The Walt Disney Company announced a sequel to Moana is in production.
A scene from Moana 2 (2024), Walt Disney Animation Studios
In a press release, the company’s CEO Bob Iger stated, “Moana remains an incredibly popular franchise. And we can’t wait to give you more of Moana and Maui when Moana 2 comes to theaters this November.”
The company also released a short teaser for the sequel.
An official synopsis states, “Walt Disney Animation Studios’ epic animated musical Moana 2 takes audiences on an expansive new voyage with Moana, Maui and a brand-new crew of unlikely seafarers.”
It adds, “After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.”
A scene from Moana 2 (2024), Walt Disney Animation Studios
READ: Rumor: Disney to Officially Announce Moana 2
This news should not come as a surprise to readers of That Park Place, WDW Pro previously shared information he received from a source “that Disney may be ready to speed up a Moana sequel announcement in order to allay concerns that they’re running out of steam at theaters and on televisions.”
Pro added, “I’m told that Disney is likely to announce a new Moana in the first half of 2022. As for a release, it’s unlikely to be ready before 2023. It has been suggested to me that Disney would like to aggressively target November 2023, but that needs to come with the caveat that these things can absolutely change. That’s especially true when we’re talking about events that are multiple years on the horizon with an ongoing, unpredictable pandemic.”
While his source indicated he was expecting the movie to release in 2023, he was off by a year as the film will arrive in November of this year.
A scene from Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
The Walt Disney Company is creating a live-action adaptation of the first Moana starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The company announced that film back in April of last year.
In a press release it stated, “Dwayne Johnson revealed today in a recorded message from Hawaii that a live-action reimagining of Disney Animation’s 2016 hit feature film Moana is in development. The announcement was shared by Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger during The Walt Disney Company’s Meeting of Shareholders Webcast.”
Johnson also shared a video announcement from O’ahu, “We are so excited and happy to announce that a live-action reimaging of Moana is in the works. Moana, Gramma Tala, the music, the dance, Te Fiti, Pua the pig, the village, the beautiful, powerful ocean. And one more…What’s that guy’s name? Oh! Yours truly, Heihei the chicken. Kidding. Heihei is gonna be in it. But of course, Maui will be in it too.”
READ: New Moana Movie and Harry Potter Reboot Announced on Same Day
The original Moana film has been heavily criticized for symbolism and promotion of feminism. Host of the Symbolic World YouTube channel Jonathan Pageau observed the original animated film is part of Hollywood’s trend of replacing the masculine with the feminine.
He said, “When it comes to replacing the masculine while preserving the feminine, the Disney movie Moana appears as one of the most successful giving this cultural movement an almost mythical expression.”
He explained, “The beginning of the movie is the beginning of this new feminine world. It’s a creation myth. The story of how the world began and we’re told in the beginning there was only ocean.”
He continued, “Now immediately, we should be suspicious because in the traditional Maori myth like in so many other cultures the world is made by the union of opposites: heaven and earth; the great father and the great mother. This traditional myth will actually continue to be there in the movie as a kind of ghost, a kind of invisible strangeness, a feeling that isn’t quite right and how things develop. But in this story, in this creation myth, here in this movie, there is only the feminine part, the earthly part, the ocean.”
Te Fiti and Moana in Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
Later in his video, Pageau detailed, “The most aggressive version of the male bashing in this movie is in Moana’s animal sidekick, the brainless cock. The rooster is an age-old image of the masculine. He is traditionally placed on the summit of houses in the guise of a water, but the rooster has also been seen as the delusional masculine, the prideful and boastful one who thinks that he is the one whose call summons the sun.”
“And so by making a rooster the most brainless thing imaginable opens up all kinds of possibilities of jabbing below the belt,” he observed.
Heihei in Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
He later asserted, “By changing the traditional terms of a fairy tale or myth, Moana contributes to the growing confusion of the very primordial masculine and feminine categories. Categories which have not only regulated societies from time immemorial, but also ensure the very existence of the human race.”
“Moana proposes a world in which the mother, the hero, wise one, the chief are all roles played by woman and the masculine once toppled will receive whatever power he has only by the gracious acquiescing of the Great Mother,” Pageau concluded.
Moana in Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
Moana 2 will be directed by Dave Derrick Jr. and will feature music by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear along with Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina. The movie is expected to arrive in theaters on November 27, 2024.
What do you make of Disney making Moana 2?
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