Moana 2 star reveals whole songs were scrapped amid change from TV show to film
Auli'i Cravalho explains how the Disney sequel changed "quite a bit" during production.
It's been well documented that the new Moana sequel that's just arrived in cinemas was not always intended for the big screen – with the plan having originally been for a series on Disney Plus.
But earlier this year, it was revealed that the show was being reworked into a feature film titled Moana 2, with directors David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller adapting the material that had already been written and animated.
Of course, that big change meant a fair few alterations had to be made, and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, star Auli'i Cravalho explained that a number of songs she'd recorded fell by the wayside as a result.
“It's not often that you get to really see a storyline change so much," she said. "And all the props to our three directors and our producers and our writers for wanting Moana's story to always have the central theme of growth, and always have the central theme of a woman at the helm of the ship.
"But truly, we did see it adapt quite a bit. There are whole songs that I performed, that were recorded, that ended up getting scrapped. So yeah, there were a lot of changes."
The Moana 2 soundtrack was written by Grammy-winning duo Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow – who took over from Lin-Manuel Miranda after the first film – and the pair admitted that it was tough to let some of the songs go.
"There are some darlings that are in the ground," Bear explained.
"Yeah, we had to bury them," agreed Barlow. "But it works better the way it ended up.”
Bear added: "Any project that you work on with a bunch of people, you have to know when to pick your battles and when to let things go and when to stand up for things that you believe in. And it's all a learning process."
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Meanwhile, speaking about the process of adapting the scripts for the planned TV show into the feature, one of the film's directors Dana Ledoux Miller revealed that she "was a little naive about what it would take" in the early stages.
"Now looking back, I can't even really remember what it was like as a TV show," she added. "It just seems so inevitable that would always be on the big screen.
"I say naive, but it was exciting. It was really and truly... the story was growing and becoming so big that it felt almost like it couldn't be contained."
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Fellow director Jason Hand said that the decision was made when they test screened footage and realised that "it always seemed to be begging for the big screen".
He added: "It really allowed us a bigger sandbox, and I think artistry wise, we were able to put more up on screen. So that was really exciting!”
Moana 2 is now showing in UK cinemas.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
