When it comes to making a Disney Animation musical, there’s always going to be high pressure for the songwriters in particular, simply because of the sheer number of bangers that presumably made the first movie so popular. For songwriter duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Moana 2 marked their first time writing for a feature film ever, but from where I stand, they most definitely delivered on a memorable new Disney soundtrack packed with emotional callbacks and new melodies. But it’s more work to do this phenomenally than you might guess.
In fact, while I spoke with them about one of the biggest 2024 movies for CinemaBlend, they shared more information about their writing process, and it sounds like a whole lot of work! When I sat down with the duo best known for The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, I asked them how many songs they wrote for Moana 2 in total. Here’s what Bear had to say:
A lot. Well, I would say full extra songs would be like three or four full extra songs, but within that, like hundreds of different versions of those songs, you know what I mean? We’re probably on revision like 65 of ‘What Could Be Better Than This’ or whatever. Maybe more full extra songs, because we tried, we swung at Maui Song a few times before we got ‘Chee Hoo’.
These two definitely spent a lot of time together trying to get the latest Disney movie right. While there’s been some criticism about the sequel losing Lin-Manuel Miranda (which Barlow and Bear recently had a great response to), I know I haven’t been able to get the soundtrack out of my head (or my playback) since the movie came out. While six songs of theirs made the final version, Bear threw out a wild number when discussing how many drafts it took for them to get each song right. In other words, these songs did not just flow out in one go, they really pushed themselves to do multiple versions before landing on the songs we hear.
In addition to the main six that are part of Moana 2, Bear also shared there were either three or four full extra songs that they made for the movie that didn’t make it past the cutting room floor. Makes you wonder what part of the story they were about! As Bear thought back to the songwriting process, the composer and songwriter thought back to Dwayne Johnson’s big song “Can I Get A Chee-Hoo?” which they apparently had multiple versions of before finding the right one.
Elsewhere in CinemaBlend’s interview, Barlow and Bear shared the funny story of what happened when they shared their song with The Rock the first time. They knew the other filmmakers were going to play Johnson the song one day, but hours passed without the pair hearing back, so they were convinced “he hates it.” However, once The Rock did listen in on it, he FaceTimed them (without warning), and they were so excited.
Our Moana 2 review kind of says what I feel about the current theatrical release, but it’s even cooler when I hear these great BTS stories straight from the people involved. Hopefully, it’ll enhance your theatrical experience, too.