With the wind in her sail on the sea far behind her, Moana sets out for the ocean once again with  Disney announcing the confirmation of a sequel to the widely-famous Disney princess movie: “Moana.”

The first “Moana” movie garnered worldwide attention, not only being a wildly popular and high rated movie by fans and critics, but also featuring amazing music like, “Shiny,” “You’re Welcome,” and  “How Far I’ll Go,” the latter winning a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Additionally, the soundtrack for the movie won an American Music Award for Favorite Soundtrack, along with a Billboard Music Award for Top Soundtrack. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who composed all the music for the first “Moana,” will not be returning, however the choice of his predecessors, aka., the composers who will be writing the music for the “Moana” sequel, have sparked some controversy. 

The new composers, a duo who go by the name of “Barlow and Bear,” have taken on the task of being two main composers for the new movie. In the past, the duo had been sued by Netflix for putting on a production of a musical adaptation of the popular show “Bridgerton,” which they had not received permission to do, and were making profit from. 

“I think Lin-Manuel Miranda should be the one to continue writing the music, because I think it would be dumb to mess with perfection” says senior Abigail DeSantis. 

Junior Daphne Linn agrees, saying that she thinks it “would have been cool if Lin Manuel Miranda had been able to be involved in both versions of Moana,” however it’s likely that “he probably has lots of other projects going on so maybe it’s time to hand over the reins for Moana.”

Despite the controversy, it is evident that the new composers are talented individuals, who most likely will do a phenomenal job of re-interpreting Moana’s story and composing beautiful music for the upcoming movie. Fans are excited to see how this new 2024 project turns out, with exact release dates not yet announced.