STACK April 2017 Issue 83

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14 APRIL 2017
visit DVD&BD FEATURE
oung Moana is the daughter of the
village Chief, and has been chosen as
the one to hunt down the Heart of Te
Fiti – stolen by the Demigod Maui – in order to
restore fertility to her island home.
While not the first Disney film to feature an
Islander vibe, Moana does a wonderful
job of capturing what it’s like to live
as a part of a tribe.
“This movie is about Ancient
Polynesia – we all started off there
together,” observes Rachel House,
the voice of Moana’s Gramma
Tala. “Moanais such a great reminder
of that. What I loved is that the writers and
directors and everyone else did their research
around the contemporary Polynesia to figure
out how [humanity] must have been back then.”
Being an animated film, all of the actual
‘acting’ (recording) is done solo, meaning
that despite their seemingly-close
onscreen relationship, House rarely
got the opportunity to spend time
with Moana’s voice actress Auli’i
Cravalho in real life. In actual
fact, the pair only met twice.
“We met for about five
minutes one day at the
studio, and it was such
a beautiful moment
to be able to meet
such a gorgeous
young girl.”
House has
nothing but praise
for the 16-year-old,
for whom Moana is a debut role.
“We met again at the premiere,
which was such a crazy night and
we barely spoke. Auli’i was very busy
all night. It was her birthday, so we had a
few celebrations for her. It’s funny how in an
animation it can seem like the cast all know
each other when in reality, you barely ever get
to see each other. It’s a strange experience,
but it’s a lot of fun.”
Being a Disney film, you can expect many a
catchy musical number from Moana. A STACK
favourite, ‘I Am Moana’, just so happened
to feature House’s character, even though it
wasn’t her personal favourite.
“I’ll have to be kinda disloyal to Auli’i and
Dwayne [Johnson] here because I think they
were absolutely fantastic, but my favourite
song was‘Shiny’. I’m not only very close
with Jemaine [Clement], but I’m also a very
big fan of him and his work. I adore him,
so ‘Shiny’ was a highlight for me. It’s such a
brilliantly written song, a great ode to David
Bowie, who was one of my heroes. I didn’t
mean to make a pun!” she laughs. “As far as
the recording itself went, that was absolutely
terrifying. I’ve been acting for ages, so being
in the recording booth never bothers me
anymore, but with this I was a bit of a mess.
For ‘I Am Moana’, Lin [Lin-Manuel Miranda,
composer] had Skyped in, and he was
watching me and giving notes. I looked back
at the computer at one point and he was
gone, but later on he’d said that I was fine – I
was worried he’d left because he thought I’d
ruined his song!”
Despite her youthful appearance, House
has a history of being cast as endearing
elderly characters in films, and it’s hard not to
fall in love with Moana’s ‘village crazy lady’
Gramma Tala.
“I have been cast as old ladies since I was
in my very early 20s. I guess I just have that
vibe about me. In many ways, I guess I’ve
had 25 years of preparation,” she offers with
a giggle. “Of course, New Zealand has no
shortage of inspiring, elderly Maori women
for me to embrace. I’ve actually
played a 160-year-old woman
before – this was pretty much
a walk in the park.”
Moana is the latest e of culture-specific
animated films from Disney.We spoke with Kiwi star
Rachel House, the voice of Gramma Tala, about how
the flick brings everyone together.
Words: Alesha Kolbe
• Moana
is out April 12
The daughter of the village Chief, who will one day be in charge
herself. She has a passion for the ocean, but is drawn, too, to the island she
calls home.
The village leader, his heart lies with his people and with
his family, and all he wishes for is his tribe to be safe and prosperous.
Moana’s mother and Chief Tui’s wife, Sina is Moana’s voice of
reason, and is the one who encourages her to follow her dreams and go
after what she wants.
He’s a fun-loving chicken, and even if his brain isn’t
in the right place, his heart sure is.