By all accounts, Moana 2 is a commercial hit for Disney. The sequel to the 2016 animated film sees Moana embark on an expansive new voyage to the far seas of Oceania alongside Maui and a crew of unlikely seafarers.
The sequel features the return of both Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson as Moana and Maui, respectively, and is once again a musical adventure. Only this time, Lin-Manuel Miranda did not write the music.
Instead, Moana 2 features music by Grammy winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. The songwriting duo shared a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2022 for The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical.
Despite the talent attached to Moana 2, it's widely agreed that the music is not nearly on the same level as its predecessor. Many believed that Lin-Manuel Miranda passed on Moana 2 so that he could write the music for Mufasa: The Lion King. In case you were wondering why Lin-Manuel Miranda did not return for the sequel, he's finally explained.
“It didn’t line up that way actually,” he explained. “I got the script forMufasa when I had just finished Encanto, and so I started working on that at the top of ’22. So, Moana 2 was already in process as a TV series with Emily and Abigail . So then, when that decision got made to turn that into a movie, they were already cooking.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda had nothing but positive things to say about Bear and Barlow's music, calling the duo "so talented." But he also had praise for Auli'i Cravalho who was just 14 years old when she starred in the original movie.
“More than anything, what’s so thrilling is we hired Auli’i when she was 14 years old, and the stuff she’s singing in this new film is so just technically difficult, to see how far she’s come as a performer is really extraordinary," he continued.
Lin-Manuel Miranda sat down with THR ahead of the release of #Mufasa and opened up about why he didn’t return for #Moana2 pic.twitter.com/a2ENPSuVg9
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) December 10, 2024
Moana 2 has sort of been dragged through the mud on social media for its music, but it's really not as bad as the internet makes it out to seem. Although it's definitely not at the level of Lin-Manuel Miranda, it's fine — for a sequel.
When asked about the reception to Moana 2's music, Barlow responded: “Give it a month, all the kids will be singing it, and you’ll be tired of it.”
Ain't that the truth.