Cravalho, Auli’i (2000- )

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    Auli’i Cravalho on ‘Moana 2’ and Making Her Broadway Debut

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    On a chilly November evening, wearing a light leather jacket and a scarf, Auli’i Cravalho was freezing as she plunged through a pair of gleaming doors into a candlelit bar in Midtown Manhattan.“I do not know how people layer here — I’m in total awe,” said Cravalho, who had just come from a photo shoot at a park on the Lower East Side. Like the plucky young heroine she voices in Disney’s “Moana” films — the sequel, “Moana 2,” hits theaters on Wednesday — Cravalho grew up in a tropical climate, in Kohala, Hawaii.But recently she had been living in an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, with her partner and her best friend, while starring in the Broadway revival of “Cabaret.” Cravalho plays the singer Sally Bowles in the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical about a Berlin nightclub during the rise of fascism.That night would be her first back in the show after sitting out a few performances after she “had come this close to vocal hemorrhaging.”“I have a newfound respect for the leads of these musicals, because my gosh, it is tough,” said Cravalho, 24, whose name is pronounced owl-LEE-ee cruh-VAL-yo. It had been a whirlwind few weeks, but she was gregarious as she sipped tea poured from a miniature teapot.In addition to performing an emotionally demanding role seven times a week, there were promotional appearances for “Moana 2,” the follow-up to the 2016 Polynesian animated adventure — a global phenomenon that was the most-streamed movie on any U.S. platform last year, according to Nielsen.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Moana 2’ Review: It Doesn’t Rock the Boat

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      In this benign sequel, the Disney princess continues her seafaring ways and remains admirably uninterested in finding a prince.“Moana,” Disney’s breezy foray into Polynesian myth and culture, was released almost exactly eight years ago. Anyone remember what was going on that month? Amid an election, a reckoning and political anxiety, Moana’s anthems about voyaging beyond the confines of her coral reef (the tropical version of a glass ceiling) to save her people from environmental disaster rang out with special feeling.That resonance doesn’t really carry over into “Moana 2,” a sequel that seems to abide by the “if it ain’t broke” rule. Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller, the movie charts a parallel course to its predecessor, following Moana (voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho) as she leaves home on an odyssey with her island’s future at stake. Along the way, she meets up with Maui (Dwayne Johnson), the burly, smug demigod still prone to jaunty jibes — he often calls Moana “Curly” — and corny metatextual commentary written, presumably, for the benefit of the millennial and Gen-X adults in the room. (“That’ll make sense in 2,000 years,” he quips, after using the term “butt dial.”)Coming off a successful restoration of the hydrosphere’s ecological balance, Moana, now a practiced voyager, begins the sequel by expressing an upgraded objective: establish contact with inhabitants of nearby islands. Soon enough, she receives a vision from her ancestors on the very topic, encouraging her to take an arduous journey across the ocean. Upon her dad’s urging, Moana assembles a small and somewhat haphazard way-finding crew, including a crotchety agriculturalist (David Fane), an excitable marine engineer (Rose Matafeo) and a muscled communications expert (Hualalai Chung). This jumble of new faces often feels like a waste of screen space, especially when the ocean, a wonderful animistic motif, is perfectly capable of buoying Moana on her travels.The group’s destination is Motufetu, an island that once served as a hub for disparate Pacific Islanders before Nalo, an evil storm god, sank it beneath the ocean. To bring back Motufetu and restore social harmony, humans need to find the land and step foot upon it. Onscreen, the details of this fabricated, composite mythology get a little murky. But squint your eyes against the specifics, and the odyssey tends to deliver a mood that fluctuates along a scale of benign to bright.The musical numbers, from Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (picking up the reins from the original movie’s Lin-Manuel Miranda), as well as Opetaia Foa‘i and Mark Mancina, are competently written and arranged (save for one painful rap sequence). The big anthem is “Beyond,” a corollary to “How Far I’ll Go” that has Moana rehashing the pull to go out exploring, just a tad farther than last time. The song is a reminder that Moana is a member of the new and improved Disney kingdom, in which heroines reach happily ever after through personal growth, coming-of-age and finding themselves. Notably, and perhaps admirably, there remains no prince to Moana’s princess, although she does retain her animal sidekicks of rooster and pig.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Taylor Swift Heading to Disney+ and ‘Moana’ Sequel to Theaters

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      The pop star’s hit “Eras Tour” concert film hits the streaming service next month, part of the company’s attempt to revitalize its entertainment lineup.Disney is deploying Taylor Swift and Moana as part of a campaign to revitalize its entertainment lineup.The company said on Wednesday that it had reached a deal with Ms. Swift to bring her blockbuster “Eras Tour” concert movie to streaming for the first time. “The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)” will include five additional performed songs, including the fan favorite “Cardigan,” and exclusively arrive on Disney+ on March 15.The “Eras Tour” movie has sold more than $260 million in tickets at cinemas worldwide. In a statement, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, called it “electrifying” and “a true phenomenon.”Separately, Disney said it would release a big-screen sequel to “Moana” in theaters on Nov. 27. The first “Moana” was released in 2016 and took in $687 million against a production budget of roughly $150 million. But streaming is where the characters have really taken off. “Moana” was the No. 1 streaming movie of last year on any service, according to Nielsen, with 11.6 billion viewing minutes. Nielsen said streaming customers have watched almost 80 billion minutes of “Moana” over the last four years.Auli’i Cravalho (the Polynesian princess Moana) and Dwayne Johnson (the tattooed demigod Maui) are expected to reprise their vocal roles in “Moana 2.” The sequel is a musical directed by Dave Derrick Jr., whose credits include “Raya and the Last Dragon” and “Encanto.” The story line for “Moana 2” involves an unexpected call from Moana’s ancestors, which prompts her to travel “to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters.”Disney struggled at the box office last year. Its animated “Wish,” the superhero sequel “The Marvels” and the ultraexpensive “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” were all box office failures, prompting concerns about the vitality of various Disney studios. Pixar’s “Elemental” had a disastrous opening, but was ultimately able to generate a decent $496 million worldwide.The generally poor performance — in stark contrast with prior years, when Disney released one billion-dollar-grossing movie after another — has contributed to attacks on the company by activist investors. Trian Fund Management, for instance, is waging a proxy battle for multiple board seats. Disney is trying to fight off such attempts.“Moana 2,” initially conceived as an animated Disney+ series, joins a theatrical lineup for the year that Walt Disney Studios believes will mark a dramatic turnaround. Other planned releases include “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “Deadpool 3,” “Inside Out 2” and “Mufasa,” a spinoff from “The Lion King.” More