In a recent interview, Lin-Manuel Miranda – one of the creators of the original Moana soundtrack – shared his experience working on the new live-action film.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Shares Live-Action Moana Thoughts
For the live-action film, Lin-Manuel Miranda created a new song, titled “Along The Way.” It features a vocal collaboration performed by the original voice of Moana, Auliʻi Cravalho, alongside the live-action film’s stars, Catherine Lagaʻaia (Moana) and Dwayne Johnson (Maui).
Miranda shared that the original song didn’t exist at first while they were filming Moana. They went into production with the existing songs, though some little changes were made to songs like “Shiny” and “You’re Welcome” to smooth them out and make them better. But when director Tommy Kail mentioned that there is only one other person in the world who knows what Catherina Laga’aia is going through right now (referencing Auli’i Cravalho), Miranda knew there was a unique opportunity for a passing of the torch.
As Miranda notes, “The notion of Auliʻi as someone who’s the only other person who’s been through this journey that Katie is going on, both inside and outside the film – and as an opportunity for sisterhood and advice and this ancestral passing on – was delicious to write.”
Miranda wrote the song chronologically, and the first line that came to him was, “You’re on your way. You’re on the ocean.” After finishing a verse and the chorus, he sent the song to Kail for feedback, who told him to “keep going.” Miranda also mentioned that the song was snuck into the scene where Maui is teaching Moana how to sail. Viewers are hearing “Along The Way,” but Opetaia Foa’i translated and reorchestrated it into Tokelauan and not English.
You can listen to the song on YouTube:
Moana is now in theaters. It made $4.5 million at Thursday previews and is floundering on Rotten Tomatoes.
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