Disney Hits A New Low As Moana Live-Action Remake Trailer Proves Fans’ Worst Fears True
From a robotic performance and a ridiculous appearance by Dwayne Johnson, who reprises the role of Maui, to a lifeless backdrop with more CGI than the animated film, Disney’s Moana live-action remake trailer was unimpressive to say the least.
While the film is not surrounded by controversy like 2025’s Rachel Zegler-led Snow White, it still has all the makings of a historical flop, as indicated by the overwhelming dislike from fans.
The one positive from the first trailer of Disney’s live-action remake of Moana is Catherine Laga’aia, who tries her best to replicate the confident and lively version of Moana seen in the animated films. However, the trailer clearly points to the film being a shot-for-shot replica of the animated film, an eventuality fans were wary of all along. Laga’aia’s casting also drew some criticism as Disney chose to do a race-appropriate casting for Moana, after opting to go color-blind for Snow White just a year earlier, which led to Rachel Zegler landing the role of Snow White. Fortunately, Laga’aia hardly puts a foot wrong in the trailer, buying the production a little reprieve.
The majority of disgust at the trailer is directed at Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s appearance, though. Earlier on-set pictures had revealed Johnson wearing a bodysuit in a bid to enhance his muscles as he played Maui in the live-action film. Johnson also dons a wig, stepping away from his signature bald head.
While the bodysuit clearly did a great job replicating Maui’s tattoos on Johnson, the same can’t be said for his appearance. Besides the wig making him look out of place, Johnson looks nothing like the chubby Maui, and his body language is totally off.
His jokes feel flatter while his tone is more hoarse, which means his character feels nothing like the cunning demigod that made the animated film so memorable. As usual, the film also seems to be leaning towards Disney’s insistence on political correctness. Catherine Laga’aia’s character is also more badass than the animated version of the film, which is a big positive.
As expected, the trailer’s comments section is a mixture of emotions as most fans disparage or outrightly dismiss the trailer, with some even wondering how long Disney will continue allowing comments on the video. “Live Action remake where 90% of it is animated, nice Disney,” one comment says.
“I like how they started adding real people to their CGI cartoons,” reads another one.
“There will come a point where the animated movie and the live-action remake will release at the same time,” another one added.
“Live action Snow White: is one of the most hated Disney movies of all time.
Disney: I’ll pretend I didn’t see that,” another pointed out Disney’s perpetual inability to learn from previous mistakes.
Amidst the stream of dismissive comments and memes, the film drew in a whopping 66,000 dislikes against 31,000 likes after just under 24 hours on YouTube, having garnered 2.5 million views. The dislike ratio is only likely to increase if past trends are anything to go by.
Disney’s Snow White live-action remake was the last Disney film whose trailer had such a hostile reception. The film holds the record for one of the highest dislike numbers in YouTube’s history, currently standing at 2.4 million against 83,000 likes from 21 million views. The film was well on track to become one of the company’s most expensive flops in history until it got saved by the streaming charts after failing to break even in the theaters.
Lilo & Stitch, Disney’s second live-action remake of 2025, on the other hand, crossed the $1 billion mark at the theaters, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Disney clearly hoped that Moana’s live-action remake would receive a positive reception like the latter, but the numbers on the trailer say otherwise.
The animated versions of the 2025 remakes are also decades old, though, a cushion that Moana just doesn’t have, especially considering the fact that Moana 2 was released less than two years ago. With the animated film’s memories still fresh and its graphics well up to date, Disney ran the risk of hurting the entire franchise if the live-action remake was bad.
“What else can I say except, “Why did we need this?”” reads one of the most popular comments on the trailer. Unsurprisingly, the comment is overwhelmingly dominated by a single answer: “Money.” Investing in popular IPs means there is a lower risk of a loss, which is why Disney would rather release more remakes of their old IPs than invest in new stories. Snow White proved to be a bad bet, although the film’s problems were largely attributed to the PR crisis caused by Rachel Zegler’s comments.
The lack of actual substance in the live-action remake is a strong indicator of just how far the bar for creativity has dropped at the Mouse House. The film also points to a stagnating career for Dwayne Johnson, who hasn’t delivered a convincing performance for a while now, despite appearing in new films every other year. The actual impact of this fallout on the film remains to be seen when Moana live-action hits the theaters on July 10, 2026.
