A Disney Disaster? Live-Action 'Moana' Lands the Lowest Rotten Tomatoes Score of Any Disney Remake

Disney's live-action Moana has debuted with a 32% Rotten Tomatoes critic score — the lowest of any of the studio's live-action remakes — with reviews landing just ahead of its July 10 release. Critics knocked its shot-for-shot approach and greenscreen visuals, though a pending audience score could still tell a different story.

Disney's live-action Moana has surfaced with a 32% Rotten Tomatoes critic score — the lowest of any of the studio's live-action animated remakes to date. With reviews landing just ahead of the film's July 10 theatrical release, the number has become the talk of Disney fandom, reviving a familiar debate about whether these near shot-for-shot remakes need to exist at all.

The Lowest-Rated Disney Remake Yet

At 32%, the live-action Moana currently sits below every prior entry in Disney's growing slate of live-action adaptations of its animated classics — films that have often pulled in enormous profits, which is largely why the studio keeps making them. A central criticism this time is that the movie is frequently a shot-by-shot, line-by-line recreation of the 2016 original, raising the question of why it needed to be made at all. Critics also singled out the visuals, describing a greenscreen flatness that stands in contrast to the rich, hand-crafted world of the animated film.

Where Moana Ranks Among Disney's Live-Action Remakes

Here is how the new film stacks up against the studio's other live-action remakes, by Rotten Tomatoes critic and audience scores:

• The Jungle Book (2016) — 94% critic / 86% audience
• Cinderella (2015) — 83% / 78%
• Cruella (2021) — 75% / 97%
• Lilo & Stitch (2025) — 72% / 91%
• Mulan (2020) — 72% / 47%
• Beauty and the Beast (2017) — 71% / 80%
• The Little Mermaid (2023) — 67% / 93%
• Aladdin (2019) — 57% / 94%
• The Lion King (2019) — 52% / 88%
• Alice in Wonderland (2010) — 51% / 55%
• Dumbo (2019) — 45% / 48%
• Maleficent (2019) — 39% / 95%
• Moana (2026) — 32% / N/A

Notably, several of these titles — like Aladdin, The Lion King and especially Maleficent — earned far warmer audience scores than critic scores, leaving the door open for Moana to rebound with everyday moviegoers even if the reviews are chilly.

What the Critics Are Saying

Early reviews praised newcomer Catherine Laga'aia as Moana, though several noted she outshines Dwayne Johnson's Maui, whose returning voice-turned-live-action performance didn't land as smoothly onscreen. A sampling of the reactions:

"It evoked in me a similar reaction to AI slop, where I cringe at the unnerving blend of the familiar and the not-quite-right." — Mashable

"Dwayne Johnson's terrible wig is just one low point of a film that has all the visual allure of a Febreze advert." — The Independent

"Maui's nipples aside, Moana contains no nightmare fuel on the level of 2025's Snow White — which ends up being high praise for adaptations like these." — Consequence

Why Fans Are Buzzing

Part of the frustration is timing. The animated Moana is only about a decade old, and Moana 2 arrived in theaters in November 2024 — making a live-action reproduction feel unusually quick to some fans. It's worth remembering that a low critic score doesn't always predict box office: several of Disney's remakes underperformed with critics yet still earned hundreds of millions of dollars. The real test now is whether audiences turn out this week and how that pending audience score lands. Either way, Moana's record-low number has fans doing exactly what Disney's remakes always inspire — arguing passionately about the movies they love.