Tua Tagovailoa gives his ‘Moana 2’ take: Good on culture, not on songs

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his wife, Annah, recently hosted a screening of the Disney animated musical “Moana 2” for the families of the NFL team’s players.

With “Moana 2,” like its predecessor “Moana,” set in ancient Polynesia, the movie carries a connection for Tagovailoa, a native of Hawaii who is of Samoan ancestry.

“When you look at it, it’s so cool,” Tagovailoa said, “because maybe a lot of people don’t understand that it’s necessarily not one culture. It’s many different cultures sort of mixed into one. Now in ‘Moana 2,’ you kind of see more of other cultures than you did in the first ‘Moana,’ where it kind of felt like it was more Samoan, more Tongan, you can see some Hawaiian in there. And then in ‘Moana 2,’ you can see Māoris in there. You can see Fijians are in there as well. You can see a little bit if you know or if you can understand, and I thought that was cool.

“My personal opinion, I didn’t think the songs were as good as ‘Moana 1.’ Maybe that’s a hot take. But I thought the songs in the first ‘Moana’ stuck more than the second one. Overall, the kids enjoyed it. Glad we got to get out with a couple of teammates and spend some time with their kids and their families.”

Tagovailoa wears his cultural heritage on his sleeve, in a way, through his arm tattoos.

“It definitely is a representation of who you are and your ethnic background,” Tagovailoa said. “Different meanings of symbolism and you can sort of tell, ‘Oh this guy is Māori because the way his tattoo looks.’ ‘This guy is Tongan.’ ‘This guy is Samoan.’ But, yeah, they just all have different ethnic background meanings to them.”

A former Alabama All-American, Tagovailoa will lead the Dolphins against the Houston Texans at noon CST Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston.