As one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year, Moana 2 has already been breaking box office records, topping the current 5-Day Thanksgiving Earner Of All Time holder, Frozen 2, by $96 million. The original Moana earned $643.3 million globally in the box office and Moana 2 is on track to make just as much as its predecessor. In theaters alongside many acclaimed movies (Wicked, Gladiator II) it has quickly become a favorite amongst Magnet students.
Although this movie was definitely long-awaited, many Moana enthusiasts anxiously awaited its release due to the fact that Lin Manuel Miranda was not the movie’s songwriter. Although the reason for his absence is unconfirmed, several theories are floating around as to why he did not return for Moana 2. One of these theories is that as Miranda was working on writing the songs for the movie Mufasa: The Lion King, he was too busy to start working on another project, especially one as large as Moana 2. Another theory is that since the concept of Moana 2 was originally supposed to be a TV show, Moana: The Series, Miranda was less enthusiastic about writing for a Disney+ series than an actual movie. Despite his absence, Emily Bear disclosed that Miranda was readily available to offer advice and wisdom on the soundtrack. Along with Miranda’s absence, two other familiar voices, coincidentally also friends of Miranda, Philippa Soo and Christopher Jackson, did not make a reappearance as the singing voices of Moana’s parents in the sequel. Miranda, who also provided vocals in the original film, was also replaced as the singing voice of Tautai Vasa, the original Wayfinder. Although there is nothing confirmed about the whereabouts of Miranda’s infamous writing on Moana 2, he is allegedly coming back to work on the live-action adaptation of Moana. As there are also rumors of a Moana 3, hopefully, his name has not been erased from the franchise and he will make a return to his original position.
Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, commonly known as Barlow & Bear, assumed the songwriting duties on Moana 2. These two rose to fame in 2021 after composing the viral “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album” which went on to win the Best Musical Theater Album award at the 2022 GRAMMYS. Acclaimed by composers such as Pasek and Paul (La La Land, Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen), Disney entrusted them with the duty of continuing the legacy of Moana’s infamous music. The question is, did they successfully do this?
As a self-proclaimed musical connoisseur, Elizabeth believes that the stylistic choices made by Barlow & Bear were not continuous with the island sound established in the original movie. The classic “villain” song in this film was titled “Get Lost” and was sung by Awhima Fraser who played Matangi, the secondary antagonist. Elizabeth believed it featured far too many classical instruments, creating a sort of “jazz” vibe to the song.
“There is no room for jazz in a musical that is supposed to be filled with rhythm.”
Elizabeth Hample
“I felt like it was very obvious that they switched songwriters because the quality of the songs definitely depleted when moving over to the next movie. I also didn’t think the lyrics were up to par with the original. The vocals were good though,” senior Isabelle O’Leary recounts. As noticeable as the writing switch was, a lot of the vocals stayed the same. Auli’i Cravalho reprised her role as Moana, coming into the role with even stronger vocals than before. The actress, who, in her break from playing the Polynesian princess, had taken on vocally challenging roles such as Ariel in The Little Mermaid Live!, and Janis Ian in Mean Girls the Musical the Movie, states that “It feels like coming home, getting to play this character again. And I’ve missed her, truly.” The actress also states that she definitely hears changes in her voice as it has been almost 8 years since the original film was released. Her song “Beyond” was one that actually did impress students. The song was reminiscent of “How Far I’ll Go” while incorporating more mature elements, as the character Moana has aged about 3 years since the original film was released. A more confident version of the princess, Moana has even bigger dreams as well as a new little sister relying on her to complete her journey.
Another reprised vocal role was the character of Maui, played by Dwayne Johnson. Sousa believes that Maui sang far too much in this film which was annoying since The Rock is not typically recognized for his vocals. Student body class president Zachary Butler (12) states,
“I think the music wasn’t the worst, but it definitely wasn’t good either imo. They lowkey missed, the music was either boring or repetitive.”
Zach Butler
Zach is referring to Maui’s title character song: “Can I get Chee Hoo?” where Maui says “Who are ya?” eight times and also rhymes “Moana” with “come on-a.” As Maui’s only solo song in the movie, it was lyrically disappointing, especially in comparison with his solo song “You’re Welcome” in the original movie.
The last controversial decision made with this movie was the addition of several new characters. While most of them were vital to the plot, the backgrounds of these characters failed to be explored. Moana now has a little sister named Simea, who is estimated to be less than three years old since only that much time has passed in their timeline since the first movie ended. She also travels with a crew this time, made up of characters named Loto, Kele, and Moni. All three characters have interesting quirks, but their significance to Moana is not touched on at all. Elizabeth finds the fact that Loto, a female engineer around Moana’s age, had no backstory extremely frustrating. She believes that Disney could have done more with this character as well as the others on Moana’s boat.
Retired songwriters and new, unnecessary characters have not stopped the movie’s success. It has made $600 million dollars in box office revenue worldwide and has a rating of 87% on Rotten Tomato’s “Popcornmeter.” Although there were many critiques, the movie as a whole had a good storyline and very visually pleasing animations. The live-action version of the original film is now in production, so anticipate an entirely new take on this now-Disney classic.
