Dwayne Johnson is hearing the same joke from parents everywhere he goes: they’re exhausted by how often their kids replay his Moana song, “You’re Welcome.”
Speaking during a Toronto International Film Festival conversation in September 2025, Johnson said families routinely approach him to complain—half-laughing, half-pleading—that they’re “so sick” of hearing his song because their children “play it every day.”
It’s the kind of complaint that’s actually a compliment: a sign the movie’s music has become permanent background noise in households around the world.
Johnson leaned into the humor of it, even poking fun at his own vocals by joking that he sometimes sings in “keys that don’t exist.”
But he also treated the moment with genuine appreciation. He told the audience that projects like Moana are rare because they “pierce” the broader culture and travel across borders in a way few films do—especially when they’re anchored by songs kids want to repeat endlessly.
He also framed Moana as personally meaningful beyond the laughs. Johnson emphasized the significance of bringing Polynesian culture to a global audience through the character Maui, calling it “my culture” and describing the film as a “global embrace of Polynesian culture.” He credited Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songwriting as part of what made the soundtrack stick.
The timing of the comments mattered, too. Johnson was at TIFF largely to promote The Smashing Machine, his dramatic turn as real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr, with the film slated for a theatrical release on October 3, 2025.
Even as he pushes into more prestige territory, Moana remains one of the roles he can’t escape—because the soundtrack is still on loop in living rooms.
And he’s not done with Maui. After voicing the character again in Moana 2, Johnson is also set to reprise the role in Disney’s live-action Moana remake, which Entertainment Weekly reports is scheduled for 2026.
