Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 11, 1 November 2016 — DISNEY MOANA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DISNEY MOANA

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early two years ago when casting directors told Auli'i Cravalho she landed her dreamrole as the lead voice in the upcoming Disney animation film "Moana," they also told her not to tell anyone until the studio was ready to announee it. She was 14 and a freshman at Kamehameha School here on O'ahu. "That was hard," she said, "but I did get to tell my mom, so even though the rest of the world ■ ^

didn't know I got the part I could talk to her about it. Before we would go to sleep or just at random points of the day I'd lean over to her and whisper 'Hey Mom, guess what? I'm Moana!' It made us giggle and it still does because I still do it. It's kind of like a reminder of our little triumph like 'Yay! I got it!'" Cravalho's excitement over her newfound fame hasn't dwindled and she plans to savor every minute of her once-in-a-lifetime experience whieh, eome Nov. 23 when "Moana" is released around the world, is going to be immense. Before joining the set of "Moana," Cravalho said she had only been off O'ahu to visit family in Las Vegas and

oniy made it to Cahtorma tor tlight layovers. Press junkets for "Moana" have already taken her to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Miami, and she's been a fixture at Disney studios in California the past

18 months. Passport in hand, trips for this month's opening weekend are set for Singapore, London and several other locations. She's already been named to several media lists of breakout actresses in 2016.

And she turns 16 on Nov. 22. "I've pretty mueh ceased being called Auli'i at school by my friends and classmates," she said, laughing. "They eall me Moana and that's pretty eool." Five animahon films "Frozen" (2013), "Minions" (2015), "Toy Story 3" (2010) "Zootopia" (2016) and Finding Dory (2016) — have all topped a hillion dollars at the global box office. There is every reason to believe "Moana" could rival those astronomic numbers, including Cravalho's vocal performance alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who lends his voice to the film as the mischievous, shapeshifting demigod Maui. Like Moana, Maui is on a mission to find himself and plays her foil/friend as the duo works to save her island's people and ends up on a journey of self-discovery.

The two

appear to have great chemistry on screen,

but "Moana" producer Osnat Shurer

said all the actors say their lines separately in sound booths, often saying the same line 20 to 30 times with different voice inflections and speeds to give animators a ehoiee on what works best. "After they get it down we ask them to improvise how they would say it to get more of their personality," Shurer said. "We did that a lot and Auli'i was a natural." Cravalho, in fact, said she didn't actually meet her co-star until the shooting had wrapped up. "I thought I'd be rubbing shoulders with The Rock the whole time but honestly I didn't get to meet him or a lot of the others until after we were done," she said. "He's really niee. He's pulled in a lot of directions with everything he has going on, but he's really focused at what he does. He still has the

Aloha Spirit." When they did meet, the voice chemistry on screen carried over. Cravalho even shared a "raised eye-

brow" showdown with The Rock on her Twitter feed last month and as big of a screen presence as Johnson is, Cravalho matches him raised eyebrow for raised eyebrow. Inspired in part by the oral histories of the people and cultures of Oeeania, "Moana" tells the story of how 3,000 years ago Polynesian voyagers sailed across the Paeihe discovering thousands of islands using only nature to navigate. According to

scholars, however, the voyages mysteriously stopped for about 1,000 years and no one knows exactly why. Shurer said the mysterious stoppage gave Disney an obvious jumping off noint. Mix in some j

fantasy and the shape-

shifting legend Maui, Shurer said the possibilities for animators seemed endless. "It's fantasy and it's also history," "Shurer said. "We took the research and attention to detail very seriously and we met incredible

k www.oha.org/kwo kwo@OHA.org NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

Disney's newest animated feature "Moana" features a Polynesian princess voiced by Kamehameha Schools high schooler Auli'i Cravalho. - Photo and illuslrations: Courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios

people who not only just changed the story we wanted to tell, they changed us. "Many of them kindly eame along with us on the journey with what we eame to eall our Oeeanie Story Trust that's made up of anthropologists, academics, educators, linguists, master navigators, archaeologists, fishermen, elders, tattoo masters and eultural advisors . . . and we kept checking back with them as we were designing the story and getting their blessings. "The Trust has deeply influenced the look and feel of this film." Hawai'i, Tahiti and New Zealand weren't yet discovered during the film's time period, so "Moana" follows Polynesian lore, not Hawaiian. The research team visited several

islands to gather information, but none in Hawai'i. Five years in the making, Shurer said one of the most telling research moments happened in Mo'orea when a loeal elder made one request: "For years we have been swallowed by your culture," he said. "This one time ean you be swallowed by ours?" It was a ehieken skin moment and Shurer said the plea hit home for the entire crew. Another telling moment eame when a fisherman took them sailing off the islands of Fiji. "He kept petting the oeean and saying the oeean knows and you have to be kind to it andrespect it," she said. "We kept hearing the oeean brings islands together, not separates them. A beautiful concept.

"Animation takes a super collaborative effort and we were lucky enough to have incredible collaboration within the culture to help us paint the story. Our deep respect for what we learned, we hope, is reflected in the movie we made. It's a fantasy movie, but it is inspired by such an incredible sense of community and culture from the people that we met. I hope this love and respect we have in making the film is what people feel in the film." Cravalho, who is Native Hawaiian, said she feels eomfortable in the portrayals. Her candid attitude and high energy helped her identify with her character. Moana is an adventurous, headstrong teenager who sails out on a daring mission to save her people. Cravalho portrays the 16-year-old daughter of the chief of Motonui. More than 200 teenage girls answered the open casting eall to fill the role, but Shurer said Cravalho was the last to audition and was a unanimous piek. 'I was really lucky," Cravalho said. "I didn't need to prepare for the role. I grew up on an island, I'm very connected to my culture through my schooling and also through living on the island and having my mom

whose mother is pure Hawaiian and spoke the language. I dance hula, paddle outrigger eanoe for my school ... I'm just really lucky. I didn't really have to think 'how will I play this character' because I was kind of her already. "I'm Hawaiian through and through. Anyone who hears about a movie being inspired by their culture will want it to be done right. I ean honestly say I'm so proud working on this film because it's done so well. We've got some Polynesian words in there that just make it so wonderful and the fact that it's distinctly Disney, there is humor in there and a wonderful heroine as well." Moana is not a typieal Disney princess who needs rescuing and falls in love with a Prince Charming, whieh Cravalho said is most appealing. "She's a heroine," she said. "I love the eonnection that I ean make between Disney princess and Disney heroine. We have wonderful prin-

cesses who are beautiful, now we have a heroine in a wonderful new age. Me being a 15-year-old and going on 16, having Moana being the same age as I am, and both figuring out who we are. "She doesn't have a love interest because she doesn't need anyone to figure out who she is. That's something I think is a universal message for anyone, boy, girl, teenagers for adults. The journey and taking that time to figure out who you are is something everyone ean and should do." Shurer knows Disney's portrayal of Maui and other parts of the film will be analyzed and critiqued by many, and she understands why. Filmmakers not only paid attention to

legend, but also showcase how Polynesian explorers skillfully navigated the seas by nature, the waves, stars and oeean currents. "Now more than ever we need to be aware of our environment and treat it with respect," she said. "When we initially read all the stories of Maui we thought this is just so rich for storytelling. Then we traveled and met experts and we realized stories are completely different from island to island, sometimes village to village, house to house. There are different concepts of Maui. He's sort of a Superman in some places and in other places more of a trickster but there are some shared legends in eommon like he slowed down the sun, raised the sky and pulled islands out of the sea so we took that as sort of a point as to where we could start his story. "We knew he was super powerful and larger than life so we wanted animation to reflect the characteris-

tics of the character. So he's large, larger than life. He ean piek up a boat with one hand and he's a shapeshifter and that is a treasure trove for animation. He ean shift into any shape, he's magical. "Dwayne is very connected to his Samoan roots so it was good having him be part of the character development because nobody ean do 'I am great' and yet be super charming like Dwayne ean. "But make no mistake, this film is about Moana and I can't say enough about Auli'i. She's so grounded and believes so mueh in 'ohana. She's perfect for the part." ■

M@ana RATED: PG AB0UT FILM: Moana (voice of AULI'I CARVALH0) uses her navigational skills on a high-seas adventure to save her people. Legendary demigod, Maui (voice of DWAYNE J0HNS0N) joins herforan epie tale. ALS0 STARRING JEMAINE CLEMENT ("The BFG," "Despicable Me," "Rio," "Rio 2," "What We Do in the Shadows," Flight of the Conchords) as Tamatoa, a selfabsorbed, 50-foot crab RACHEL H0USE ("Whale Rider," "Hunt for Wilderpeople") as Moana's trusted Gramma Tala TEMUERAMORRISON("StarWars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones," "Onee Were Warriors," "Six Days, Seven Nights") as Moana's no-nonsense father, Chief Tui ALAN TUDYK ("Zootopia," "Wreck-lt Ralph," "Big Hero 6") as the voice of dumb rooster Heihei; NIC0LE SCHERZINGER ("Men in Black 3," lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls) voices Moana's playful and strong-willed mother, Sina.

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