Now that Frozen has been certified a financial, critical and popular success, it’s time to take a look at the next Disney animated feature to feature a princess in the lead — Ron Clements and Jon Musker’s Moana. (Pronounced as either Mo-AH-na or Mwa-na depending on who you talk to.) While tentatively scheduled for a Nov. 2016 release, surprisingly little has leaked about the South Seas tale. That said, what little has leaked is good. REALLY GOOD.
Click through to read everything out there thus far.
This first chunk comes courtesy of Bleeding Cool:
(Note: Bleeding Cool’s post was written before the 2016 release date was announced.)
We’re a long way out from Moana, with its release unlikely to happen before 2018. The look of the film could change an awful lot in the meantime, and that’s always worth bearing in mind.
And the story could change too, so for now, I’ll sit on most of the fine detail I have about this film’s narrative. I will tell you, though, that it’s an epic, or even mythic, adventure set around 2000 years ago and across a series of islands in the South Pacific.
The lead character, Moana Waialiki is the only daughter of a Chief in a long line of navigators. She’s really a bit of nerd, but a nerd about sea voyaging, and when her family need her help, she sets off on an epic journey. Some of the other characters are demi-gods and spirits drawn from real mythology.
The internet got another glimpse at one of Moana‘s influences when Disney character and color designer Sue Nichols posted a Paul Gauguin painting on her blog with the tantalizingly vague caption:
In 2011-2012, I was called back again by Ron Clements and Jon Musker to design some development ideas for the next story to replace the last one I can not talk about. Since this is the film they are currently developing, I once again can not say what it is until the movie starts production and hits the official press releases. [...] I just love Paul Gauguin. Don’t you?
Then there’s this colorful piece of concept art posted on animationheroine.tumblr.com. A lovely image, isn’t it? It reminds me of Mary Blair’s work on Peter Pan. According to animationheroine, this painting was originally found on Sue Nichols’ site. Hoping to find some more info on Moana, I tried to locate Nichols’ original post, but it appears to have been deleted.
As regards to whether or not Moana would be a musical, Popwrapped reports:
Clements confirm(s) that the new project would indeed be a musical. [...] Mark Mancina (The Lion King) is in charge of the musical arrangement.
The next bit of news comes from Disneywikia.com. This info will be especially interesting to animation enthusiasts as it pertains to Moana‘s intended animation style:
Moana will be John Musker and Ron Clement’s first fully computer-animated film. Although initially rumoured to be made in hand-drawn/computer-animated technique introduced with Disney’s short film Paperman, Musker said that it is “far too early to apply the Paperman hybrid technique to a feature. The Meander digital in-betweening interface still has a host of production issues (including color) that need to be perfected.”
Sounds pretty cool, eh?
While I’ll be doing everything I can to keep you up to date on Moana, you may want to make note of the TWO different Tumblrs dedicated to the film: Disney Moana and Moana Fan Blog.
10/20 Update!
Disney *officially* announced Moana this morning via their Twitter feed.
Here’s a larger version of that CG painting…
A little later, Disney released the following plot synopsis:
In the ancient South Pacific world of Oceania, Moana, a born navigator, sets sail in search of a fabled island. During her incredible journey, she teams up with her hero, the legendary demi-god Maui, to traverse the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous sea creatures, breathtaking underworlds and ancient folklore.
In that same press release, co-director Musker described Moana as an “indomitable, passionate and a dreamer with a unique connection to the ocean itself. She’s the kind of character we all root for, and we can’t wait to introduce her to audiences.”
Well, I can’t wait to be introduced!
10/27 Update!
Today the news leaked that Taika Waititi will be writing the screenplay for Moana. Taika is of Te-Whanau-a-Apanui descent and hails from the Raukokore region of northeast New Zealand. One cool thing about Waititi’s hiring is that Disney has actually hired a person of Polynesian decent to write about a person of Polynesian decent. Seems obvious, but it is all too rare. (I know what you’re thinking — ‘But they still hired a man to write about a woman!’ — and hey, when you’re right, you’re right.)
In addition to writing and directing Eagle vs Shark (a goofy, Napoleon Dynamite-esque film) and Boy (an amazing, odd, incredibly imaginative and heartfelt film about an 11-year old boy who’s obsessed with Micheal Jackson and reconnecting with his troubled father), Waititi is also an actor, painter, standup comedian, fashion designer and photographer. Or, to put it another way, dude keeps busy.
