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

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

“Especially if you love music, that’s the fun part,” the American 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, respectively, in the film, a sequel to the 2016 musical adventure.

Recently, there has been a debate on social media about whether or not people should sing along in cinemas, sparked by the release of Wicked a few days ago.

Some have argued that fans should be able to express their enjoyment however they want, while others say that singing ruins the experiences of others.

However, Johnson made his views on cinema etiquette clear.

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

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

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

On Sunday night, 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, dozens 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 appeared in films, including 2024’s Mean Girls, as well as performing on stage.

But she said she was still “so excited” to return 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’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 ex-wrestler, voices the role 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 a demigod,” he said.

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

Johnson, who also stars as Maui in the upcoming live-action Moana remake, said his three daughters “love” watching 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 from the movie,” he said.

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

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

“So sometimes when I meet kids who are that special age, I feel like Santa Claus, 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 hope that the film appeals both to the nostalgia audience as well as a new generation of children.

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

The original Moana earned $687m (£540m) at the box office worldwide and earned 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 theaters 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 November 29.