How Moana 2 Introduced One of the Best New Disney Villains in Years

Perhaps the most “boots the house down” of Disney villain songs, “Get Lost” introduces Matangi, the badass bat goddess of Moana 2. If you haven’t watched the film yet, it just hit Disney+ today and will be released on physical media on the 18th—but trust, you’ll want to stay trapped in Matangi’s clam for a spell, as the trickster folklore figure seduces Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) in one of the best sequences of the film to “get lost” instead of journeying in a straight line.

io9 recently talked to Moana 2 composers Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear—together known as Barlow & Bear—about writing “Get Lost,” and broke down the track along with voice actress Awhimai Fraser, who sings the instant classic baddie song. Barlow, who is the singing, co-lyricist powerhouse of Barlow & Bear, described the process: “We knew we wanted it to be like a big pop anthem. But we didn’t really know what she was singing about until we got the script. And it said that she was a goddess that was stuck in a giant clam and she was giving Moana some non-advice.”

Bear, a young prodigy composer and pianist who co-created the viral Bridgerton musicial on TikTok with Barlow, and who tours as Beyoncé’s keyboard player (even while making Moana 2), added, “I think she started out a little bit more evil or less good-intentioned. But the thing about Matangi  is that she serves herself and serving Moana happens to help her in this case.”

She continuted. “But she’s very mysterious and I feel like at any point, one thing could change her. And I like that we also were told that Awhimai can sing her ass off. So we knew that we wanted to have this show-stopping song that really showcased her vocal ability. And she’s a new character. So [Disney] got to kind of branch out a little bit from the existing world of Moana.”

For Fraser, the process of finding Matangi was both on the page and in the music. “She’s got this older sister vibe about her to an extent. And I think that that was a really fun thing to play,” she said. “She genuinely wanted Moana to succeed, but also when you’ve been stuck in a certain place and time for a very long amount of time, I think she was also learning sort of how to be sociable again. I think she was really surprised also by Moana, [and] that she was a bit thrown by her.”

The lyrics to “Get Lost” encourage taking paths less traveled to find your way and Matangi embodies the nature of alluring unpredictability. Bear shared how even with the character’s heel turn at the end, you never quite know what side she’s on. “I mean, ultimately, we didn’t even really what her agenda was. Is she good? Is she bad?”

“That evolved as the film evolved. I think at one point she was a little too evil. And we’re like, why the hell would Moana even remotely trust her? And we’re like, ok, we need that bridge. We need that bridge that kind of opens the curtain a little bit: ‘Read between the lines. Listen to what I’m saying, Moana.’”

Fraser loved the spontaneous twists and turns of the character even in her big song, which encourages rule-breaking on Moana’s part and is reflectively self-aware for the not-so-clean-cut villain: “Hopefully the performance showed that journey of, she arrives super sassy, mysterious, kind of playing around with Maui, and then at the end, you know, she genuinely hopes that she’ll see Tau Tai Moana again”—even if it’s as a challenger to the youngest of the demi-gods.

But before they get there, Moana had to embrace jumping into the unknown. “Even the line ‘Get Lost’ was inspired by a conversation with real life Wayfinders, who said getting lost was the pathway to magic,” Barlow shared. “And we said, ‘write that down’. Because Moana’s making a bunch of mistakes, and she doesn’t know how to get out. She’s stuck.”

Bear agreed that Moana had to reach a point where she had to toss out the rule book. “Her bag of tricks is used up. She keeps making mistakes, relying on what she already knows,” she explained, and described Matangi as an essential foil. We’ve all had that figure in our lives who shakes things up and gets us to make unpredictable choices. Here, it’s in the form of an alarmingly persuasive and charismatic flying demi-god with a legion of bats, saying “‘the point of this journey is you can’t take the path that’s already traveled. You have to find a new one’. But I think the fact that the lyrics are a little vague until we get to the bridge is  intentional.”

Matangi can easily shift from friend to foe, but always with the intention of helping Moana grow out of what she knows to be good or bad. Fraser hopes to return to the role, and it’s teased in Moana 2‘s post-credits scenes that it won’t be the last time we see Mantangi. “I hope to kind of delve a little bit more into Moana’s journey and also how Matangi can keep playing with her and keep pushing her into spaces that maybe she’s not so comfortable with,” she said.

Along with fans of the newest baddie among the Disney Villains, she also hopes to discover more about her. “It would be really fascinating to find out how on earth—what did she do to get put into this giant clam and have to be there for a very long amount of time? She must have really annoyed Nalo.”

We’re seated for more Matangi content and can’t wait to see more of her already. Fingers crossed Moana 3 gets announced soon.

Moana 2 is out now on Disney+ and will be available on 4K and Blu-ray March 18 at retailers, with a special steelbook edition from Walmart.

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