There was just no telling how far Auli’i [owl-LEE-ee] Cravalho would go after her star-making role as the titular Disney heroine in 2016’s Moana, but now we all know the answer: far, indeed.

In honor of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Cravalho reflects on the legacy of the role that started her career.

“Moana shaped me, first and foremost,” she tells ABC Audio. “I will always be grateful for her character traits of strength and resilience, and her adventurous nature. And I take them with me wherever I go.”

Cast in the role at age 14 and only 16 when the film was released, Cravalho has quite literally grown up as a Disney princess. Now 21, she understands how important it is for children to see “a young Polynesian heroine that doesn’t have a love interest.”

Cravalho was also given the opportunity to rerecord the film in Olelo Hawai’i, the official Hawaiian language. “Hawaiian is a dying language,” she said. “So, to have that representation, and to hear my cousins who are in Hawaiian immersion school – they [are able to] use that as a teaching aid for language.”

Nielsen consistently reports Moana at the top of its streaming charts. Although the film premiered three years before Disney+ was around, it was made available to stream on the service the day of its launch on November 12, 2019. When Nielsen released its Streaming Unwrapped 2021 data, Moana ranked #2 on the 2021 Top 10 Streaming Movies list.

That’s right – a film that was released in 2016 beat out movies that were released in 2021 – popular titles like Red Notice and Jungle Cruise.

“Moana lives on in so many different ways,” Cravalho said. “And I can just only sit back and be just as grateful for it.”

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Closing arguments in the high-profile dual defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard began Friday.

The trial began April 11 in Fairfax, Virginia, and was presided over by Judge Penney Azcarate.

Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018. In the piece, she wrote about surviving domestic abuse without identifying her alleged abuser by name. Heard filed a $100 million countersuit against Depp in response.

In their respective testimonies during the trial, both Heard and Depp claimed the other abused them. The former couple, who met while filming 2011’s The Rum Diary and were married from 2015 to 2017, denied each other’s claims of abuse.

Depp’s lawyer, Camille Vasquez, began Depp’s closing arguments. She described Heard as “violent,” “abusive” and a “deeply troubled person.”

“What is at stake in this trial is a man’s good name,” Vasquez said. “Even more than that, what is at stake in this trial is a man’s life — the life that he lost when he was accused of a heinous crime, and the life he could live when he is finally vindicated.”

Ben Chew, another member of Depp’s legal team, ended the closing arguments for Depp’s side of the case by saying this trial has never been about money or “punishing Ms. Heard” and instead is “about Mr. Depp’s reputation and freeing him from the prison in which he has lived for the past six years.”

Ben Rottenborn, one of Heard’s lawyers, began closing arguments by asking jurors to think about the “message” he said Depp and his legal team are sending to Heard and victims of domestic violence.

“If you didn’t take pictures, it didn’t happen. If you did take pictures, they’re fake. If you didn’t tell your friends, you’re lying…,” he said in part. “And if you finally decide that enough is enough — you’ve had enough of the fear, enough of the pain and you have to leave to save yourself — you’re a gold digger. That is the message that Mr. Depp is asking you to set.”

Rottenborn added that jurors should also consider the First Amendment: “It’s about freedom of speech. Stand up for it and reject Mr. Depp’s claims against Amber.”

Elaine Bredehoft, another member of Heard’s legal team, asked the jury to hold Depp “legally responsible for his actions and to fully and fairly compensate Amber for what he has done by creating this concept of a hoax for the defamation that he has committed.”

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It’s save the galaxy time with Starlord and company! Only this time you’ll have to do it in central Florida. This weekend, Disney Parks debuts its ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind’ attraction at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT — based on the Guardians of the Galaxy films. It’s one of the longest enclosed roller coasters in the world and took almost six years to complete.

“We start you off feeling like you’re on a very conventional, roller coaster-type experience,” says Disney imagineer Tom Fitzgerald, telling ABC Audio it’s a far cry from the typical theme park ride, launching backward and catapulting riders into a 360-degree spin. “Without you even realizing it, we very subtly turn all the vehicles around and suddenly, if you’re in the first car, you’re in the back car!”
 
There’s also that trademark Disney storytelling attached as you board the ride. “Our hook is Peter Quill [Starlord] came to EPCOT when he was a kid, back in the ’80s,” says Zach Riddley, lead creative executive for EPCOT. “The Xandarians say, ‘Hey, we want to bring a message of our culture, technology to Earth. What’s the one place?’ And they went to Starlord and he said, ‘EPCOT.’”
 
And it wouldn’t be Guardians without a killer soundtrack. Six songs are showcased on Cosmic Rewind, including Blondie’s “One Way or Another” and Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September.” Choosing the playlist was no small feat, imagineer Spencer Lynn tells ABC Audio. But a fun one nonetheless. “We tested over 100 songs — we would watch the cast members operating the attraction and if they were dancing, we were like, ‘Let’s keep that one, it’s probably going to be good in the long run!’”
 
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opens May 27 at EPCOT. Disney is the parent company of Disney Parks and ABC News. 

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