Moana star admits Disney restraints as she shares career 'first' in new film

Auli'i Cravalho has had a glittering career since her breakout role as the title character in Disney's 2016 hit, Moana. She has since voiced a host of vibrant animated characters, reprised Moana again for 2024's Moana 2 and even taken on Broadway.

Her latest role to hit screens is that of Lulu in Apple TV+'s upcoming animated musical, Lulu is a Rhinoceros.

The family-friendly film explores themes of acceptance and identity, and is based on the best-selling children's book of the same name penned by father and daughter duo, Jason and Allison Flom. The authors served as executive producers on the project, with Allison also taking on the role of head writer.

The story centres around Lulu (Cravalho) who appears to viewers as a bulldog - except that is not how she identifies. As she heads out in search of a community festival, she encounters people who accept her for who she is and those who do not, and there are plenty of lessons to be learned along the way.

The synopsis reads: "Lulu is a rhinoceros - that's who she sees when she looks in the mirror. On a quest to spread kindness, the family musical special follows fun-loving Lulu as she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime, powered by new friends, courage and catchy songs."

While Auli'i is familiar with voicing a titular character, the process of playing Lulu ended up being a very different experience compared to her previous voice acting roles.

Speaking to the Express, the star opened up about the challenges her latest project brought, including how she navigated the amount of control she was given over Lulu's sound and how it differed from her Disney days.

"Doing many a different voice for different characters, it's always different and I wanted to make sure that Lulu felt her own," she began. "She has so much kindness in her, so much chutzpah, that excitement... I wanted that to come across in my voice."

"Having this specifically be a journey of self-acceptance I had to kind of had to dig deep in myself and say 'Alright, how do I want her to sound?'"

Auli'i admitted that the freedom she had to craft Lulu's character from the ground up was unusual, admitting: "I had not really been given the liberty of that before.

"So I was very grateful to the people I work with at Bento Box [Animation] who just let me have fun with this character through and through."

Lulu is a Rhinoceros will be available to stream on Apple TV+ from May 30. Alongside Aulii, the stellar voice cast also includes Tony Award winner Alex Newell as Cory, Emmy Award nominee Dulé Hill as Flom Flom, Paul Rust as Finn and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Hip-Hop.

Lulu is a Rhinoceros is available to stream on Apple TV+ from May 30