Moana Rotten Tomatoes Score Lower Than Snow White & One of Disney’s Worst All Time

July 8, 2026, 3:41pm

Disney live-action remakes existed before the 21st century (101 Dalmatians was released in November 1996), but they truly didn’t take off as a trend until Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which grossed over $1 billion in 2010. Following that success, Disney went into the vault and started turning any animated classic it could find into a new, live-action blockbuster. Though many of these projects made money at the box office, critical reception was mixed at best in most cases. Last summer’s Lilo & Stitch is actually one of the best-reviewed Disney remakes, scoring a solid 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you hoped that meant Disney had cracked a magic formula for live-action remakes, you’ll be disappointed by the Moana reviews.

Videos by ComicBook.com

As of this writing, Moana has a 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes with 55 reviews submitted so far. That makes it one of the lowest-rated Disney remakes of all time, below even last year’s widely panned Snow White (39%). In the modern era of live-action Disney remakes/adaptations (post-Alice in Wonderland), only two films have worse Rotten Tomatoes scores: Alice Through the Looking Glass (29%) and Pinnochio (27%).

Why Are Moana Reviews So Bad? (And Will It Hurt the Box Office?)

Moana scoring largely negative reviews shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following updates on the project. The first wave of social media reactions were also extremely poor, with at least one person going so far as to call Moana a “creatively bankrupt” movie. That’s a stark contrast to the consensus for the 2016 animated Moana, one of Disney’s strongest at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many praised it for being a fresh and exciting addition to the studio’s canon, particularly highlighting how the titular character was a fun riff on the “Disney princess” formula. The gorgeous, stunning animation also propelled Moana to must-see status over the Thanksgiving holiday a decade ago.

There’s no critics consensus available for the 2026 Moana at the time of this writing, but snippets from the published reviews paint a clear enough picture. The biggest critique is that it (unsurprisingly) struggles to capture the same sense of magic and spirit as the original, coming across as little more than a carbon copy. Rather than using the live-action medium as a means to add extra depth to the original story or approach things from a unique perspective, Moana is really just a beat-for-beat retelling of the animated film, offering little in the way of surprise or novelty. Critics also weren’t impressed by the live-action version’s visuals, which are seen as a downgrade when compared to the breathtaking animation of the original. Some reviewers take a more positive stance, but even those aren’t very enthusiastic.

This kind of word of mouth is unlikely to help Moana‘s box office prospects. Projections were already low, with the latest domestic estimates around $60+ million. To put that number in perspective, the animated Moana debuted with $82 million over the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend ($56.6 million of which came during that Friday-Sunday). This summer has been marked by films that underperformed at the box office, with Supergirl coming in well below its modest projections. Depending on how things play out, this year’s Moana could have a lower opening than the 2016 version, which is not what Disney had in mind when it greenlit a $200-250 million remake.

It is important to keep in mind that only a fraction of Moana reviews are up on Rotten Tomatoes. For example, the animated Moana 2 has 245 reviews counted, so the 55 currently available for the live-action Moana is a small sample size. There could be literally hundreds of more reviews, meaning the Rotten Tomatoes score could fluctuate over the next handful of days. However, that is unlikely to have any real impact on where the score settles. The first wave of reviews is usually indicative of where the consensus will land, so Moana will be a critical dud.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!