazyarf24lfrnboi6lzbe-1747728739638.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80 1x, https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/682ae571844d33001df37887\/bafkreidcdvzaebn4npc6hj3ffj6fzlg3kqnfpgazyarf24lfrnboi6lzbe-1747728739638.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;dpr=2&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80 2x\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-3630940851\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 sign-off-text\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Tom Phillips is IGN&#8217;s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<p><\/output><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/disney-president-reacts-to-live-action-moana-flop-says-it-was-an-excellent-film-hit-by-unusual-circumstances\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disney president Dana Walden has blamed &#8220;unusual circumstances&#8221; for the live-action Moana movie&#8217;s disappointing box office, and defended the project as an otherwise &#8220;excellent film.&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[30981,2710,6713,1900,3450,467,18693,5012,24590,13666],"class_list":["post-89683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-circumstances","tag-disney","tag-excellent","tag-film","tag-flop","tag-hit","tag-justify","tag-liveaction","tag-moana","tag-unusual","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/89684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}