‘Moana 2’ Animators Gave the Wayfinder More Strength (and Muscle) to Battle Storm God Nalo

The Disney animation team discusses strengthening Moana with a Marvel-like pose, the return of the Kakamora, and the introduction of Nalo.

When the decision was made to transition “Moana 2” from a series to a film, Disney also decided to lean into more spectacle. This entailed more VFX-heavy battles and musical numbers, but it also meant aging Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) three years to make the teenage Wayfinder more confident and athletic in her quest to find the hidden island of Motufetu and reunite all of the Polynesian islands. However, she must first battle Nalo, the storm god who cursed the island to separate the islanders. Joining Moana is a crew of inexperienced villagers, rooster Heihei, pig pal Pua, and, eventually, demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson).

“From an animation standpoint, it didn’t feel any different,” lead animator Kevin Webb told IndieWire. “What we discovered is that the scope of the story needed to be on the big screen.”

In aging up Moana, they made necessary adjustments without sacrificing her iconic personality. “Even though it’s three years, that’s a big age difference for her,” animation lead Amy Smead told IndieWire. “She’s been chief, and she’s been wayfinding for three years. She’s more grounded and she’s comfortable in her place. We didn’t want to change her drastically because we all love her. So it’s like a difference in choices.”

Moana has not only physically matured and grown stronger, but her action poses are sharper. “She’s more back on her heels because she doesn’t feel the need to leap into action immediately all the time,” Danny Arriaga, the character art director, told IndieWire. “And she’s got more strength in her arms, and she’s lost a little baby fat in her face. Being out on the ocean all the time, she’s got an awesome new hairdo that’s just a little rougher, like she’s been in the saltwater a lot.”

This is evident in the opening, where Moana scales a mountainous region and discovers an important artifact related to Motufetu (with the help of Heihei). At one point, she performs a parkour jump over a ravine and strikes a Marvel-like pose.

“We also had more muscle with controls in our rig that we were able to dial in,” Arriaga added. “These early shots show that physicality and how capable she is. The directors [David Derrick, Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller] always talked about making that intro delicious.”

The first action set piece involves the return of the pesky coconut-like Kakamora pirates. Moana seizes control of the canoe while the newbie crew is put to the test. There’s Loto, who designed and maintains the canoe; Kele, the grouchy elder chef who prepares vegetables; and Moni, a young storyteller and Maui fanboy. But then there’s a twist, which raises the stakes. “So we got to play against the expectations of the audience in that moment, which was fun,” said Snead. “They weren’t meant to be on this canoe together, they were brought together by necessity.”

Aside from the added muscle rig controls for Moana, the animators were able to run simple simulations to see what her hair might do in the animation files, and there were buoyancy tools that allowed the boats to ride on top of the water without having to do that by hand.

But the greatest animated achievement was Nalo, the Storm God, who was designed as a series of simulated twisters. This involved animating a weather system with the help of a character rig. “So, for the tornadoes, we would have a very simple rig for them to get the timing, spacing shape language, and then we would deliver that to effects, and then they would put all of their effects magic on it,” Arriaga said. “And sometimes there would be back and forth as well. We’d get it back in animation, make some changes, and then give it back to effects. And it’s a deep collaboration between everybody that I really love about our studio.”

“Moana 2” is now in theaters.