When John Musker and Ron Clements started work on their latest Disney animation, Moana, they were taken by surprise.
The first major animated film set in the Polynesian islands, it was inspired by Musker’s reading of myth and legend from the region, and tapped into a world they knew little about.
“The movie became more than we realised,” says 63-year-old Clements. “We had never been to any of these places, other than Hawaii on vacation.”
It wasn’t the first time they have found themselves in unfamiliar territory.
"We have a history," says Musker, 63, who has been working with Clements for 30 years, since 1986's Basil: The Great Mouse Detective.
"When we did [1992's] Aladdin, it was during the Gulf War and we couldn't go to Baghdad and do research. When we did [2002's] Treasure Planet, we couldn't go to the moon." Fortunately, the likes of Tahiti, Tonga and Samoa were more accessible.
After meeting archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, tattoo artists, fisherman, sailors and more, Musker and Clements became determined to depict the culture and history of the islands as authentically as possible.
“We didn’t want to let them down. We wanted to do something they would embrace,” says Musker.
The learning curve was steep. The story they came up with involved a teenager, Moana (voiced by newcomer Auli’i Cravalho) going on an adventure with a demigod, Maui (Dwayne Johnson).
“We thought of Maui as an island in Hawaii – like a lot of people do,” says Clements, with a laugh. “He’s actually a very legendary pan-Pacific demigod. His stories are told throughout the Pacific islands.”
A meeting with a Tahitian elder helped the filmmakers clarify their mission.
“He said: ‘For years, we’ve been swallowed by your culture. For one time, can you be swallowed by ours?’” says Clements.
There was still controversy, however. The inevitable merchandising prompted Maori Party co-leader and MP Marama Fox to accuse Disney of trying to “make a profit off the back of another culture’s beliefs and history”.
Yet the makers of Moana seem sincere in their desire to do the right thing. The cast is almost entirely made up of people from the islands – including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who has Samoan parentage, as Maui.
Moana is also be the first movie dubbed in Tahitian, to help preserve a language that is gradually fading.
“They’re working on the translation right now,” says Musker. “It will debut in Tahiti in French, but two months later, there will be a Tahitian version, which will be used in schools to help kids hang on to their Tahitian language, so it isn’t overwhelmed by contemporary culture.”
• Moana is in cinemas now.
artslife@thenational.ae
