Dwayne Johnson has become a household name in recent years, having comfortably transitioned from worldwide wrestling sensation to Hollywood big-hitter. He played a huge part in revitalising the stale Fast and Furious franchise, and has since become known for playing characters that poke fun at his physique. His upcoming Baywatch reboot looks to take this ironic humour to a new level, but no role epitomizes ‘‘The Rock" as fans know and love him, better than Disney’s Moana.
The latest Mouse House animated movie features Johnson as Maui, a Polynesian demi-god who journeys alongside the wilful Moana, voiced by Auli’i Cravalho. Maui is muscle-bound and powerful, with an amusing arrogance that leads to a number of laugh-out-loud moments and emotional pay-offs. Johnson leads the charge for marketing any movie he’s due to appear in, with some 74.7 million Instagram followers being treated to screenshots and footage, as well as a host of inspirational workout photos. Moana has been in theaters for nearly two months now, but The Rock is still keeping fans up-to-date with new content from the movie.
A deleted scene from Moana titled ‘Gone Fishing’ sees Maui struggling against the ocean and its mischievous geysers. Dwayne Johnson claims to have worked for 18 months on the animation of the clip in his Instagram post with the clip (see below), before writing a disclaimer that this “may or may not be complete bullsh*t.” If this scene had appeared in the film at all, it would probably have fit somewhere in the early portion of the third act, considering Maui’s easy transformation into his favorite giant hawk. It’s a fun lighthearted clip that also includes a brief glance at the Moana Blu-ray/DVD case.
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EXCLUSIVE: Bonus animation that I personally worked on for 18 months inside the animation studios at Disney with Academy Award winning animators. Enjoy this special clip called “Gone Fishing” from #MOANA, available on digital Feb. 21 & Blu-Ray March 7. For the record, that stuff about me personally working as an animator for 18 months on this cool bonus footage may or may not be complete bullsht. Enjoy the clip… A video posted by therock (@therock) on Jan 12, 2017 at 4:50am PST
The clip was viewed over half a million times within an hour of it being posted, highlighting the power of Dwayne Johnson’s fan base. He recently performed at an event called ‘Rock The Troops’, a music and entertainment event for military families, which broke a four-year ratings record for Spike TV. In 2016 he also won a host of awards, from the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Premium, Cable TV Actor, to even People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. His broad appeal has helped Moana to gross $451 million at the worldwide box office to date, with the film now in a good position to overtake Wreck-It Ralph on the all-time Disney Animation Studios box office chart.
Dwayne Johnson’s success reached a zenith in 2016 when it was suggested that he run for the 2020 presidency against Donald Trump. The Rock hasn’t ruled out the idea, going so far as to say ‘it would be a great opportunity to help people’. Little more has been said on the matter thus far, with Johnson currently busy with the marketing for Baywatch, which also features previous Disney kid actor Zac Efron.
Source: Dwayne Johnson
- Moana Release Date: 2016-11-23
