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source: Disney
While Moana's wayfaring spirit remains the same, she's still finding her voice. To reflect that, the filmmakers brought on the composing team of Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy Award winners for the viral sensation The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical. "Moana's in a different place in her story, and there's a freshness to the journey with the two of them," Lee says of asking the duo to join the returning team of Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina, the songwriting duo takes the place of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton), who co-wrote many of the first film's hits.
At that time, it was still a TV show. So, as with everyone else, the songwriters had to return to the drawing board when it turned into a movie. "We supercharged Moana again," Bear says of the process. "She became the center of everything, and that showed itself in our music."
Barlow acknowledges that Miranda left "big shoes to fill," but Cravalho champions the importance of having two young women help voice Moana's biggest emotions, hopes, and dreams. "It's a passing of the baton to this younger generation," the actress says. "For two women to be part of that and trying to get to the heart of the story, which is a young woman finding her way, I couldn't think of a better duo than Barlow and Bear. To use some of Lin's words, they're young, scrappy, and hungry." Adds Barlow: "We felt like our story was mirroring the adventure that Moana goes on in this film."
Filmmakers gave Barlow and Bear a boatload of research and information about the sonic landscape of Moana's world and its already established musical themes. But their primary focus was pushing Moana's voice to new places.
"Moana has grown as a human, but also as a leader," Barlow explains. "And we wanted to allow that to be reflected in her melodies."
Just as Moana has aged, so has Cravalho — her voice deepening and expanding as she's developed her instrument. Barlow and Bear wanted to push Cravalho to bring that vocal evolution to Moana. "This is a new part of my voice," Cravalho notes. "I haven't explored this kind of depth with Moana before. This film digs into these low notes in these times of indecision when we don't know what we are supposed to do next. There's a lot of deeper layers to these songs."
That's particularly noticeable in the centerpiece number "Beyond" as well as "I Want," a song that is something of a spiritual successor to "How Far I'll Go" (the lyrics even name-drop the song). For Barlow and Bear, it was an opportunity to push the notion of how far Moana would go "beyond" the horizons of her previous journey, referencing the first musical number and building on top of its ideas. "It's bigger than just her personal journey now," says Barlow.
"We also wanted her to be more vulnerable," Bear adds. "'Beyond' is a little bit darker than 'How Far I'll Go' because the stakes are suddenly so much higher. She's about to make a big decision that will affect the rest of her life. She knows more of the world and what's out there, so she knows what to expect — and that could be scary."
The song expresses Moana's commitment to her people and promise to come home no matter how far she must venture. "That hit me square in my chest," admits Cravalho, who found the song very personal. "I feel most like myself when I'm at home, and yet I feel like I owe it to my community to go as far as I possibly can. There was a safety in 'How Far I'll Go,' but when you feel lost in the expanse of the beyond, that's when true character is born."
It's that push and pull between home and adventure, and how it shapes us as people, that defined the song and the entire score for the duo. "The very first day that we stepped into the story room at Disney, there was a quote on the wall that said, 'You never stop discovering who you are,'" Bear says. "That is the biggest message of this movie. We are all changing every day and growing and evolving as human beings, and learning to love ourselves through all the different stages of our life and the people that we continue to become."
Cravalho sees identity as more of a decision than a discovery. "We never stop choosing who we are," she says. "It's that choice time and time again of, 'I'm going to do what's right, even if that means giving up everything.' That in itself allows Moana and the crew to defeat this next monster."
That's also a lesson Cravalho's still learning herself, waking up and choosing who she is day after day. "It still feels like an uphill battle," she admits. "For both of us, Moana and I, it's hard to work toward our goals and keep at it time and time again, but it's worth it for the coming home. It's a big celebration of, 'You made it, you went that far, and then you came back.' And that's what I'll always remember — the importance of going far but also coming back home because that's what grounds me and makes it all worth it."
