The Rock says people should feel free to sing in the movies

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

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

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

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

Some argue that fans should be able to express their joy however they want, while others say singing ruins other people’s experiences.

However, Johnson made his views on movie theater etiquette clear.

“Sing! You paid your hard-earned money for a ticket, went to a musical and loved it. Sing,” he said.

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

Moana 2 reunites Moana and Maui three years later on a new journey alongside a crew of “unlikely sailors,” as Disney said.

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

And even though the weather was decidedly untropical, plenty of fans showed 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 such as 2024’s Mean Girls and also appeared on stage.

But she said she is still “so excited” to return to the role of Moana.

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

“She’s strong, she’s brave, she’s not afraid to grab a demigod by the ear. She looks strong too, at the helm of her ship.”

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

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

“Maui is actually a demigod,” he said.

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

Johnson, who also stars as Maui in the upcoming live-action adaptation of “Moana,” said his three daughters “love” seeing him take on the role.

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

Cravalho, meanwhile, said that she “never could have anticipated how influential this character would be” when she was cast as Moana.

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

“So when I meet kids at this really special age, I feel like Santa Claus looking at me and saying, ‘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 therefore hopes that the film will appeal to both nostalgic audiences and a new generation of children.

But just days after its release, “Wicked” is facing stiff competition.

The original Moana grossed $687 million (£540 million) at the worldwide box office and received two Oscar nominations.

According to Disney, it was the most streamed film of 2023 in the US.

A sequel as a Disney+ series was previously in development, but the company surprised fans in February when it announced it would be releasing the film in theaters instead.

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

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

Moana 2 hits UK cinemas on November 29th.