As Hawaiian Language Month — Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi — comes to a close, HPR celebrates Hawaiʻi’s official language with the release of Disney’s "Moana 2" entirely in Hawaiian.
The task of translating, casting, and recording the audio was overseen by the Oʻahu-based Kūmau Productions. Co-owners Ty Sanga and Lāiana Kanoa-Wong worked alongside Moana actress Auliʻi Cravalho, a team of translators, and local voice actors to bring the translated version to screen.
HPR spoke with Sanga about the project, which is now streaming on Disney+.
Interview Highlights
On translating from English to ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
TY SANGA: Our main intention with this was not just to translate it simply, you know, like word for word, from English to ʻōlelo. We want to make sure that it's being looked through a Hawaiian lens. Make sure that the Hawaiian concepts and ideas are being translated. Not just the simple words, but the ʻike Hawaiʻi. You understand what the deeper nuance is within our language. In every film, there's so much layers that the artists put into it, you know. And if you understand the language, if you understand the different stories, if you understand these different nuances, it becomes much more rich. So we wanted to put all those extra treasures in there. So then that way our community, or everyone, has a wonderful experience.
On representing Hawaiian voice actors
SANGA: It was my dream to do a project like this. First of all, not only because I love Disney, but because we can showcase our talent here in Hawaiʻi. There's so much talent that has never had the opportunity to really shine in a space that's theirs, you know. It’s like, you're usually required to work on stories that have been written from outside. Which is, you know, it's part of the process, you know, and we can make it our own. But when it's finally ours, you know? Even though "Moana" is like a fictional story in many ways, the fabric of it, the kahua of it, is Hawaiʻi.
On the rise of Hawaiian stories and storytellers in Hollywood
SANGA: Studios are starting to listen to them too, because they, I mean, "Moana 2" did amazing. You know, it broke — it was one of Disney's films, or one of the only Disney films, that hit a billion that year. So we know that our stories and our and the process, the value of this process, brings richness to these films. So finally, finally, all of the planting that we've been putting into this, this huge māla of what we call the cinematic world, is finally coming to fruition, and we're starting to see it. You see other farmers in there with us, you know? And that's the beauty of it, because then we want this to be normalized, and it shouldn't just be one filmmaker that does this. It needs to be multiple filmmakers that do this type of work. And we're hoping that this is just the tip of the spear to kind of open the door and move things forward.
This story aired on The Conversation on Feb. 27, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
