Feel free to sing in the cinema, says The Rock

Dwayne Johnson has said fans should feel free to sing in the cinema, as he attended the UK premiere of Moana 2.

“Especially if you love music, that’s the fun part,” the US star, aka The Rock, told BBC News on the red carpet.

Auli’i Cravalho and Johnson are reprising their roles as the voices of Moana and Maui respectively in the film, a sequel to 2016’s musical adventure.

Recently, there has been a debate on social media around whether people should sing along in cinemas, sparked by the release of Wicked a few days ago.

Some have argued fans should be able to express their enjoyment as they like, while others say singing ruins other people’s experiences.

Johnson, however, made his views on cinema etiquette clear.

“Sing! You’ve paid your hard earned money for a ticket, and you’ve gone into a musical, and you’re into it. Sing,” he said.

The original film followed an adventurous Polynesian teenage girl who sets on a mission across the ocean to save her people.

Moana 2 reunites Moana and Maui three years later for a new voyage alongside a crew of “unlikely seafarers”, Disney has said.

On Sunday evening, London’s Leicester Square was transformed into a Polynesian island, complete with palm trees, a beach, and dancers.

And, while the weather was distinctly untropical, scores of fans turned up hoping to catch a glimpse of Cravalho and Johnson.

Cravalho, who was just 16 when she made her acting debut as Moana, has since starred in films including 2024’s Mean Girls as well as appearing on stage.

But she said she was still “so excited” to be returning to the role of Moana.

“I think Moana is at the forefront of a conversation where the word princess and the word hero are now interchangeable,” she told BBC News.

“She is strong, she is brave, she is not afraid to grab a demigod by the ear. She looks strong as well, at the helm of her ship.”

Johnson, a 52-year-old ex-wrestler, voices the part of gregarious demigod Maui in the animation.

When asked about the similarities between the two roles, he said there is a clear difference.

“Maui [is] actually is a demigod,” he said.

“The difference is wrestlers think that they’re demigods, but they’re not. I know that because I was one of them,” he said with a laugh.

Johnson, who is also starring as Maui in the upcoming live-action Moana remake, said that his three daughters “love” seeing him take on the role.

“Because they see themselves in Moana, they feel they’re represented and they feel a sense of representation from the film too,” he said.

Cravalho, meanwhile, said that when she was cast as Moana, she “never could have expected… just how impactful this character would be”.

“I knew it would change my life, but it seems to have also changed many other people’s lives as well,” she said.

“So sometimes when I meet kids who are at that really special age, I feel like Santa, where they look at me and say, ‘You’re Moana!’ And they believe it! And it warms my heart.”

Many fans of the film, who were children when the original was released eight years ago, will now be teenagers or adults.

Disney will therefore be hoping the film appeals both to the nostalgia audience as well as a new generation of children.

But it faces tough competition, coming just days after Wicked was released.

The original Moana made $687m (£540m) at the box office worldwide, and scored two Oscar nominations.

It was the most streamed movie of 2023 in the US, according to Disney.

A sequel was previously in development as a Disney+ series, but the company surprised fans in February when it revealed it would take the film to cinemas instead.

Songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda – who was nominated for an Oscar for the original – has not returned to work on the music for the sequel.

Instead, the songs have been created by four composers, including songwriting duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, who rose to fame in 2022 after creating an unofficial Bridgerton musical on TikTok.

Moana 2 is in UK cinemas on 29 November.