“I have also gone on such a journey beyond the reef.
She started my career, and I’m now in New York.
So, I’ve grown right along with her.”
Clockwise from top: Moni (voiced by Hualālai Chung), Loto (Rose Matafeo), Moana (Auli’i Cravalho), and Kele (David Fane) in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
That growth “feels really special” to Cravalho, and for good reason.
“Moana and I have gone on similar journeys,” the Hawaii native notes.
I’d never been to Burbank, and that was the coolest thing ever.
Clockwise from top: Moni (voiced by Hualālai Chung), Loto (Rose Matafeo), Moana (Auli’i Cravalho), and Kele (David Fane) in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
I still see so much of myself in her strength and vulnerability."
“This is my career, and I’ve leaned all the way in,” she says.
“I have notes for songwriting.
Pua the pig and Heihei the rooster in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
I have ideas for how a line should be spoken.
“As a young person, you’re still trying to figure out who you are.
“She has a little sister now, so that draws Moana back home,” Cravalho adds.
Moana in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
“We were really trying to build off who Moana is in the first film,” adds Miller.
“We’re not going to betray that version of the character.
We are building, not replacing.
Simea and Moana in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
We were really intentional about taking what we had and extending and expanding instead of starting over again.
It was really important to us to show her evolution in that way.”
“This is not only her journey anymore,” Cravalho says.
Maui in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
This has become an even larger quest of basic survival.”
Sailing with a crew will prove the ultimate test.
“The crew all push against Moana and challenge her in new ways.”
Moana in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
Moving screens
There wasnt even supposed to be aMoanamovie sequel.
It creatively evolved, and it felt like an organic thing.”
Derrick describes the decision to pivot from a series to feature film as a moment of mutual realization.
Moana and Simea (voice by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) in ‘Moana 2’.Disney
“It felt like a groundswell within the whole studio.”
Miller cites having “the best artists in the world” as part of that decision.
“Why are we not letting them shine on the biggest screen in the biggest way?”
‘Moana 2’ songwriters Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow of Barlow & Bear during an orchestra recording session for ‘Moana 2’.Disney
“Supporting the theaters is something that we talked about,” admits Lee.
“We love Disney+, but it will go there eventually.
Given the first film’s success, greenlighting a theatrical sequel feels obvious in retrospect.
In 2017,Moanawas reportedlythe best-selling film on home video.
“We haven’t done a ton of sequels at Disney animation,” she explains.
“Our philosophy is always that the idea has to come from the filmmakers.
you might’t invent a story that isn’t meant to be.
You have to go from the heart out.
If we do it the other way, we can’t build an authentic story.
Story, to us, is always character first.”
“In the series, there was a lot more room to play with some of the ensemble.
“We get to crank up all our favorite parts of them,” she says.
That’s what really makes them all pop when we see them, they really shine.”
But will Maui be able to turn to Moana in his moment of need?
“It allows their friendship to grow and that relationship to become even more important to them.
But it also means that Maui, a character who is so much larger than life, has vulnerability.
It’s not easy for any of us to ask for help in our lives.”
“Masculinity, to me, is not being tough.
It’s not being a badass.
Here’s my chest.
I’ll gladly rip it open to someone who can help me.'”
But after losing several friends to suicide, he realized the power of opening up.
Eventually, you’ve got to let the ball go, and it’s going to explode.”
Even the strongest of people need help."
“They’re much more comrades.
There isn’t as much of a hierarchy and power between demi-god and human,” Cravalho notes.
“He trusts her to make large decisions, and she trusts Maui to listen to her.”
“Nalo realizes that there’s nothing more dangerous than the power of humans,” Lee teases.
“When they’re together, they can do anything.
The world becomes theirs.”
“But really we are connected by the ocean.
We are community-focused, and that is the core foundation of who we are.
At that time, it was still a TV show.
“We supercharged Moana again,” Bear says of the process.
“She became the center of everything, and that showed itself in our music.”
“It’s a passing of the baton to this younger generation,” the actress says.
To use some of Lin’s words, they’re young, scrappy, and hungry.”
But their primary focus was pushing Moana’s voice to new places.
“Moana has grown as a human, but also as a leader,” Barlow explains.
“And we wanted to allow that to be reflected in her melodies.”
Barlow and Bear wanted to push Cravalho to bring that vocal evolution to Moana.
“This is a new part of my voice,” Cravalho notes.
“I haven’t explored this kind of depth with Moana before.
There’s a lot of deeper layers to these songs.”
“It’s bigger than just her personal journey now,” says Barlow.
“We also wanted her to be more vulnerable,” Bear adds.
She’s about to make a big decision that will affect the rest of her life.
“That hit me square in my chest,” admits Cravalho, who found the song very personal.
“That is the biggest message of this movie.
Cravalho sees identity as more of a decision than a discovery.
“We never stop choosing who we are,” she says.
That in itself allows Moana and the crew to defeat this next monster.”
“It still feels like an uphill battle,” she admits.
Sounds like another thing she shares with Moana.
With reporting by Sydney Bucksbaum
