LOS ANGELES, Nov 23 — Moana tells the story of a young woman who uses her navigational talents to set sail for a fabled island. Joining her on the adventure is her hero, the legendary demi-god Maui. Like many Disney animated movies, at its heart are stirring musical numbers.
The man behind them in Moana is Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda who says the experience was very different to making a Broadway smash.
“My music is the way I get in the room, right? It’s so incredible to be at a Disney off-site meeting, you’ll have a screening of a rough cut of your film and then the people who you sit and get notes from are not studio executives, it’s not a test screening, you see Jon Lasseter sitting next to the director of Frozen, sitting next to director of Inside Out, everyone who’s actually making things and they all kick the tires on your story and they ask questions and you have vigorous debate and you come out with a better story than when you started,” says songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Manuel is working on a number of projects with Disney including a live-action reboot of The Little Mermaid, one that is top secret and a starring role in Mary Poppins Returns.
“You’re going to hear the worst accent you’ve ever heard in your life, you’re not going to know what country I’m from, I’m really managing expectations immediately. It’s going to sound like I came from another planet,” says Miranda.
However, it’s a very specific role in another Disney franchise, the Marvel universe, that he has his eye on.
“I’m a Marvel buff, I grew up reading those comics. If they ever do a Maximum Carnage storyline I want dibs on Carnage but, yeah, that’s an incredible world and what they’ve managed to do to actually make a series of films that feel like when your favorite comic book character jumps into your comic, it’s really... I’m in awe of it,” says Miranda.
Moana hits cinemas on November 23. — AFP-Relaxnews
