While Moana 2 is already out on digital, it is also scheduled to debut on Disney+ on March 12 and hit store shelves on March 18. Ironically, the sequel was originally supposed to be a Disney+ streaming exclusive, but first-time directors Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, and David G. Derrick Jr. were able to navigate creative changes and deliver something that was a hit with theatergoing audiences, while also having a grander celebration of Polynesian culture.

I was recently invited to attend an exclusive press event for the home media release of Moana 2 at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California. There, We had a chance to talk to Hand and Derrick Jr. to talk about the film’s success and brining back the Oceanic Story trust as cultural consultants to maintain authenticity while creating a universal story.

We also had a chance to talk to voice talents Awhimai Fraser (Matangi) and Hualālai Chung  (Moni) about their approach to their respective recording processes, where they drew their inspiration to give life to the characters they voice, and reflected on the power of representation in the visuals and sounds.

Grossing over a $1 billion at the box office, making it one of Disney’s most successful animated films, Derrick Jr. and Hand knew they created something special with Miller after the film’s premeire in Hawaii. “It was really incredible. We were obviously outdoors in Hawaii. It was in a beautiful evening, and all of that was incredible,” Derrick Jr. said. “When the lights came up after the film premiered, and we were surrounded by so many people that helped us make this, so many people from our oceanic cultural trust.”

“To see the smiles on their faces and the genuine joy that the film we had all made together it was incredible to see that on all of their faces, and that we felt like we had done right,” Derrick Jr. said.

The Oceanic Story Trust played a crucial role in Moana by ensuring cultural authenticity and respect for Polynesian traditions, making their involvement in Moana 2 essential for maintaining the same level of integrity and connection to the Pacific Islands’ rich heritage. “There was an incredible generosity of like information, of core ideas that they believed in, and knowledge that they shared with us, that was all in service of us trying to get it right,” Hand said.

In addition to being respectful to the Polynesian cultures, Moana 2 also had to have a story that resonated with a global audience. As such, there were weekly meetings to make sure the animators and directors were getting the right things up. “I think it was more a feeling of respect for what they were bringing in that we were trying to do as right as possible,” Hand said. “We’re still making a story, and it’s a fantasy story. It’s not meant to be real, but it’s supposed to be inspired. And I think everybody felt like we had achieved that.”

While the collaboration process was ongoing, it was fantastic for Derrick Jr. because he is of Samoan heritage. “Working so frequently with our Oceanic Cultural Trust, it wasn’t like we were trying to make something cultural and then make it entertaining.” Derrick Jr. said. “By learning and working together, it inherently became more entertaining, more fun.”

Derrick Jr. knew the significance having that off-screen presence in a major animated studio film and that such a milestone could not be achieved without the help of the community. “It was so powerful and amazing to have other people of the community with me on this journey,” he said. the first film. “I think I was one of the only people outside of a few who was really on the film full time, Dana Ledoux Miller, who’s also a Samoan descent, directing with us, was, great support in that regard.”

“For me, I think we have taken it very personally to make a film that is both entertaining but something that the people of the Pacific can see themselves and celebrate,” Derrick Jr. said of making a movie that can be shared with his community and the rest of the globe.

Given what Moana 2 meant to everybody involved in the creative process, it’s also important that everyone had fun making the film, especially the cast. The directors shared one of their favorite recording sessions between the Dwayne Johnson, his daughters, and his mother that got everyone laughing. “As Dwayne was in there doing some recording and some of the lines, it became a son to a mother in that situation,” Hand said. “She’s like, ‘give me that button, honey. I need to say something.’ He wasn’t doing something the way she thought it should be done. And it was so hilarious. Dwayne is larger than life, but at the same time, it was such a humanizing moment and just hilarious to see his mom berate him a little bit.”

For Awhimai Fraser, who voices Mantigini — along with Elsa and Dolores Madrigal in the Maori dubs for Frozen and Encanto respectively — she was particularly fond of the playfulness of the demigoddess with vampire-like abilties. “She really likes to play. And so finding that that playfulness in my voice was a lot of fun,” she said “Sometimes she’d be whispering, other times she’d be screaming, sometimes she’d be upside down, and another time she could run by your ear. I found that really, really fun as an actor to actor, as an actor to to play with.”

Fraser said she was inspired by the strong women in her family to convey strength of her character. “I think the strength that she that she has to have, because she’s been stuck in a place for a very long time, and still be able to kind of wake up and talk and enjoy her life a tiny bit,” she said. “That strength I got from the women in my family.”

As for Mantingi’s sass, the voice actor said her husband would say I had a little bit of that sass in addition to her strength. “Everything else was kind of like, really originally, uniquely hers,” she said.

Hualālai Chung, who voices Moni, a member of Moana’s wayfinding crew along with Kele and Loto, talked about striking a balance for his character’s passion for storytelling and being a Maui fanboy. “That same passion and the same colorfulness that Moni has for his people and for the stories of the people, is comprised with his love for Maui,” he said. “Maui is the demigod, right? But, yeah, it’s also the icon of our people and our history, you know, as something that I take such such passion in and have such appreciation in of our own history.”

In fact, Chung sees a lot of himself in Moni. “You know, being Pasifika, being Polynesian, there’s so much of of that history and that upbringing that pours into who we are and the fiber of who we are in the way that we think,” he said. “So, being able to balance the two is fairly easy because we do it in our real lives.”

Moana 2 continues to emphasize the importance of authentic Polynesian representation in more ways than one. For Polynesians, not only do they get to see themselves in the characters that are on screen, they also get to hear themselves as well.

Fraser hopes Polynesians feel pride in a film like Moana 2 adding that it hopefully leads to “a pathway that they can come on in and have a go at it too, if that’s what they want to do, you know, and not just the voice acting, but also the music, or the the composing, or any of the roles really animation. I just hope they’re inspired.”

“I hope that the the story, you know, not only coins with the theme of the of the film, but also with, you know, seeing fellow people of our communities as the cast that inspires them to go after whatever they want and to truly, you know go beyond that they’re capable of,” Chung chimed. “You know, get off the island. Go check things out. Go see things. Take a take a stab at something you’ve never done before. So on and so forth.”