Can Disney's Live-Action 'Moana' Beat the Animated Original?

Disney’s announcement of a live-action remake of Moana was met with widespread skepticism, with many questioning why the film needed to exist at all.

The live-action adaptation hits the theatres Friday, just a decade after the 2016 animated original, the shortest turnaround between an animated Disney film and its live-action remake to date.

Set in ancient Polynesia, Moana follows its titular character, chosen by the ocean to break a centuries-old curse threatening her home island. Defying her father’s wishes, she sets sail to find the ancient shape-shifting demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and convince him to help restore the stolen heart of goddess Te Fiti.

Catherine Laga’aia takes over the title role from Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced Moana in the original 2016 film and its 2024 animated sequel, while Johnson reprises his role as Maui.

Disney dabbled in live-action remakes as far back as the 1990s, with movies like The Jungle Book, and 101 Dalmatians. However, it wasn’t until the past decade that repackaging iconic animated classics with real actors and heavy CGI became an integral part of the studio’s strategy.

Moana is among more than a dozen such remakes released in the past 10 years, not counting spin-offs, sequels, and prequels. Live-action versions of Tangled and Hercules are also in development.

By nearly every measure on Rotten Tomatoes, animated originals continue to outperform their live-action counterparts, often by massive margins. The 1940 animated Pinocchio holds a rare perfect 100% critic score, while its 2022 remake sits at just 29%.

One exception is 2016’s The Jungle Book, the only Disney remake to outscore its animated original on Rotten Tomatoes; on the site’s audience-focused Popcornmeter, the live-action Lilo&Stitch has outperformed its animated predecessor.

Reviews for the live-action Moana are already in, and they’re similarly rough: the film has landed around 31% to 34% on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the lowest scores of any Disney live-action remake, trailing only Pinocchio. Critics have largely praised Laga'aia's performance and the returning Lin-Manuel Miranda songs, while criticizing the film for closely mirroring the original with little new to offer.

Comparing the financial success of animated originals to their remakes is difficult, given how much the movie industry has changed, inflation has driven up ticket prices, and the global box office now plays a significant role than it once did.

Despite the fast-changing situation, Disney’s live-action strategy has proved to be highly profitable. Four remakes have crossed the $1 billion mark globally, led by 2019’s The Lion King at $1.66 billion, one of the highest-grossing films of all time.

Among recent remarks, 2025’s Snow White, which made around $200 million against a much larger budget, is widely considered a box office disappointment. The original 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, meanwhile, remains one of the top-grossing films of all time on an inflation-adjusted basis, according to Box Office Mojo.

Mulan, Pinocchio, Peter Pan & Wendy, and Lady and the Tramp skipped U.S. theatres and were exclusively released on Disney+. The films collectively brought in only $90 million in inflation-adjusted overseas box office revenue.

The original 2016 Moana grossed roughly $687 million worldwide; matching that success, adjusted for a decade of inflation, would likely require the new film to approach $900 million globally.