Disney taps Hawaii ties to get ‘Moana’ right

Moana and Maui are the stars of Disney’s new animated Oceania-themed movie, but a tribe of pint-size, coconut-clad warriors just might end up stealing the show.

The characters known as Kakamora live on a flotsam-covered ship drifting endlessly on the open ocean. Disney art director of characters Bill Schwab and his team refined their look, but the idea behind the tiny terrors is credited to a pair of writers who grew up on Oahu with Hollywood dreams.

“(The Kakamora were) inspired and based on the menehune,” said Manoa resident Jordan Kandell, 34, who along with identical twin brother, Aaron, worked on the “Moana” story.

“Being born and raised in Hawaii, that was our access point. … It was this idea of taking these characters we grew up reading about as kids in Hawaii and bringing them to life in a fun and iconic way for a global audience.”

The Kandell brothers, who attended ‘Iolani School and studied film at the University of Southern California, are just two members of the “Moana” production staff with Hawaii connections.

They were hired as part of a five-member team of writers that included award-winning New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi. Aaron Kandell said it was his experience working with Nainoa Thompson and the Polynesian Voyaging Society aboard the Hokule‘a that attracted Disney’s attention.

“I trained on Hokule‘a about eight years ago when they were first preparing for the Malama Honua voyage,” he said. “That experience and the lessons we learned from Nainoa about wayfinding … it made such a huge impact that it sort of formed the kind of stories we wanted to tell, the projects that we chose and the direction that we set our sights on for our careers that led us to being chosen to write and represent on ‘Moana.’”

Added Jordan Kandell, “This film has the opportunity to tell a story to the widest possible audience that speaks to not just Hawaii, but all the cultures of the Pacific — to look at a movie like ‘Moana’ and see there are people who do want to hear stories set in their world, a world where people look like them instead of just total superheroes or whatever is popular now.”

THE RESPONSIBILITY of respecting indigenous Pacific cultures wasn’t lost on Carlos Cabral, Disney’s head of characters and technical animation, who helped supervise a team of more than 60 animators.

Cabral lived in Hawaii in the late 1990s while working at Square USA, a company best known for creating the “Final Fantasy” video games.

“Having lived in Hawaii and knowing about the cultures of the Pacific, I thought it was really great,” said Cabral, 47, who grew up in the Dominican Republic. “We undertook a lot of big challenges — animating long curly hair, feathers, animated tattoos and grass skirts. Along with all of that, there’s wind, which is sort of pervasive in that world, along with the ocean.

“All these natural materials from the Pacific islands are all new and had to be researched and created in a realistic way. A lot of these are things that we’ve done to a certain level before, but the high bar of artistry in this movie really demanded we push the technology.”

IN ORDER to maintain an acceptable level of cultural authenticity, “Moana” executive producer John Lasseter and producer Osnat Shurer created the Oceanic Story Trust, a group of about a dozen anthropologists, educators, linguists, tattoo artists, choreographers, navigators and cultural advisers who met regularly with members of the production in both Hollywood and the South Pacific.

Kamehameha Schools graduate Kaliko Hurley, 32, was hired last year to serve as a community relations manager tasked with working as a liaison to the Oceanic Story Trust on behalf of Shurer and Disney.

“For me there’s been this incredible learning experience in terms of learning how truly connected (Polynesians) are. My greatest hope for this film is that people like me, Polynesian kids like me, will look at Moana and feel inspired because they see someone who looks like them and sounds like them.

“I hope people feel we tried really hard to make this a celebration of our culture.”