Many rushed to theaters to bask in the nostalgia of “Moana” on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. Appealing to teenagers and children alike, the highly anticipated sequel to Disney’s 2016 triumph, “Moana 2” follows Moana on a new adventure. It brings back iconic characters and actors like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Maui and Auli’i Cravalho as Moana. “Moana 2” also includes new characters, such as Moana’s adorable younger sister, Simea, and a new antagonist, Nalo, the storm god.
After her harrowing journey to restore the heart of Tefiti and return her people to their voyager heritage, Moana is faced with a new challenge: finding other civilizations. Through visions of the last voyager chief of Motunui, her island, Moana discovers that she must break the curse that Nalo put on the island of Motufetu to unite people from all parts of the ocean. She recruits a crew to help her with her journey and reunites with demigod Maui along the way.
Notably, a “Moana” sequel was originally announced in December 2020, as a Disney+ show titled “Moana: The Series,” according to Variety. Yet, in February 2024, Disney announced that the show had been reworked into a movie, following their recent trend of prioritizing theatrical releases over attracting Disney+ subscribers with TV series. Typically, Disney’s animated movies are produced in Los Angeles, California. However, because it was originally set to be an animated series, “Moana 2” became the first animated feature film produced outside of the U.S., created instead in Disney’s newly opened studio in Vancouver.
Other than the new mission, “Moana 2” incorporates another large change, one that has been the object of scrutiny: the soundtrack. The soundtrack for “Moana” was written by songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, while the sequel was written by songwriter duo Barlow & Bear. Miranda is famous for his successful Broadway musicals, “Hamilton” and “In the Heights.” He also composed the soundtracks for “Vivo” and “Encanto.”
Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear are the first female songwriting duo and the youngest to compose for a Disney feature film, according to the duo’s website. They initially rose to fame from their album “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” a concept album based on season one of the Netflix series “Bridgerton.” They composed it in early 2021 during a series of TikTok live sessions, incorporating feedback from the live commenters, and in 2022, they won a “Best Musical Theater Album” Grammy for the album.
FHS junior and actress Daphne Emmert noted that the change in composers led to a stark contrast between the two soundtracks, with the “Moana 2” soundtrack containing more sharps, which can make music more vibrant and complex. Additionally, Emmert noted that the new soundtrack contained more pieces with Polynesian influence throughout, as opposed to the original movie’s soundtrack which only had one such piece.
“I have a lot of memories of watching the movie with my grandma, who is Hawaiian, and I was like, ‘Aw, this reminds me of us,’” Emmert said.
Although the composers all have backgrounds in musical theater, Emmert recognized that Barlow & Bear’s style differed greatly from Miranda’s. Despite this, the new soundtrack did live up to its predecessor.
“There’s a lot more rap in this one and a lot more pop-based kind of music, less musical theater-esque, which is cool in one sense, and it does live up to what it’s supposed to be, but it’s still very, very different and very hard to compare,” Emmert said.
