Moana is going to be brought to life at Walt Disney World!
A new attraction for the massively popular animated film was just announced at Disney’s D23 Expo.
“Journey of Water: Inspired by Moana” will be headed to Epcot’s Future World as part of the park’s upcoming transformation and will replace Innoventions West, according to Disney Tourist Blog.
The walkthrough attraction will take guests through a lush environment where they can interact with magical, living water.
More details are expected to emerge during D23‘s final day and fans will be able to preview the upcoming attraction at “Walt Disney Imagineering presents the Epcot Experience” inside the park starting October 1st.
Raise your hand if you have a playlist solely dedicated to your favorite Disney songs – for the record, we raised both our hands, and legs. We LOVE Disney songs!
The results from a new study were just released that revealed that Frozen and Moana songs were among the most played on Spotify.
It’s not really a surprise, since from the first note of Frozen‘s “Let It Go”, you’re probably belting it out like Idina Menzel in the movie. Same goes for Moana‘s “How Far I’ll Go”.
Check out the Top 10 List below!
- “Let It Go,” Frozen – 298 million
- “How Far I’ll Go,” Moana – 205 million
- “You’re Welcome,” Moana – 181 million
- “Life Is A Highway,” Cars – 153 million
- “Beauty And The Beast,” Beauty And The Beast (2017) – 148 million
- “You’ll Be In My Heart,” Tarzan – 132 million
- “A Whole New World,” Aladdin – 121 million
- “Try Everything,” Zootopia – 119 million
- “Love Is An Open Door,” Frozen – 113 million
- “Under The Sea,” The Little Mermaid – 109 million
You can see the Top 50 list HERE. The oldest song on the list is Robin Hood‘s “Oo-de-lally”, which was released in 1973.
TELL JJJ: What’s your favorite Disney song? Let us know in the comments below!
When the teaser trailer for Wreck-It Ralph 2 came out, we were all screaming at the little girl who looked EXACTLY like baby Moana – but it turns out that isn’t actually baby Moana; or Moana at all.
Sure, the little girl might be named Mo (certainly an indicator that she could be Moana) and her mom in the flick is voiced by the same person who voiced Moana’s mom in Moana
– Nicole Scherzinger. But, it’s still not Moana.
Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, told Entertainment Weekly, “We read the comments [when the teaser came out], we saw people saying, ‘Wait, is that Baby Moana?’ So, her name is Mo, and Moana’s mom does do the voice. But she’s not Moana.”
See, they say that, but then we look at the pics and the names, and are like, ‘Are you sure?’
They’re sure: “We would say, she’s a descendant of Moana, who’s named Moana. We’re just going to go full meta on this one.”
So, the only Moana in the film is Moana, the princess.
Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet is out in theaters now.
Every Halloween season there’s definitely a few costumes that are deemed culturally inappropriate – however, Moana shouldn’t be one of them, according to Auli’i Cravalho.
The 17-year-old actress, who voiced the Polynesian heroine in the animated movie, chatted with People about the issue.
“I think it’s absolutely appropriate,” Auli’i shared. “It’s done in the spirit of love and for Disney and for the little ones who just want to dress up as their favorite heroine, I’m all for it.”
She continued, “I would encourage anyone who wants to dress up as a wayfinder who journeys beyond her reef to figure out who she truly is, I totally support you. Go for it! Parents can dress up as Moana, too.”
Auli’i adds that Moana speaks to young children of all backgrounds, just like her Disney Princess predecessors before her: “I think each of the Disney princesses are just pretty reflective of their time. This day in age, we definitely need a heroine who is the hero of her own story, who journeys beyond what her parents have done, who breaks the mold.”
“That’s what we need right now and hopefully what we will continue to see later on, but there’s still things to be learned from other Disney princesses that we’ve come from. It’s just like our parents: We’re not like our parents and yet we can see the similarities and differences. We can always be grateful for what we’ve learned from.”
Auli’i Cravalho might have not been the voice of Moana if things had worked out differently.
The 17-year-old actress admitted to Variety in a new interview that she and her mom actually thought the audition offer was a scam.
“My mom and I, for sure, thought it was a scam — absolutely!” she shared. “We got the email, and it was on my school email because I had submitted the audition [for a school project] and was hoping for the best for my friends and I. And I got an email back saying, ‘Hey, I have another project that I’m hoping that you’ll audition for if you’ll just come into the Hawaii Five-0 casting studio.’”
Auli’i continues, remembering “showing it to my mom and saying, ‘OK, first of all I think she used the wrong ‘your’ and I don’t know how I feel about this.’ My mom said she’d come with me and make sure everything was legit and shake hands and be professional and if anything, at least we’d know where the Hawaii Five-0 casting studio is.”
Good thing it wasn’t a scam and it ultimately led Auli’i to her breakout role, and from there, Rise.
Moana is one of our favorite Disney films right now.
Who doesn’t love the story of a Polynesian chief’s daughter breaking old rules and making her own, all to save her family and people?
However, did you know that before the final movie was made and released, Moana actually had seven brothers?
According to producer Osnat Shurer, via EW, that was the actual plan for the movie.
“The very early story was that Moana had seven brothers and her dad was the one who wanted to revive voyaging,” he shared. “We were playing with that kind of idea, that she doesn’t get taken along even though she’s the best sailor, because she’s a girl.”
“Then we realized that we wanted this to be a true hero’s journey, in which our hero just happens to be female; we didn’t want her flaw and her problem to be her gender.”
Amen, to that!
If you’ve been paying attention, there’s been some controversy about dressing up kids, who are not of Polynesian descent, as Moana.
Most are saying it’s cultural appropriation — and Jordan Fisher is here to say that it’s Halloween.
“All these articles about not dressing your kids up as Moana is unreal,” Jordan wrote on Twitter this morning.
He adds, “As someone with Polynesian blood, as well as lots of other things, lemme see some white, black, Asian, mixed girl or even BOY Moana’s.
Jordan has a good point, too. It IS Halloween, and we should be having fun with it, not second guessing every costume idea because it’s not your own culture.
We know that cultural appropriation is a huge deal and we need to learn from it, but it’s still Halloween.
