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Moana is having a banner year in 2024, with its highly-anticipated sequel Moana 2 already making over $700M dollars at the global box office and a live-action in the works. With Disney Cruise Line fast approaching the grand opening of its latest ship, Disney Treasure, a third project has joined the ranks of Motunui representation. Sure to become a fan-favorite, the Broadway-quality production retells the story of the first movie and retains the catchy songs and big heart that made it a hit.
The Tale of Moana boasts gorgeous animatronics and puppetry work courtesy of visual artist Michael Curry, who previously designed the masks and puppets for Disney's The Lion King on Broadway. The chorus of dancers that make up the village of Motunui also pull double duty to represent the ocean that chose Moana and watches over her in her journey, and the anthropomorphic water is choreographed to perfection by Peter Rockford Espiritu, who synthesized many aspects of authentic Polynesian and Pacific Islander dances to create movements that work for The Tale of Moana.
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ScreenRant had the incredible opportunity to witness a preview performance of The Tale of Moana while aboard the Disney Treasure for a 3-day press trip prior to the ship's maiden voyage. We also interviewed Espiritu about his work with the performers and director Connor Gallagher (who previously directed Beauty and the Beast for Disney Live Entertainment as well as Beetlejuice on Broadway). The creatives revealed some of the challenges that went into the production, which has been several years in the making, and what makes it so special for cruise audiences.
The Tale of Moana Director Relishes The Cultural Diversity Of The Cruise Line's Newest Show
"You're getting all these new voices that you wouldn't have seen on a Disney ship, which is so cool."
ScreenRant: I know The Tale of Moana has been years in the making. How early on did you get involved, and what does it take to get to opening night?
Connor Gallagher: I'll give you a quick rundown of how this all started. I directed Beauty the Beast in 2017, which was a hard one. I remember coming off that one being like, "I either want to do a really crazy one that no one expects to see or do something easy and fun." And here we are doing the crazy hard one, but it's also fun.
We did the developmental process until the pandemic slowed us down, but we went through all the steps of building it out. And then we went all over the world; I met Peter and Aaron Salā [the music and cultural consultant] in Hawaii, but we did our casting all over the world.
Part of it is just figuring out how you do Moana on a Disney ship that also has to tell other stories. You still need someone to play Belle, and you still need someone to play Gaston. You still need all these people who have so much talent, and who can also be in the ensemble of this show and dance.
The next question is: how do you do the most culturally diverse production ever on a Disney ship? It's crazy, you get to see people from all over the world singing and dancing and doing what they do so beautifully. I was a part of that entire process, and I'm excited to see future casts for years and years. You're getting all these new voices that you wouldn't have seen on a Disney ship, which is so cool.
ScreenRant: Does your directorial vision remain the same for future iterations on Disney ships?
Connor Gallagher: It does, which is awesome. I directed Beauty and the Beast, which is here, but I didn't direct this version. It's the exact same show, but they build another set, and they have a team in Toronto that does it.
ScreenRant: At what point do you tell Hei Hei and Pua that they can't come along?
Connor Gallagher: I did a treatment for it in 2018, and it's literally about how much story we can pack into an hour. Part of it is that, when we're following Maui and Moana, do we really want to follow for scale? It's hard in these shows, and we dealt with it in Tangled too.
You start to go, "Is it worth having a puppeteer there in every scene?" Then you look at this canoe, and you're like, "Where's the puppeteer going to go?" We don't have close-ups, and all of this is to scale. So, it starts to be just about the process of elimination.
Very early on, we decided there would be no Hei Hei and no Kakamora sequence. It's also because some of those things are played for laughs, and they're an exaggeration of the culture. They're not the celebration that we wanted it to be, so we have to decide what's going to feel authentic and what's going to feel a little offensive. We just stuck with what felt like it was really the heart of the show.
ScreenRant: Finally, which sequence was the most challenging for you to set in stone?
Connor Gallagher: The Te Kā and Te Fiti scene. It's a very long sequence that requires everyone to be on their mark. The puppeteers in the puppet can't see, so it's a lot of who can see where what when, and how they move. Then we have to factor in the lighting, so it's just very challenging.
And then it all ends with that beautiful transformation, which took forever. It was amazing. It was hard.
The Tale Of Moana Choreographer Reveals The Challenges Of Battling Te Kā
“When you're actually on the ship and it's rocking, you don't know what that looks like.”
ScreenRant: The Tale of Moana follows through on the movie's intent to anthropomorphize water. How did you decide on or evolve the movements that would lean into the living ocean?
Peter Rockford Espiritu: The thing about this water, specifically the ocean, is that it had to have emotion. I had to get the dancers to be the water and be the element, but also to understand that element is emotionally connected to Moana.
The ocean chose Moana and, like any water, it can be very soft and luxurious and calm, but it can also be brutal. When the water is battling Te Kā, for example, the dancers have to be one way before they settle and the ocean allows Te Kā to be Te Fiti.
ScreenRant: Speaking of Te Kā and Te Fiti, how do you train your dancers to interact with the incredible animatronics present in The Tale of Moana?
Peter Rockford Espiritu: The puppetry was all from Michael Curry's group, which is in Portland. They were the same people that generated The Lion King, so they had to have separate training with that. Then we had to give the movement on top of that.
The question becomes: how is it going to move? How does the baby float and go there? That's my side. I have to take what they taught the dancers, and then choreograph how it's going to move from A to B.
ScreenRant: The opening number, "Where You Are," is so lovely. How long does choreographing just that take?
Peter Rockford Espiritu: It depends. It's like writing a song. Some songs come immediately, and they're able to get it just like that; some don't. Sometimes you have to rewrite it. We choreograph it, we look at it, and we're like, "That doesn't work," and we start from scratch.
On average, I would say each section takes about a week or so. Then you walk away, look again, and tweak it a little bit to see what works.
ScreenRant: Was there a section that was most challenging for you to get ready for opening night?
Peter Rockford Espiritu: Oh, it would have to be the battle was Te Kā because we had a puppet, but it wasn't all totally done. Also, we had a huge space, but when you're actually on the ship and it's rocking, you don't know what that looks like spatially. It might look good in rehearsal, but when you get in the theater, you have to think about sight lines. Where are people looking, and what rights spacing-wise.
More About Disney Cruise Line's Disney Treasure
Set your compass toward the Disney Treasure, the newest ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, where the spirit of adventure meets the daring tales of classic Disney films and Disney park attractions. The Disney Treasure will embark on its maiden voyage — a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida — on December 21, 2024, followed by an inaugural season of 7-night itineraries to the Eastern and Western Caribbean from Port Canaveral.
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Moana
Moana is a 2016 animated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Set in Ancient Polynesia, the story follows the journey of a young Chieftain's daughter named Moana as she seeks the demigod Maui to lift a curse affecting her island, exploring themes of adventure and self-discovery.
Release Date October 13, 2016
Runtime 107 minutes
Main Genre Adventure
Character(s) Maui (voice) , Moana (voice) , Gramma Tala (voice) , Chief Tui (voice) , Tamatoa (voice) , Sina (voice) , Heihei / Villager #3 (voice) , Toddler Moana (voice) , Fisherman (voice) , Villager #1 (voice) , Villager #2 (voice) , Additional Voices (voice) , Chief Tui (singing voice) (uncredited)
Director John Musker
Writers Jared Bush
Budget $150–175 million
Studio(s) Walt Disney Pictures , Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distributor(s) Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
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English (US) ·