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Moana 2 celebrates the Pan Pacific, the Pan Polynesian culture

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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 for Walt Disney’s follow-up film “Moana 2” was a Hawaiian homecoming for both herself as an actor and for her character.

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

“Speaking of community, the connection of all the people across the Pacific, this feels like a celebration of the Pan Pacific, the 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 growth as a person seems to parallel hers,” Cravalho said.

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

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

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

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

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

The duo, who found fame on TikTok, won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” which drew a lawsuit from Netflix. It also created an opportunity to take over the songs for the sequel.

Although they wanted the music to “pay tribute to the beautiful world” of the first “Moana”, they also wanted to add their own “flair” to it.

Part of the flair of the entire film was figuring out how to add even more Pacific Islander culture to all aspects of the sequel, which was essential for the directorial trio.

“I think it’s so special that we get to celebrate the Pacific in these films, and that we get a heroine who is so compelling and empathetic and wonderful and weird and wacky,” said Ledoux Miller.

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

For the directors, it was about taking on a “new adventure with old friends” and finding a balance between familiarity and something completely new.

The film is highly anticipated after Disney’s other 2024 animated sequel, “Inside Out 2,” surpassed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office less than three weeks after release, reaching that level in the fastest time of any animated film therefore in history.

The first “Moana” also saw box office success, surpassing 2016 box office numbers by earning $81.1 million during the five-day Thanksgiving holiday period and $55.5 million over the weekend.

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