Additional voice casting has been announced for Disney's upcoming animated film Moana, which will arrive in cinemas November 23.
Hamilton creator, multiple Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, is writing music for the film, which “tells the story of a teenage girl from 2,000 years ago who sets sail to find a fabled island. She is joined by the demigod Maui,” voiced by Dwayne Johnson.
As previously reported, Moana, Disney's newest princess, will have the voice of 14-year-old Mililani, HI, native Auli’i Cravalho. Cravalho was discovered while singing at a charity event in Oahu. Phillipa Soo, who originated the role of Hamilton's long-suffering wife Eliza in Hamilton, will play a villager of Motunui, Moana’s home island, in the film. Soo was also the original Natasha in the Off-Broadway hit Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 and can be heard on the original cast album.
Newly announced voice casting, according to Deadline.com, includes Alan Tudyk as HeiHei, the “village idiot rooster who unwittingly ends up on an adventure”; Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa, who is described as “a self-absorbed, 50-foot crab … who wants to be more than a ‘bottom feeder’ and overcompensates for this perceived shortcoming by covering himself in all things shiny”; Rachel House, who has been cast as Moana’s Gramma Tala; Temuera Morrison as Moana’s father, Chief Tui; and Grammy nominee Nicole Scherzinger, who starred in the London revival of Cats, as Moana’s “playful and strong-willed mother," Sina. Scherzinger had been scheduled to reprise her role as Grizabella in the Broadway revival of Cats but withdrew shortly before the start of rehearsals; the role is now being played by Leona Lewis.
Ron Clements and John Musker direct.
Watch the trailer below: