Disney forge ahead with their open casting call for Moana 

Disney forge ahead with their open casting call for Moana, but they aren’t ignoring tradition entirely

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While Disney are courting Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to co-star as the reticent demi-god Maui in their animated, musical adventure picture,

, the title role is being cast through open auditions.

“this is for Aotearoa/NZ Residents only & it is a Maori/Polynesian role.”

the first Maori Disney Princess, both on and off screen.

This is yet another encouraging development for the studio who, we recently noted, have been taking more and more steps away from the rather restrictive representations in many of their older films.

At the same time, Disney aren’t turning their back on the narrative traditions of their classics, and the casting notice for

“Walt Disney Animation Studios is launching a global casting call for a key role for their upcoming feature,

, a comedy-adventure set 2,000 years ago in Oceania about a spirited teenager who learns that the future of her people is in jeopardy.

Along with a lovable pot belly pig and a legendary hero, Moana searches for a mythical island, traversing the open ocean and encountering mystical sea creatures and underworlds on an action-packed quest to save her world and make her ancestors proud.”

That “lovable pot belly pig” is just the latest in the studio’s long line of animal sidekicks. Most recently they gave only a smaller, supporting role to Mochi the cat in

, but Sven the reindeer definitely scratched a particular Disney itch in

‘s pig will take the non-speaking sidekick part, like Sven, or

‘s Maximus or Pascal, while the more Olaf-life or Mushu-style talking sidekick will be, we’ve learned, a Tiki god called Moke Moke who takes the form of a carved tiki statue.

It’s been suggested to us that Moke Moke will be a comedy character with something of the Jemaine Clement about him, but we’ll have to see how that pans out as the film continues to develop.

Disney will tend to employ both speaking and silent sidekicks wherever they find a use, often employing the characters to give a travelling, questing lead somebody to bounce off of, or maybe find solace in. They notion was concreted early, at the latest when Jiminy Cricket manifest the conscience of Pinocchio, and Disney have been making use of the conceit to effective ends ever since.

Lately, a developed version of the sidekick dynamic has often played out in ‘buddy’ pairings, such as with

and Vanellope von Schweetz, or perhaps Nick Wilde and Lt. Judy Hopps in the upcoming

. We’ll likely see Moana and Maui play out the ‘buddy’ dynamic in this story line.

It’s also worth noting, I think, that the

casting call stresses the importance of a good singing voice; the film is to feature new songs, we understand, with New Zealand’s Inglese Ete on hand to consult and keep the music true to Polynesian styles and heritage.

is on course for release in November 2016. We’ll keep watching its development closely.

Excited to star as “Maui” in Disney’s next big animated musical, MOANA. Incredible story! **clears throat #TimeToSing http://t.co/mtuvFgRkaE

4 Responses to “Disney forge ahead with their open casting call for Moana, but they aren’t ignoring tradition entirely”

Mokemoke the “Tiki-God”? – how culturally offensive!!! Ask all Polynesians in the South Pacific if their ancestors worshipped “Tiki Gods\'” and expect to be laughed at or worse!!! Who was the white clown that added such a stupid, inaccurate and incorrect cultural aspect to this film. You can eliminate Taika Waititi’s name from it cos Maoris’ never worshipped “Tiki-Gods”! I take it the person who created this character didn’t bother consulting real Polynesians’ first! Maybe this clown was the same person who casted mainly white actors’ for Fox Studios’ lame “Egyptian Gods” 2016 film – starring Gerard Butler, as Horus?

I don’t know if Mokemoke is supposed to be representative of something outside of this particular narrative. It’s possible that the circumstances of his situation are specific to this one story – ie. he’s a god, and this story sees him take the form of a tiki carving for specific, story based reasons.

Having said that, of course, you may well be onto a problem they’re having with this film. But rest assured, they are consulting with Polynesians, and regularly.

Film Divider @FilmDivider Craig Skinner @cskinner

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