LOS ANGELES, July 8 (UPI) -- The live-action Moana, in theaters Friday, is better than Moana 2 because it is still based on the original Moana's script. However, it renders that script in a degraded form.

It helps that half the film IS animated, that Dwayne Johnson goes full Maui, and that newcomer Catherine Laga’aia plays Moana with beaming rapture.

Moana is, unfortunately, an example of a remake that was not born out of a creative need to tell a story in a different way or explore a new medium of storytelling.

Read our review of Moana, the live-action remake of the animated Disney film starring Dwayne Johnson.