8 Reasons to Get Excited for Disney's Moana 

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Moana is a project five years in the making at Disney, and is easily one of the studio\'s most anticipated animated movies. Its credentials are exciting enough on paper: Ron Clements and John Musker, the duo behind Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, are directing it; Hamilton\'s Lin-Manuel Miranda co-wrote the songs; and Dwayne Johnson is voicing main character Maui.

But during a recent visit to Walt Disney Animation Studios in North Hollywood, Calif., the creative team behind the upcoming film pulled back the curtain to reveal the extensive research, development and creativity that\'s been going on behind the scenes.

Team members from the story, animation, effects and visual development teams gave presentations discussing different facets of the movie-making process that revealed some interesting details about the project, proving there\'s even more reasons to be excited about Moana than there may seem.

Here are eight of the most interesting things revealed about Moana during the trip to Walt Disney Animation Studios.

The basis of Moana\'s plot is actually built upon the absence of story and myth. Clements and Musker found themselves intrigued by the importance of navigation in Polynesia, and the fact that the Pacific Islanders are recognized as the best navigators. But they found themselves puzzled over the way that, after millennia of dominating the oceans, for 1000 years everyone in Oceania mysteriously stayed put. Then, about 2000 years ago, the navigators started traveling again and eventually populated the eastern Pacific.

What if, the directors thought, there was one girl who was responsible for things starting up again, and thus the concept of Moana was born. The opening of the film shows the trickster demi-god Maui stealing Mother Island\'s heart, and when it\'s lost, Polynesian culture grinds to a halt. But Moana\'s grandmother tells her a story of how one day someone will find both the heart and Maui, who is also missing, and return things to the way they once were, which eventually inspires her to do just that.

Moana village costume designs by visual development artist Neysa Bové

Like many Disney heroes, Moana is someone in conflict with her own identity. She finds herself drawn to the ocean, but her father, the chief, tells her they must stay put; he wants her to be the next chief. Beyond Moana trying to find out who she is, thematically the film deals with a people who have lost their identity, and sees them finding it as Moana comes of age in the tale.

After Clements and Musker figured out the story they wanted to tell, it was necessary to travel to the Polynesian islands to authentically depict the culture being told. The first trip was to Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, and Mo\'orea in 2011; over the course of two more visits in 2014, the team also visited New Zealand, Bora Bora and Tetearoa. There, the Moana team met with academics, archeologists, anthropologists, linguists, historians, tattoo masters, navigators, fishermen, elders, artists -- "as many people as we could we met and we were really lucky to learn from," said Sr. Creative Executive Producer Jessica Julius.

Together, the team behind Moana and the people they relied on for cultural advice in Polynesia formed what they call the "Oceanic Story Trust," and the research they did over those four years dramatically changed the movie. One elder told the Moana team that they needed to "know your mountain"; in other words, in order to go where you\'re going, you need to know where you come from. That idea formed the heart of Moana\'s journey in the movie.

The research done in Polynesia permeates the entire film as the creatives behind Moana strove to be as authentic to the islands as possible. Though the film is animated, the design of everything from the beach sand to the local flora to the items Moana would use to create her clothes and jewelry has some basis in what they learned. And with the central concept of Moana being about navigation, Clements and Musker found themselves trying to figure out "how can we best illustrate what we saw in the South Pacific the deep relationship people have with the ocean."

Clements and Musker are the masterminds behind The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, so it\'s no surprise that they found a way to sneak a bit of 2D animation into Moana. Maui is covered in tattoos throughout the film, which represent his past accomplishments. In a concept similar to the animated Muses on the pots in Hercules (which the duo also directed), one of Maui\'s tattoos on his 3D animated body -- a mini version of himself -- has its own personality, and acts as Maui\'s conscience. Mini Maui will frequently call out Maui for his actions even though he only speaks through pantomime, and the two have a relationship that is important to the movie.

Animator Eric Goldberg, who worked with the directors on Aladdin and Hercules, is leading Moana\'s hand-drawn animation to integrate the 2D drawings into the 3D animation. Mini Maui was drawn traditionally on paper in the style of traditional Polynesian tattoos. Goldberg and the animators would have to design the 3D and 2D versions of the scenes separately and then integrate one into the other. One scene has Maui poke Mini Maui in the belly, which had to be timed to the specific frame where the poke happens so the two styles of animations matched up. Another has Mini Maui snap the frame of a tattoo to get Maui\'s attention.

Mini Maui sketches by animation supervisor Eric Goldberg

"A lot [of what Mini Maui does] came out from story and a lot came out from us banging it back-and-forth with the animators and with Jon and Ron and saying, \'Wouldn’t it be fun if Mini Maui did this?\'" said Goldberg. "When Mini Maui is so upset that big Maui is leaving the island without Moana he starts throwing a little fit, and [Michael Woodside, one of the other CG animators] initially said, \'I thought it would be fun for him to shut Mini Maui up by flexing his pec and making him topple over\' [

], so that’s what wound up in the scene, and we collaborated in terms of in what frame numbers does the pec flex occurr and the how Mini Maui had to flip to look like he is reacting to that. So it was that kind of back-and-forth."

Clements and Musker are quick to label Moana a "badass," and note she\'s "unlike any of the heroines we\'ve done before in many ways." Moana may be a chieftain\'s daughter, but she\'s no princess. She\'s not on a quest for love but for her people\'s salvation, and in many ways she\'s more an Aladdin or a Hercules than a Jasmine or an Ariel.

The design for Moana went through many iterations, and it\'s only through a matter of chance that the character ended up looking as similar to voice actress Auli\'i Cravalho as she does. Even though there were may different possible illustrations of Moana, she was always going to be athletic instead of waifish. The character and costume design would support her on-the-go attitude, with practical travel outfits for sailing and a propensity to put her hair up in a bun when she\'s ready to get to business on her adventures.

Moana visual development by art director Bill Schwab

Though Moana eventually teams up with Maui, her pet pig Pua (based on the many pet pigs the Moana team encountered on their visits to Polynesia) and Heihei the chicken (more on him in a bit), this hero\'s journey is hers and hers alone. Even though this is a new story being told, the moral is a familiar one: Moana discovers "not to let others define her, but that she really defines herself."

Continue onto the second page for more about Moana\'s music, the new technology created for the film and the character everyone\'s expecting to be the breakout star.