Critics and audiences alike will eventually weigh in on Moana 2 — but for Dwayne Johnson, the opinions that matter most are those of his daughters.
The self-proclaimed “proud girl dad” stopped by Good Morning America on Monday to tease the upcoming sequel, in which he plays the demigod Maui, and shared what the title character means to his girls.
“I think for these girls, my daughters, who see themselves in Moana because they are girls of color, really one of the beauties of Moana is little boys, little girls of all colors around the world can see themselves in these characters,” Johnson said.
The actor said his two youngest, Jasmine, 8, and Tiana, 6, gave the film’s trailer their nod of approval at D23 earlier this year but said they wanted to wait and see the movie at its premiere in Hawaii.
“This one is special to them, so I can’t wait to show it to them,” he gushed.
Johnson also opened up more about his character’s new song in the highly anticipated sequel, “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?,” which follows Maui’s iconic “You’re Welcome” tune from the first film.
“When Lin-Manuel [Miranda] wrote the first song, he thought, ‘Oh, it’s perfect for this character, Maui, to say, ‘You’re welcome. You’re welcome,'” he explained. “But in this case, our female writers [Abigail] Barlow and [Emily] Bear … took this idea of female empowerment and what that means and how important that is for Maui, the demigod Maui himself, to not sing about himself but more so take Moana and tell her, ‘You can do this.'”
Johnson said the song is “crazy” and “there’s a lot of different places it goes to.”
Moana 2 sets sail in theaters on Nov. 27.
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