At the D23 Expo this year, Disney annouced that they were going to release a new Disney Princess film that’s titled Moana and set to be released next year. The new Disney tall tells a story about a Polynesian princess, who happens to be a natural-born sea explorer and follows her adventures around the islands, meeting all sorts of characters along the way, like the demi-god Maui. If you have been following Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (who plays Maui, the demi-God) on Instagram, you’ll know that they have been looking high and low for a newcomer to voice the role of Moana. But the search is finally over as they have found her!
Meet the young girl who will be playing the latest Disney Princess, Moana! Disney took to Twitter to announce 14-year-old Auli’i Cravalho from Hawaii will be voicing the role. After having no luck at all even though hundreds of talented young women auditioned, Rachel Sutton, the Casting Director saw Auil’i on the very last day of casting. Talk about a close call!
The directors of Moana, Ron Clements and Jon Musker decided not to tell Auli’i the good news straight away but instead played a little prank on the 14-year-old Hawaiian native. They told Auli’i that it was a second callback and while she ad-libbed, they announced, “Is there any way you could play it more like we’re telling you that we’re offering you the role.” Later on, they told her that it wasn’t a joke and that they really wanted her to play the role of Moana. We can only imagine her excitement because who doesn’t want to play a Disney Princess?
We have not yet seen the movie but we can feel it in our bones that Auli’i will fit the role perfectly! Moana is set to hit theatres at the end of next year.
Check out Auli’i’s introduction video by Disney below:
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