SPOILERS ahead for Moana 2, now on Disney+!
Now that Moana 2 has been a record-breaking box office hit and dominated on Disney+ with the biggest numbers on the streaming service since Encanto, we can say this openly: Moana is a demigod! At the end of the 2024 sequel, Moana risks her life to save her people by diving into the ocean, but rather than dying forever, her ancestors give her the gift of being given the divine status Maui has. When CinemaBlend spoke to the Moana 2 directors about the movie’s ending when we were at Walt Disney Animation earlier this month, they expressed the cultural reason why the ending was so important to The Rock.
Prior to Moana becoming a demigod, you can feel the fear from Maui’s end at first that he’s just lost a friend. When CinemaBlend spoke to directors Jason Hand and David Derrick Jr about what it was like to record the emotional scene with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, they spoke about their insights into the filmmaking process for that scene. As director Jason Hand shared:
I mean, honestly, I think it sort of proved that Dwayne's range is incredible and the fact that he's able to put so much emotion through his voice work there was really powerful. I think that moment, really, it's one of our favorite pieces in the whole entire film. It's something that's so glad to talk about finally because it really it's this idea that he's been stripped of all of his demigod powers stripped down to his core and he's lost. He doesn't know what to do at that moment. And that, that the song that he sings, the invocation to ask for help is such a powerful moment, that really speaks to something we never seen him do before. So that was incredibly emotional.
In the key Moana 2 scene, Maui, Moana and her crew are attempting to raise back up the island of Motufetu from beneath a storm of waves caused by the storm god, Nalo. As Moana dives into the ocean to touch Motufetu, they both get struck by Nalo’s lightning.
While the bolt strips Maui of his powers, it’s a deadly blow for Moana. When Maui rushes to find Moana dead, he calls on the spirits of Tautai Vasa for help in the song “Manu Vavau”. Director David Derrick Jr then said this of the scene:
The thing I love about ‘Mana Vavau’ is it's an original song written by Opetaia Foa’i. He grew up in Tokelau, just north of Samoa, and he always talked about how important it would be for Dwayne to sing it in Samoan and to sing it, you know, in his mother's language, his grandparents' language. And, it was so important to Dwayne to get it right, to get the pronunciations right and to feel the emotion that comes through that. For me it really is kind of the pinnacle of Maui's performance and Dwayne's performance as Maui, but also just in the film. It's some of the most emotional moments we have.
While much of the audience who watches may not know the exact words Maui says to the spirits during the song, it's clear he’s using them to ask for help. It’s beautiful to get to hear Dwayne Johnson speak in Samoan for the song, which was written by Samoan songwriter Opetaia Foa’i for the film. (Plus, did you know that The Rock’s character of Maui was influenced by his grandfather?) It sounds like it was an especially emotional scene for The Rock, given he had the chance to sing in the native language of his ancestors for a Disney movie.
In addition to Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow writing the soundtrack (following Lin-Manuel Miranda doing the first movie), Opetaia Foa’i wrote a series of original songs Samoan singers perform throughout said soundtrack to make the movie true to Moana’s origins. How incredible is it that Moana 2 can expose audiences all around the world to Samoan language, culture and mythology?
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