Behind the Scenes of Moana

Behind the Scenes of Moana

*Disclosure: I received an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles for the coverage of these events. All opinions are 100% my own.

I fell in love with the story of Moana the first time I seen a preview of the movie. I’ve watched it several times and the soundtrack is always playing on something throughout the day. To say that it is a magical movie is probably an understatement of the decade. But over the last month I’ve fell even more in love with the characters, story line as well as the story and history of the Pacific Islands. One of the things that I appreciate about Disney is the amount of research that they put into making the films real to life and educational. It is extremely important to the Pacific Islanders to have their traditions passed on to generation to generation. But they are extremely proud to have their culture and traditions shared with the Western World for the first time.

Moana means ocean and the ocean played a very intricate role throughout the entire film. On our recent press trip we had a Polynesian themed night that totally immersed us into their culture via a very fun night at Walt Disney Animation Studios. We started off in the theater where we got a behind the scenes sneak peak into some of the hard work they put into the movie. From the second we walked through the doors of one of my favorite buildings on the Disney lot we were immersed into the Moana experience with Artwork lining the walls and full scale items that are in the film.

After getting settled into our seats in the theaters the Polynesian Dancers welcomed us with a performance that was spectacular. I couldn’t take my eyes off the performers and literally loved ever second of their performance. After that we were introduced to several people that had very important roles in the film and our Polynesian night was underway in grand form. One of the first fun facts that we learned was that Moana’s journey started over 5 years ago. Osnat Shurer, Ron Clements and Jon Musker showed us a 30 minute video of  a beautiful little documentary that showed what happened, it’s called Voice of the Islands, and it’s just exclusive to this home entertainment release. I loved every minute and think that all kids as well as adults should watch it because it shows so much culture, and behind the scenes footage that it was like a mini vacation to the Pacific Islands.

Moana Fun Facts

Ron Clements and Jon Musker told us that one of the deleted scenes was a fun scene that in the earlier version of the story, Moana had several brothers. She was like, “I’m the only girl in the family full of brothers.” In the first version of the story.

Osnat Shurer the producer even let us in on a “bigger secret” if you will, there was 8 versions of the movie.

Eric Goldberg’s favorite line that was cut from the movie was when  Gramma Tala was saying that she was going to come back as a ray. And she lifts her arm and bats the skin, and goes, “I’ve already got the wings for it.” Which is something that my Nana used to tell us.

The ocean doesn’t divide people, it connects people and we all should be more in tune with our culture as well as other people’s culture as well because it will help us all connect.

There were so many more fun facts, that I may indeed write another post about it because it was truly amazing.

Polynesian Night

To round  our our Polynesian Night we watched Polynesian Dancers and learned even more about their dancing and Tiana Liufau shared about her history and so much more. It was so fun I wanted to share the entire experience with you. Check out the performance in the video below.

After the above performance we had a delicious meal of Polynesian inspired food and had a chance to visit with the film makers in a more intimate setting. I’m am forever grateful for this amazing experience and it will be one that I remember for a long time because it was the perfect way to spend my birthday. We even had a chance to visit with costume designer Neysa Bove who is a “new comer” to the Disney family and told us that Moana’s necklace had 20 different variations until they found the perfect combination.

Everyone should run to the store and bring home Moana on Blu-Ray that was released March 7, 2017. The movie is amazing and the bonuses included on Blu-Ray and DVD are something we all need to watch. Pick up your copy and enjoy it with the kids, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Get social with Moana on Facebook | Instagram available to purchase on Blu-Ray on March 7th.