Moana 2 is already a massive box office hit, which is great news for a lot of people. It’s certainly big for the stars like Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, but it’s probably also great news for Jack Black, who, according to his Jumanji co-star is a big fan of the first movie.
Speaking with MTV, Dwayne Johnson was asked which of his co-stars was the biggest “Moana-be,” referring to the young girls seen at the end of Moana 2 who were basically the Moana fan club (and voiced by Johnson’s own daughters). It seems that Jack Black saw Moana while the pair were filming Jumanji and Black simply raved after he saw it over opening weekend. Johnson explained…
The biggest Moana-be, I think is Jack Black. Yeah. We were shooting Jumanji when Moana first came out and we were here in Hawaii, shooting Jumanji. He went to see the movie that weekend, came to work on Monday morning, raved about it, loved the movie, was going on and on and on. I was like ‘Oh, thank you so much brother, I appreciate it.’
Johnson was happy to hear Jack Black sing the praises of Moana. He was especially a fan of Maui’s song in the movie “You’re Welcome.” However, when it comes to the song, Black thought that his praise belonged elsewhere, and this wasn't about the songwriting talents of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Apparently Black assumed Johnson didn’t do his own singing in the movie, which The Rock did not appreciate. Johnson continued…
And he goes, ‘That song you sang!’ I said, 'Yeah, You’re Welcome, right?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, awesome.’ I was like, ‘Thank you, man.’ He goes, ‘Who sang it?’ Like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like ‘Well who sang that song?’ I said, ‘I did.’ He goes ‘You didn’t sing that. Who was the voice actor who sang that?’ I said, ‘Hey bitch, I did.’
It’s not entirely crazy for Jack Black to think that somebody else might have sung “You’re Welcome.” Dwayne Johnson isn’t exactly known as a singer, though The Rock can carry a tune.
There have been numerous cases in Disney's history where a different voice actor did the singing compared to the regular dialogue. Jasmine in Aladdin has different voice actors for speaking and singing. Demi Moore didn’t do her own singing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Even in the original Moana, Boba Fett himself Temuera Morrison is the voice of the title character’s father, but Hamilton's Christopher Jackson provided the singing.
It seems that Johnson was ultimately able to convince Black that yes, the singing voice of Maui was him. As compared to Johnson’s own daughter who spent years not believing that her dad was Maui.
