Actors tap into cultural roots for Moana
Johnson, Cravalho dig into their cultural roots to connect with Disney’s Moana
Two wishes came true for Dwayne Johnson when he agreed to voice a character in Moana.
Johnson got to be in a Disney animated movie musical while paying tribute to his Polynesian heritage.
In the movie, Moana is a rebellious teen Polynesian girl (voiced by newcomer Auli’i Cravalho) from 2,000 years ago.
Ignoring her father’s warning, she sets sail across the Pacific Ocean to demand that a powerful island god reverse bad times. She is joined on the trip of redemption by a reluctant and egocentric demi-god Maui (Johnson).
“I feel a deep connection to this story,” says Johnson, who has Samoan and Hawaiian roots.
The wrestler-turned-actor also appreciates the underlying tone of the movie, calling the frame of reference “the Aloha Spirit.” It’s embodied by the people of the area now and in the film, which chronicles the culture’s ancient times and its mythology.
“It’s an intangible, but when you get off the plane and you have your feet on the ground there, energetically (the Aloha Spirit) takes you to a different place,” Johnson says.
Credit for the all-encompassing detail, the actor says, goes to directors John Musker and Ron Clements, who enjoy a celebrated Disney past as the filmmakers who brought us The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.
Before getting into their Moana moviemaking process, Musker and Clements led their movie team to the Pacific Islands to educate themselves about the Polynesian past.
From wardrobe to music to dance rituals, they made sure they got it right.
“And when we were in the islands, people talked about the ocean as if it were alive and they caressed it and they had these personal relationships with the ocean,” Musker says. “So we knew we wanted the ocean to be a character in the movie.”
The casting of Moana was another matter.
Hawaiian native Cravalho beat out hundreds of others after multiple auditions. The part is her first major professional gig. But the directors responded on a hunch to her “fearlessness and playful wit” and her immersion into the subject matter.
“I grew up in a small town on the Big Island of Hawaii, and I am deeply rooted to my culture,” Cravalho says.
“I actually go to an all-Hawaiian school where the mythology and the folklore of Maui is in our curriculum, and I’ve listened to his stories at bedtime.”
A show-stopping tune might not be in the repertoire of the shape-shifting demi-god Cravalho learned about in school. But the Disney movie has some fun with one number featuring Johnson’s vocals as Maui.
It’s called You’re Welcome, written by Hamilton Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda. He says he wrote the tune “in the key of DJ” after checking out some You Tube clips of Johnson as The Rock taunting a wrestling crowd in song.
“I got a really good sense of his vocal range,” Miranda says. “The rest of it was just writing lyrics that embody the spirit of Maui, an amazing demi-god.
“Once I had the title, You’re Welcome — which only Dwayne can pull off and still have you love him and root for him — we were off to the races.”
Johnson says thank you to Miranda for You’re Welcome.
“He did his research and by the time I got the song, it was in my comfortable range,” Johnson says. “We all love challenges and this was a challenge with the bar set so incredibly high — to sing in a Disney film.”
“We thought of Dwayne as the new Angela Lansbury,” Clements says.
More seriously, Johnson is relieved and pleased Moana respects and commemorates its subject matter.
“I was so moved when I saw the movie, for a variety of reasons, not only because you work on it, but because you pour your heart and soul into it.”