The Movie Mensch was lucky enough to be among a group of select press that was invited to the stunning and newly renovated Walt Disney Animation building in Burbank. The reason, the release of the smash hit and Oscar nominated musical gem, Moana.
For the occasion one of the directors, Ron Clements was on hand (the other helmer, John Musker, unfortunately was under the weather and had to miss it), along with producer Osnat Shurer. We were greeted by fascinating artwork that chronicled the making of Moana. In addition, performers welcomed guests with traditional music and dance that had us soaking in the brilliance of the Polynesian culture’s sights and sounds.
We caught several of the Blu-Ray and DVD bonus features and became even more impressed with the Moana film than we were prior. Afterwards, Clements and Shurer took questions from the press and we couldn’t wait to bring you what we learned about the making of a masterpiece.
1. Music matters, but it is always about story
Although music was written by Tony, Emmy, Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as Disney songwriting stalwart Mark Mancia and Pacific Island sensation Opetaia Foa’i, not everything made it into the final mix. After all, despite the brilliance of a track, it is all about the story at Walt Disney Animation. In fact, some of the deleted songs can be found on the DVD and Blu-Ray
“There was never a bad song coming out of this team. We had less deleted songs than some of the other films we’ve worked on,” Shurer reported. “But, it’s just something you expect. It was always, always story. It was hard, though. They were good.”
Clements said that “it was story changes and adjustments, pacing issues. It had to be about this young girl who was teaming up with this Demigod to save the world. That held throughout, but there were changes along the way. Some of those songs are on the extended CD and then there is some on the Blu-Ray.”
2. Like Hamilton? Cast members channel Moana leads!
For fans of Lin Manuel… you should be thrilled. His Broadway show’s cast helped him record some the songs that didn’t make the cut and those versions are on the home video. “You get to hear George Washington (Christopher Jackson) and Mrs. Hamilton (Phillipa Soo) as Maui and Moana.”
3. Animated movies have an advantage over live action. They’re easier to hone towards perfection.
“There were advantages that animated films have over live action is that we get to watch our movie many times with changes before we make it,” Clements said. “Sometimes it’s scratch voices, not the actors, but we watch the movie from beginning to end and then tear it apart and do it again. And then three months later, we run it again. The goal is to get is to get it as solid as we can get it when we go into production because that is when things get expensive if we have to make major changes.”
4. The first song written was the first song in the movie!
“Lin started, and the whole musical team started when they first met in Auckland, New Zealand in March 2014. The first song they wrote was We Know the Way, and that was the first scene.”
5. Maui and Moana shared a song!
“We used to have a duet between Maui and Moana, which is one of the deleted scenes,” Shurer said. “It just didn’t fit in. We were trying to put so much into this story that just didn’t fit in.”
6. As soon as they met Auli’i Cravalho, they knew she was Moana.
“She’s charismatic. She’s a good actress — an actress that can play different parts. She embodied the character. She is fearless. She is really smart. She was 14 years old when we first met her. And yet, her attitude, she felt older than 14,” Clements said. “She really embodies that spirit of Moana. We tease her. She teases right back. She’s grounded in her culture. She studies Hawaiian and she’s a hula dancing. It was just one of those kismet things. We heard hundreds and hundreds of voices before we heard her.”
“It’s one of those special things that you cannot name,” added Shurer.
7. Making her strong next to Dwayne Johnson’s Demigod was a challenge.
“It’s hard when the other character in the movie is a demigod, a shape shifter, magical character. It was important to keep the movie belonging to the protagonist, and not just because of her gender,” Shurer said. “I’m looking forward to the day when that’s not a radical statement.”
8. Moana went through changes — all for the better.
“Although it’s set a thousand years ago, we wanted her to feel contemporary. Originally, Moana was the sister with seven older brothers. What we realized is we were trying to tell is a hero’s journey and she needed to be a hero — a hero of her own journey. The very heart of the film is somebody who realizes that nobody outside of them is going to define them. They have to find an inner voice. She needed to be a hero. She didn’t need to be female or male, it wasn’t about gender,” Clements said. “I’d argue that some of the compassion that helps her comes from being female. It was important for us that she be strong. She’s physical, athletic… the more that happened, the more we wanted to protect her power and sense of self.”
9. Biggest animation challenge… water.
“This movie is over 80 percent water effects which is notoriously difficult to do in CG. When we first pitched this movie to our technology teams and asked, ‘Can you do this? The water is a character. The water is the set. The water is an obstacle.’ They said, ‘No, but we’ll figure it out by the time it’s time to deliver.’ I think they created some of the most amazing water in animation,” Shurer said.
10. The islands where it’s based… love the movie.
“It’s been really great to go back to the islands and show the movie and getting all those great responses,” Clements proudly stated.
Stay with The Movie Mensch or our full Moana Blu-Ray review… coming soon!