Although it received mixed reviews, Disney’s “Moana 2” has grossed more than $1 billion worldwide as 2025 begins and is the studio’s third highest-grossing film of 2024.

Not only has it outperformed its predecessor, 2016’s “Moana,” “Moana 2” was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at this year’s Golden Globe Awards.

The movie’s success has exceeded the expectations of Amy Smeed, a Royal Oak native and “Moana 2”’s head of animation.

“I think, for us, we work so hard on these films and put our hearts into them and we connect with the characters we’re working with and the story. To see how the audiences are resonating with this film feels very special. I’m very, very excited,” Smeed said.

An alumna of Kimball High School in Royal Oak and the eldest of three siblings, Smeed completed coursework at Western Michigan University and earned her bachelor’s degree in computer graphics from the Art Institute of Chicago. She began her career at Disney in 1998, where she’s worked on the animated features “Bolt,” “Tangled,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Frozen” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”

“Moana 2” occurs three years after the first movie, where Moana (Auli?i Cravalho, “Mean Girls: The Musical”) reunites with demigod Maui (Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, the “Fast & Furious” franchise) and assembles a crew to journey to the far seas of Oceania and find the lost island of Motufetu, break its curse, and reconnect the people of the ocean. “Moana 2” also stars Alan Tudyk (“Serenity”) as Heihei, Moana’s pet rooster.

“I think Moana is an inspiring character,” Smeed said. “There’s a lot of entertainment in the film, it’s a musical, so there’s a number of things why audiences connect with it. In the end, it’s a film that has a lot of entertainment, but also has a lot of sincerity, which I love.”

She praised the talented voice cast.

“I love working with Auli?i so much,” Smeed said. “She brings so much charm to Moana’s character. … She’s inspiring to me, too. She brings the heart of our story; she gives such sincere performances and is an incredible singer. I love what she brings to our musical sequences. It’s fun to dissect her performances. She’s very expressive with her facial expressions and what she does with her hands and her fingers. We can take essences of that and put it into her performance. Dwayne does such a great job, playing such a larger-than-life character. We’re so lucky to have the voice talent we did on this film. It’s a huge reason our audiences are resonating with it.”

Smeed was also the head of animation on the first “Moana.” In fact, she was the first woman to hold that title in a Disney animated movie.

“I didn’t think about it on the first ‘Moana.’ I’m not even sure I recognized I was the first female head of animation until someone had mentioned it to me. For me, something I learned from Moana is just taking risks and believing in yourself. I think it’s hard to put yourself out there into a position like this and I grew a lot on that first film and learned a lot about myself,” Smeed said.

At the time of “Moana,” Smeed had been an animator for 13-14 years.

“I loved animating. I loved bringing characters to life. Then when the opportunity came to be the head of animation. I spent a lot of time thinking if I wanted that role,” she recalled. “Ultimately, I took that leap. It was a big risk for me, but I was so excited because I was going to work with directors John Musker and Ron Clements. It was an incredible opportunity and I’m so glad that I put myself out there. But it was also hard for me to put myself out there and believe in myself and have the confidence to do it.”

Smeed also served as head of animation for 2021’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” and 2022’s “Strange World.” She has been head of animation for eight years, although not consecutively.

“I’ve come in and out of leadership roles after ‘Moana.’ I was an animator on ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ because I missed animating and wanted to get back into animation. As head of animation, you don’t get to animate a whole lot. … I really missed that,” she said.

According to Smeed, there are typically two heads of animation for a film.

“We are chosen for a specific film and then we often go back into a role as an animator, so we reinterview for a project where we would like to be in a leadership position,” she said. “For this film, I was specifically one of the heads of animation and I worked with the animation supervising team. We spend a lot of time with the directors in meetings.”

Smeed continued: “Probably the most important meeting is in animation dailies, where the animators show their work to the directors and we are there to help guide Moana in who she is as a character, whether that means from an acting standpoint, a performance standpoint — we try to get into the directors’ minds and try to anticipate what they’ll want in the film. So we’re there making sure the jobs the animators are doing are the best they can be. Our job is to get the directors’ vision onscreen and helping the animators achieve that vision.”

Smeed said she enjoys the collaborative process with the directors and animators as they put the film together.

“I love when I really connect with a character,” she said. “With Moana specifically, I got to know her so well on the first film. I would know how she’d react to any given situation she was put into. So when we finish a film, it’s hard because you’re so excited for the world to see the film but I no longer get to see Moana every single day.

“For me going back to ‘Moana 2,’ it was exciting because I get to see her again every day. She’s become very real to me if that makes sense. I love building the performances of the characters and seeing that story and telling that story through the acting and performances of the characters.

“There’s so many things I love, but — ultimately — it comes down to the building of our characters and seeing them on the big screen. It’s so fun for me when our film is released. I always go see it with an audience and see what they laugh at, what they get teary-eyed about. It’s a great experience for me to see it through other people’s lenses and what they respond to.”