When the trailer for Disney's upcoming Moana 2 dropped, it drew 178 million viewers across the world within 24 hours, setting a new record (surpassing even Frozen II and Inside Out 2).
That may sound like industry wonk, but it means this animated journey of a young Polynesian girl from her home has stirred something real across cultures.
"She's a character who means so much to me as a person," says writer/first-time director Dana Ledoux Miller, sitting in a screening room at Disney Animation Studios in Burbank alongside Moana 2 creators Dave Derrick Jr. (director), Jason Hand (director) and Jared Bush (co-writer).
"She changed the way Pacific Islanders were represented in film forever," says Dana, "and we can never go back to the day where people didn't really understand who a Pacific Islander was."
Moana 2, coming out Nov. 23, reunites Moana (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson) three years after the original film, where Moana receives an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, and decides to journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for a brand-new adventure.
The fact that Moana 2 has three directors surprises me, but it shouldn't.
"There are 600 people on our crew," Dana points out.
"This is a massive film, much bigger than the original, so I feel fortunate there are three of us, because there is so much work to be done, and each of us brings a different skill set and a different perspective."
The goal was to not only honor the character of Moana, but to bring her story forward into adolescence, while preserving the things that made the original film such a hit.
"A few months ago we had Auli'i in here, and she inspired our entire crew," recalls Dana.
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