Moana 2 celebrates pan-Pacific, pan-Polynesian culture

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The film is expected to gross $145 million over Thanksgiving weekend

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New music from Grammy-winning duo Barlow and Bear

By Danielle Broadway

KOLEI, Hawaii – For Auli’i Cravalho, returning to the Walt Disney sequel “Moana 2” was a Hawaiian homecoming for both herself as an actress and for her character.

“Moana’s journey will take her very far, but growth also means returning home and experiencing that with your community,” the Hawaii native told Reuters.

“Speaking of community, the connection of all people across the Pacific, this feels like a celebration of pan-Pacific, pan-Polynesian culture,” she added.

For the cast and creators of “Moana 2,” the project was not only professional but also personal.

“It feels so incredible that my evolution as a human being seems to coincide with theirs,” Cravalho said.

“Moana 2,” directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, opens Wednesday.

Nielsen’s film research arm National Research Group predicts “Moana 2” will gross $145 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend.

The film follows wayfinder Moana, who receives a sudden call from her ancestors to travel the seas and break the god Nalo’s curse that prevents the people of different islands from reconnecting.

She forms her own crew, which reunites her with the demigod Maui, played by Dwayne Johnson.

The music for the first “Moana” was written by “Encanto” songwriter Lin Manuel Miranda, while the sequel features songwriting duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear.

The duo, who rose to fame on TikTok, won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” prompting a lawsuit from Netflix. There was also the opportunity to use the songs for the sequel.

While they wanted to pay homage to “the beautiful world” of the first “Moana” with the music, they also wanted to give it their own “flair.”

Part of the spirit of the entire film was figuring out how to bring even more Pacific Island culture into all aspects of the sequel, which was crucial to the trio of directors.

“I think it’s really special that we celebrate the Pacific in these films and that we have a heroine who is just so compelling and sensitive and great and strange and silly,” Ledoux Miller said.

“I think we can see a little bit of ourselves in her,” the Samoan director added, noting that many Pacific Islander communities have the same values ​​of family and togetherness as Moana.

The directors wanted to experience a “new adventure with old friends” and find a balance between the familiar and something completely new.

The film is highly anticipated after Disney’s other 2024 animated sequel “Inside Out 2” crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office in less than three weeks of release, the fastest to reach that mark time of all animated films in history.

The first Moana also enjoyed huge success at the box office, surpassing 2016’s box office numbers by grossing $81.1 million over the five days of the Thanksgiving holiday and $55.5 million over the weekend.

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