One of this year’s biggest box office successes is Disney’s “Moana 2”, which reunites Moana and Maui three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. 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.

The film features a stunning score by Grammy-winning composer Mark Mancina. Known for his work on the original Moana as well as The Lion King, Speed, and Tarzan, Mancina’s dynamic, emotional compositions are at the heart of the film’s sweeping musical landscape. Moana 2 marks Mancina’s return to the world of Oceania, alongside Grammy Award-winning songwriters Barlow & Bear, and Billboard Music Award- and American Music Award-winning songwriter and composer Opetaia Foa‘i, who also returned for the sequel.

Recently, I got to speak with Mark about his work on “Moana 2”, where he revealed some of the challenges working on the score and the impact of the project being flipped from a Disney+ Original series to a theatrical release.

How did you get involved in making music for movies and shows?

Way back, way back, I’ve always been a songwriter. I have always been very, very interested in pop music, but I also had kind of a classical background. So when you’re trying to make your way through the music business, looking at different avenues, one of the jobs I got when I was playing in clubs at night was to write documentaries for hunters on how to gut deer. And so I, of course, took those jobs whenever I could get them and kind of learned how to write music. Back then, sinking into the film was very difficult. It’s a different kind of concept, a way to do it. But as I kind of came up through that, I was pretty skilled at doing that kind of thing.

Eventually, some of my work found its way to rock bands, and I worked with them, but some of my work also found its way to Han Zimmer, and he asked me to come in and work on a film with him. And I already had kind of the skill set to go into that kind of situation. So I was kind of doing both. I was working on records and producing bands, but then I was also working with Hans and doing sort of film music. So it kind of led to this whole world that I’m in now where I’ve got my greasy hands on everything when I do a movie like “Moana”.

Where did your inspiration for the sound of “Moana 2” come from?

Really we kind of developed the idea on the first movie, we didn’t really know what Moana was. Nobody did. And they put Lynn, Miranda, myself and Aya in New Zealand. We met up, we went to a festival of Polynesian music, and that’s kind of our beginning of our education. And we sort of started there. You had a composer with my European background, and then you had a composer like Lynn, who’s a songwriter and more of a theatrical kind of a storyteller. And then you have Aya from Australia who knows the Polynesian culture.

So, this combination was an interesting group of diverse people, and we started to formulate and develop what “Moana” was. And so when we started on “Moana 2”, my goal was really to have the music grow up a little bit. Like Moana, I have a little more refined, I know my toolbox now. I work on everything on these movies, so I work on the songs, I work on the score. So, as I said, I’ve got my hands on everything. I kind of want to make sure that everything sounds like it’s coming from one kind of general sense.

New songs like “Beyond” play a major role in “Moana 2.” How did you incorporate those into the rest of the score?

Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, that’s exactly what I do. Besides writing the score, one of the things I’m always really concerned with these Disney musicals is I like the score and the songs to feel like it’s all coming from the same brain, even though it isn’t. And so I don’t like that feeling when I know the song’s starting or where it feels like a different producer took over where the song starts. And then when we go back to the score, it’s a different feeling or a different writer or a different sound. I like it to all be one thing. So, in this movie, we actually worked on both at the same time. Most of the time we work on the songs ahead of time. This one was really kind of working on the score and the songs at the same time and developing them as we went. So, the sound and the recordings of the songs and the score sort of took place around the same time.

How did you balance making “Moana 2” feel similar to the first film, but also new?

Well, for one thing, it has new themes, and as I said, Moana is 22 or 23 in the movie now. She was 16, so she’s more grown up, and the story’s a little bit more grown-up. And so I was able to take the music and refine it and come up with some new themes that are a little bit more, I don’t want to say sophisticated, that doesn’t sound right, but a little more grown-up. And I know my toolbox now. I really understand what the sound of the “Moana” score is. It’s a very layered kind of complex sound, but I kind of know what it is, so it’s a little bit easier to envision what I’m going to do with the score.

Originally, “Moana 2” was going to be a series for Disney+. Did you have to adjust your score much to turn it into a movie?

Very much. Yeah. In fact, I think a lot of what we were doing didn’t get used. And some things that we did early on became something else. It’s kind of interesting moments that we had that we were working on kind of evaporated, but the musical idea was so strong that it ended up kind of moving over into this story.

What was your biggest highlight working on “Moana 2”?

I have to say that the success of it, because I think that when we started working on Moana two, I don’t think we realized how impactful the first movie was. For us, it was hard to do the first movie. We didn’t really know what it was, and then we put it out and it did well. But then you move on to something else, and you kind of lose track of it or whatever. And it wasn’t until we came back to it that we realized how much it impacted so many people and how hungry they were for this next instalment, if you will, of Moana. So that was kind of exciting.

Did you feel more pressure while creating “Moana 2” following the huge success of the first on Disney+?

Yeah, I think so. And I think my thing was, I mean, sequels generally can be really bad. And so I really wanted to make sure that we weren’t putting something out that we all felt like was a rehash or a money grab or that kind of feeling, because I am really precious to Moana and I didn’t want that feeling. And I know that Disney didn’t either. So that was always at the forefront of our minds to make sure that what we were doing was really creative, really strong, and innovative, and all of those good things.

What was the biggest challenge working on “Moana 2”?

Well, the timeframe was really difficult because of the fact that it was on one timeframe as a TV thing, and then it wasn’t just moved over to a movie. It was completely rewritten, which means that we had to kind of stand by and wait until we knew kind of where we were going. And at that point, we didn’t have as much time as we would’ve liked to have had to do it. And these are big, gigantic movies with big gigantic scores with layers of vocals and percussion. And so it was difficult to get it all finished on time.

You can watch “Moana 2” in cinemas now and it will be coming to Disney+ in 2025.

Have you checked out “Moana 2” in cinemas yet? Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts