Why Does Everyone Love Moana So Much? Disney Animation's Chief Creative Officer Explains [Exclusive]

Eight years ago, the House of Mouse released "Moana," which not only took in a massive amount of money at the box office during its Thanksgiving weekend debut, but generated such a massive fanbase that in 2023, it crossed 1 billion hours streamed on Disney+ to become the most streamed movie on any platform in the United States. Disney had been working on a sequel series for quite some time, but in February 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the story had been reworked into a sequel film with Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson returning to reprise their respective roles as Moana and Maui.

Folks were understandably suspicious about the quality of a series-turned-theatrical-release, but initial reactions have been overwhelmingly positive. Not to mention, the film is currently tracking to once again become a smash hit at the box office, which certainly puts Disney back on top (in addition to the success of Marvel's "Deadpool & Wolverine" and Pixar's "Inside Out 2") after a handful of less-than-stellar performance last year.

Ahead of "Moana 2," I was privileged enough to be invited to Walt Disney Animation Studios to talk with the creative team behind the film and get a hands-on understanding of how the project went from series to film. One of the people I talked with was Jared Bush, who wrote the original screenplay for "Moana" and returned to co-write "Moana 2" with Dana Ledoux Miller (who also co-directed the project). Less than 24 hours after our interview, Bush was announced as the new Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation. At the time, I had only seen the first 30 minutes of "Moana 2," but I was already hooked. In our spoiler-free conversation, Bush explains why he thinks audiences love the character of Moana so much, what the original series looked like before pivoting to a feature film, and how much easier it was to write for Cravalho and Johnson this time around.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

"Moana" is such a coming-of-age story at this point, and I don't want to assume to know your life, but I don't think that you had the coming-of-age experience of a teen girl. What mindset do you put yourself into in order to figure out what she's feeling and what she's going through to write the story?

I'd say, honestly, I think the way we approach all of our stories is psychology. I remember distinct moments in my life, certainly graduating from high school and feeling like, "Oh, I understand who I am," and you get to the college and you go, "Whoa, I don't know anything anymore and I have to redefine myself." And then you leave college and you go, "Wait, I have to redefine myself again?" And then I got married and then I had kids. I'm like, "This just keeps changing all the time."

And I'd say our approach to this movie, and I think for Moana specifically, is that universal idea that you are constantly evolving and learning more about yourself and redefining who you are and what you can be. And sometimes it's not losing who you used to be, it's adding something to it. And that was really important I think for Moana moving forward. She spent the whole first film becoming a Wayfinder, understanding that that was who she was meant to be, but that's not the end of that story and that's not the end of her story. And what else can she possibly be? What other adventures will she go on? I think it was a really fun launching point for that story.

I'm so glad that you mentioned that, because I think there's this idea a lot of people have, especially people who have children, that might think, "Oh, well, Moana is not a story for my son because that's for girls." But Moana is so beloved across ages, gender identities, and nationalities. People love Moana. What do you think it is about her that resonates with so many people?

I think she's just so aspirational. I think when you see her, she is this perfect combination of bravery and tenacity, but deep empathy; I think she cares about everyone that she comes into contact with and she is constantly resilient. I think she's someone who will throw herself into danger for the betterment of her people or for her family or for her friends, even if that costs her something. And then even when she gets knocked down, she refuses to stay down and she gets up and figures something else out. And I think that she represents the best of what we can be.

I love that. And with this initially being planned as a series and now getting to be a feature film ... anytime I get to see something on the big screen, I'm very, very happy about it.

Same.

No shade, Disney+, I love you, but I want to go to the theater.

Got it.

I assume that means that some darlings may have been killed in the process of converting it from a series to a film. How do you decide what gets to stay and what unfortunately is just going to be a distant memory?

It's part of our process at Disney Animation. Obviously, moving from a series to a feature is not something that we've done before. But over the course of building features, typically we are constantly pressure testing and learning something and figuring out what works the best and losing things that maybe aren't helping your story or giving your characters the arcs that they need. And I'd say that was very familiar, although I think from the outside it might look like, "Oh, this is a very different process."

I think weirdly for us it was, "We're going to make that shift." I think the bigger things that needed to adjust, obviously in a feature, you want your main character to have that big story arc and you want to feel that launch at the beginning of the story, and to have this amazing culmination at the end of your story that feels like, of course that's how it ended, but I never saw it coming and it really makes me feel like I've gone on this journey.

The side characters in a series, each one had an episode where they were featured, each one had their own featured story, and they would arc within that story. I think that was probably the largest shift for us is [that] we retained all those arcs. We just had all of them pay off at the end of the movie versus throughout the story.

Fantastic.

I'd say, across the board, I don't think there was anything I felt like that having lost it didn't make this story better.

Beautiful. So when you were working on the first "Moana," you came up with these characters and then the actors get added to it to give their voices. Now you have the voices, you know the "isms" of all of the people once they get in that booth. Did that make it easier to write for them this time around?

It did. Yeah. Here's the thing: In the first film, I was recording Auli'i [Cravalho] and she was 15 years old. 15, and just knocking out of the park! And we spent a lot of time and she did such an amazing job figuring out who that character was, where that sweet spot was. That was really fun. Dwayne [Johnson], of course, figuring out who Maui is, where I think Maui really shines. He has this unbelievable way of walking this line between someone who is constantly bragging, but you love him at the same time. And those things shouldn't actually match up, but they do. I think from a writing perspective, if nothing else, it was, "Oh man, I can't wait for Auli'i to crush this line. I can't wait for Dwayne to come in and crush that line." It's just like, "When can we do it?" That was a very different thing for me. It's the first time I've worked on a sequel or a continuation story. That was, for me, just an absolute joy.

And I just have to say, as a wrestling fan, completely shocked [sarcastic] that you got somebody who is able to brag and we like them at the same time. [laughs] It's like, he's done that for his whole life.

[laughs] I know. It's a mystery how that happened. I'll say that I love working with him because he is just game for anything. I think in the pursuit of trying to figure out how to make Maui as lovable as possible, he is fearless. And I think you saw the first 30 minutes, so you didn't even see where that storyline was going to go yet, but I am very excited for you to see it.

I can't wait. And now you have these new characters that are fitting into this world that's already really well established and they all have such distinct personalities. How do you figure out, "These are the characters that I want?" Did you come up with an energy you wanted first or was it a specific character that was just talking in your head and you're like, "I've got to get them out on paper"?

Well, I think I had the benefit of just having finished in "Encanto," where we had a very big cast and you had to immediately understand who each of those characters were and hear that voice immediately and have those all [exist] separately, and having that very top of mind for me as we headed into this next story. Building [a supporting cast of characters], we knew everyone had to have very distinct personalities, and you wanted those to pop immediately. And I think leveraging off the idea that Moana is somebody who thought she understood who she was, that she figured herself out, that she evolved and she got herself into a really good place, we wanted to surround her with characters that would challenge that.

You have Loto, who changes herself every three seconds. She is very happy to destroy anything in the pursuit of evolution. You have Kele, the grumpy old farmer — he knows who he is. He's a guy who lives in the dirt and he's happy in the dirt and he's never going to change. These are opposite poles and Moana's in the middle of that. And then you have Moni, who is the storyteller who doesn't even know that's a question he should be asking. And I think for all three of those characters, we wanted to surround Moana with people who would have an opinion about how we evolve, and is that possible and what change can do?

And there's also the time-honored tradition of Disney animal sidekicks.

Of course.

Love them all dearly. They're the shining beacon in any Disney film.

Good.

But the question that I have for you is, how do you decide when you're going to give them a little bit here and there?

I wish I could say that it was this formula, but I will say that usually what happens is we have hundreds of people that work on this movie and all of our movies, and a great idea will come in and just demand to be on screen — something you'd never expect. I think, obviously, you've seen Heihei at the beginning of this movie and how he finds his way into the story. Typically with Heihei, he's not super smart, but somehow he comes across something vitally important and that helps Moana on her path. I think that we had a lot of people in the building who couldn't wait to see how stupid they could make Heihei. [laughs] 

And then I think on the flip side, everyone so badly wanted Pua to be on the canoe last time. And having the opportunity to do that, I think it was really fun for people. Pua is not great out there on that canoe, but this is not something he should be doing at all. And watching him try to find his bravery I think is a really fun story arc for him, too.

"Moana 2" finds its way into theaters on November 27, 2024.