48 Fun Facts About Moana 2

What is Moana seeking as Moana 2 opens?

Other peoples are what Moana is hunting for as the sequel opens, three years on. Auliʻi Cravalho recorded in her natural adult voice, calling Moana the first Disney princess allowed to age.

What is the name of the lost island Moana must find and raise in Moana 2?

Motufetu once connected all the islands of the ocean, until Nalo sank it to gain power over the mortals it united.

In Moana 2, who is Nalo?

A malicious storm god, Nalo sank the island that once joined the ocean's peoples because he wanted power over mortals.

In Moana 2, which sacred title does Chief Tui give Moana, her people's first in a thousand years?

Tautai is bestowed by Chief Tui at a village ceremony, where a vision of her ancestors interrupts the ritual and sends Moana back to sea.

In Moana 2, the spirit of the ancestor who sends Moana on her quest takes the form of which creature?

A whale shark is the spirit form of the ancient navigator Vasa, who warns Moana in a vision that her people will die out if they stay isolated.

What does Moana's crew follow across the ocean to reach the sunken island in Moana 2?

The path of a comet is the sign her ancestors promised: in her vision Moana is told that a fire in the sky will guide her.

In Moana 2, what do the coconut-armoured Kakamora pirates turn out to want?

A way back home: Nalo's curse cut the Kakamora off from their own island, so they team up with Moana, and a warrior named Kotu joins her crew.

In Moana 2, where is Matangi's lair?

Inside a gargantuan monster clam, which swallows Moana's canoe just as her crew and the Kakamora defeat it, and where the captive Maui turns up.

In Moana 2, who is Matangi?

Nalo's enforcer, who controls bats, turns out to be unhappy serving him: Matangi helps Moana escape and points her towards Nalo himself.

In Moana 2, what must happen to break Nalo's curse on the sunken island?

A human must reach it, so Maui tries to haul the island up for Moana, until Nalo strips his powers and she dives for it herself.

In Moana 2, what happens to Moana the moment she breaks the curse on the sunken island?

Nalo's lightning kills her beneath the waves, but Maui's chant summons her ancestors, Gramma Tala among them, and together they bring her back.

What does Moana become by the end of Moana 2?

A demigoddess with a wayfinder tattoo is what her ancestors make of Moana, and Maui gets his own powers back in time to haul the lost island into the light.

Which character from the first Moana film turns up to join Nalo in Moana 2's mid-credits scene?

Tamatoa the giant crab arrives as Nalo plots his revenge, offering to join forces against the girl who humiliated him too.

What is the name of Moana's little sister, introduced in Moana 2?

Simea is three and so attached to her big sister that she tells Moana to send Maui on the voyage instead.

Who returns in Moana 2 as the voice of Gramma Tala's manta ray spirit?

Rachel House recorded Gramma Tala twice for the sequel: once in English and once in te reo Māori, for a version that opened in New Zealand the same day.

What changed about Temuera Morrison's performance as Chief Tui in Moana 2?

He does his own singing in the sequel; in the first film Hamilton's Christopher Jackson sang Chief Tui's verses.

Which Pussycat Dolls singer voices Moana's mother in Moana 2?

Nicole Scherzinger has voiced Moana's mother since the 2016 film, and re-recorded the role in Hawaiian for its Hawaiian-language version.

Which New Zealand comedian voices Loto, the quirky craftswoman, in Moana 2?

Rose Matafeo, creator and star of the romcom series Starstruck, voices Loto, the engineer who designs Moana's canoes and keeps rebuilding them.

Which of Dwayne Johnson's relatives voice two of Moana's young fans in Moana 2?

His youngest daughters, Jasmine and Tiana, voice two of the girls who copy Moana's every move; Johnson says his girls see themselves in the character.

Which actor returns in Moana 2 as the voice of Heihei?

Alan Tudyk squawks for Heihei in both films; in the first he also voiced the old villager who suggests cooking Heihei.

Which Disney executive announced in February 2024 that the Moana series had become a theatrical sequel?

Bob Iger broke the news around an earnings call, saying executives 'were impressed with what we saw and knew it deserved a theatrical release'.

Before co-directing Moana 2, what was David Derrick Jr.'s job on the first Moana film?

Storyboard artist: Derrick joined Disney specifically to work on the first Moana, which reconnected him with his family's Samoan roots, and was later picked to lead its follow-up.

Moana 2 was the first feature film made at which Disney Animation location?

The Vancouver studio was opened to make Disney+ series, starting with a Moana show; when that show turned into Moana 2, it found itself animating a feature instead.

Which veteran Disney animator led the apprentices who hand-drew Maui's tattoos for Moana 2?

Eric Goldberg, who animated the Genie in Aladdin, had drawn Mini Maui for the first film and returned to guide a new class of hand-drawn apprentices.

Who wrote Moana 2's new songs, replacing Lin-Manuel Miranda?

Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the youngest and first all-female duo to write a Disney animated film's songs, got a stack of lyric-writing books from Miranda himself.

Why did Lin-Manuel Miranda sit out Moana 2's songwriting?

Timing: he was busy with Encanto and Mufasa, going straight from one to the other, and says the Moana series was 'already cooking' with new songwriters by then.

Which Moana 2 song was billed as a spiritual sequel to 'How Far I'll Go'?

Beyond comes as Moana weighs leaving home with no promise of return; Gramma Tala's spirit appears mid-song to remind her that people never stop choosing who they are.

What is Maui's new song in Moana 2 called?

Can I Get a Chee Hoo? flips 'You're Welcome': this time Maui sings to fire up a doubting Moana, not to praise himself.

Which song did Cravalho perform live at the 2024 D23 Expo?

She sang it with Polynesian dancers as Johnson announced a live-action Monster Jam film on the same stage.

Under what title was Moana 2 released in many European countries, because of a trademark clash?

Vaiana 2: Moana is a registered trademark in several European countries, Spain among them, so the heroine herself is renamed Vaiana there, as she was for the first film.

Dwayne Johnson and Auliʻi Cravalho each won a Favorite Voice prize for Moana 2 at which 2025 awards show?

Kids' Choice Awards voters gave both stars the animated-voice prizes, though Moana 2 itself lost Favorite Animated Movie to a rival sequel.

Where did Moana 2 hold its world premiere?

Kapolei, Hawaii, is on Oʻahu, the island where the first film's Hawaiian-language version, with Auliʻi Cravalho re-voicing Moana, had premiered six years earlier.

Moana 2's first trailer broke a 24-hour views record set by which Pixar sequel?

Inside Out 2 had set the mark at 157 million views; the teaser for Moana 2, a project first built as a Disney+ series, drew 178 million.

In Moana 2, as in the first film, what nickname does Maui have for Heihei?

Boat snack returns from the first film, and in the sequel Maui spots the fan club's pet and promptly declares it a boat snack upgrade.

Moana 2 earned about $225 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday, beating a record held by which Disney film?

Frozen II had made $125 million over the holiday in its second week; Moana 2 beat that by $100 million with a film first built as a Disney+ series.

Moana 2's $389 million worldwide opening took the animated record from which film?

The Super Mario Bros. Movie had opened to $377 million in 2023; Moana 2's first five days at home alone nearly matched the first Moana's entire North American run.

In Moana 2, who insists that Moana take a crew on her voyage this time?

Sina tells Moana she cannot cross the ocean alone again, so Moana recruits three villagers before she sails.

In Moana 2, what does Moana bring home from a deserted island as her first clue?

A piece of pottery is the first thing Moana shows her father when she lands back on Motunui, before taking it to show her little sister too.

Moana 2 opened over a record-setting Thanksgiving weekend at the US box office, alongside which musical in its second week?

Wicked had opened a week earlier beside Gladiator II, and the pull of all three hits together is what carried the holiday past its old box-office record.

Which award was Moana 2 nominated for at the 82nd Golden Globes?

Best Animated Feature Film was the nomination, but the Globe went to Flow, a Latvian film with no dialogue, over Moana 2 and the year's other studio hits.

Which member of Moana's crew in Moana 2 is a grumpy old farmer who would rather stay on land?

Kele, voiced by David Fane, is a reluctant recruit: on a long voyage the crew needs a master farmer aboard to grow more than fish to eat.

In Moana 2, why is Maui already hunting for the sunken island before Moana sets out?

An old quarrel with Nalo sends Maui after the island alone, and he holds off calling Moana for help because he fears she would not survive.

What is the name of Moana's young fan club in Moana 2?

MOANA-BEs are three village girls who dress like their hero and have even adopted a pet of their own to match hers.

Early in Moana 2, where does Moana take her little sister to show her their people's past?

The cave of voyaging canoes is where Gramma Tala once showed Moana who her people were; now Moana passes the story on to her own little sister.

Which fan-made musical project brought Moana 2's songwriters to Disney's attention?

The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical began as TikTok videos in lockdown, became an album and won a Grammy in 2022, months after Disney's music chief first took its writers to lunch.

In Moana 2, what do the Kakamora use to capture Moana's crew?

Blow darts carry a paralysing toxin sneezed out by a giant blobfish, and once the two crews make peace, the same creature's slime is the cure.

In Moana 2, what finally drives off the huge eels attacking Moana's battered canoe?

The sunrise ends the fight: the eels strike in the dark and turn tail at first light, leaving the crew to limp to a bare island and patch up the canoe.

Dwayne Johnson said in 2026 that Dana Ledoux Miller would write Moana 3 with which screenwriter of both earlier films?

Jared Bush wrote the first Moana and co-wrote the sequel with Miller; Johnson let the news slip at a Rio de Janeiro press conference for the live-action remake.