Walt Disney Animation Studios' musical adventure film Moana 2 continued the adventure of the titular Polynesian princess with her new crew and demigod Maui.
The sequel to the 2016 hit movie hit theaters on November 27, 2024, and outgrossed its predecessor by making $1.05 billion worldwide and becoming the third highest-grossing film of 2024.
While the movie was a smashing hit and continues to be a popular animated franchise, few would know that it was initially supposed to be a limited series under the working title of Moana: The Series.
In 2020, during Disney Investor Day, Jennifer Lee, the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, announced it as a miniseries, partly to facilitate its streaming service, Disney+, which had just launched a year prior.
However, in 2024, the decision was changed, and the sequel was released as a feature film.
More on Moana 2 in our story.
Why was the Moana series eventually changed to a feature film, Moana 2?
It is no surprise that Moana's success in 2016 nudged the makers to consider a different route for the beloved Disney princess. Walt Disney Animation Studios earlier announced it under the working title of Moana: The Series, which was envisioned as a musical series alongside the live-action movie (still in production).
However, leadership changes in Disney's streaming service and the early footage of the animated movie changed plans, and the Moana 2 feature film was born.
Moana was initially conceived as a limited series soon after the launch of the streaming service Disney+. Naturally, the network focused heavily on pushing its most popular content toward streaming on Disney+, and many of its iconic animated series were made available on the platform.
In addition to some of its most iconic animated series like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, the streaming giant also bought the whole of MCU and the Star Wars franchise on the platform to garner viewers' attention. As a result, the Moana series was also viewed as a strong contender, which would have marketed Disney+.
However, Disney+'s initial financial losses and a change in leadership from CEO Bob Chapek to Bob Iger transformed the series to Moana 2. Considering the movie's theatrical impact, Iger announced the feature film during Disney's earnings call in February 2024:
''We were impressed with what we saw, and we knew it deserved a theatrical release. The original Moana film from 2016 recently crossed 1 billion hours streamed on Disney+ and was the most-streamed movie of 2023 on any platform in the U.S.''
Iger also discussed how the early footage of the material nudged them to revoke their decision and continue with a feature film.
Moana 2's director discussed how the initial series idea helped the movie in the long run
While the series eventually changed into a feature film titled Moana 2, it worked in favor of the franchise, as director Jason Hand discussed in an interview with ScreenRant.
While discussing the creative process of the movie, Hand revealed how the in-depth research of the characters [for the series initially] made everybody familiar with them, which helped the team to develop them better for Moana 2 (via ScreenRant):
''Because we got to focus on the on each one of those crew members in the series format, we got to know them and understand makes them tick, where they are the funniest, where they can be the most emotional. When we switched it to the feature format, it became about how all of that fits through Moana's lense and her journey.''
To this, director Dana Ledoux Miller added:
''...the biggest surprise for me was the depth that we were able to take with her [Moana] friendship with Maui. We really pushed it to new levels...this friendship that they formed in that first film has changed them in ways that are unexpected and takes them to places that I really don't think anyone in our audience sees coming.''
Also Read: Moana 2: What happened to Matangi?
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