Moana voices set the tone

Casting for Disney’s new movie bucks trend of ‘whitewashing’ ethnic-specific roles

When the Disney film Moana lands in November, it will feel fresh to many moviegoers for an unusual reason: It is a mainstream Hollywood animated film that casts voice actors of colour who represent the culture being depicted. Boxers & Saints), says.

“The critical conversation around diversity is one that Laika cares very deeply about,” director Travis Knight said. And when asked this month about the creative diversity behind he pointed to Laika’s global multiculturalism represented by its employees.

Hollywood has increasingly faced accusations of “whitewashing” — by which white actors are cast in ethnic-specific roles — with Sony’s (in which Emma Stone played a character who is part Asian and part Hawaiian), Marvel’s forthcoming (in which Tilda Swinton plays a character who traditionally has been of Tibetan descent), and 2010’s (in which some of the featured actors are white in the fantasy’s tribal South Pole setting) as recent examples. (Since then, Yang has written for the

comic books for Dark Horse Books.)

Lalo Alcaraz, the La Cucaracha cartoonist and cultural commentator, has long criticised Hollywood’s lack of diversity, especially in high-profile and decision-making positions.

“I have seen plenty of animated films in the past decade where the cast is almost always 100 per cent Anglo actors, with a token minority actor, if that,” says Alcaraz, who recently served as a writer/ consulting producer on Fox’s animated

“It seems that most talking nonhuman characters somehow always seem to be voiced by white actors,” says Alcaraz, who is a consultant on Disney/Pixar’s forthcoming

Judging by early signs, which includes a Day of the Dead theme, promises to be as culturally aware as Moana. And in Moana can detect a through-line in how Disney’s approach to culturally sensitive casting has evolved over the past quarter-century.

In 1992, veteran Disney directors John Musker and Ron Clements released featuring mostly white voice actors in the lead roles — with Lea Salonga, the Asian-American actress who sang in this film and being a notable exception. The next year, the headlined: It’s Racist, but Hey, It’s Disney.

By 2009, Musker and Clements were directing Disney’s animated

starring actors of colour Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David and Michael-Leon Woodley in voice roles. (Oprah Winfrey and Terrence Howard were also cast.)

And now, with Moana, Musker and Clements can help lead mainstream American animation toward more culturally sensitive casting. After all, if animation can’t draw up a cast without an overreliance on white tints, what chance does the rest of Hollywood have?

It seems that most talking non-human characters somehow always seem to be voiced by white actors. Lalo Alcaraz