Moana: Disney’s Future
Last month Disney announced a new film, Moana, which will be set in the ancient
South Pacific world. Ron Clements and
Jon Musker, the directors responsible for Aladdin,
The Little Mermaid, and The Princess and the Frog, are at the helm
of this project. The film will follow
Moana as she sets out across the ocean with the help of the demi-god Maui.
According to Musker in an interview, the character, Moana, is passionate and
devoted to the ocean. Disney will release the film in late 2016 (Disney).
Figure 1. Press Release
Image For Disney’s Moana
Disney animated films have often focused
on white female-lead characters, especially in their princess films such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Frozen,
and others. Even Jasmine, a Disneyified non-white princess, is portrayed as
more fair-skinned and Western in behavior than other Arabs in Aladdin (Giroux 139). Despite this
history, Disney is changing gears. Films such as Lilo and Stitch and The
Princess and the Frog have both made an effort to break up the overall lack
of diversity in Disney animated films. Furthermore, Frozen follows this trend by displaying improved representations of
non-normed characters despite still
being problematic. America’s diversification demands that these changes
continue. Millennials, the generation of people who are entering or at adulthood,
are increasingly diverse and are the largest generation of Americans (NPR).
They are people who have grown up with Disney and will likely continue to
consume Disney products and watch Disney movies. Thus the task of improving
diversity of characters is very important to Disney if they want to maintain
hold over this large consumer base. Disney’s announcing Moana indicates their push to diversify their films by focusing on
Polynesian culture, which has been largely unrepresented in American culture.
In light of this announcement, we can
see three primary outcomes of this film: a serious effort to improve diversity,
a mere upholding of the status quo, or a short-term upsetting of the norm. In
order to understand Disney’s motivations for focusing on Polynesian culture,
one should view this announcement with respect to multiple factors including
Ron Clements and Jon Musker’s past directorial experience under Disney, the
film Lilo and Stitch, and writings by
Polynesian authors about the Americanization of their culture.
The press release (Figure 1) should be
analyzed before other sources to gain information on Disney’s intent. Little
information has been provided about this movie besides from the directors, the
basic plotline, and a press release image. The image traces the story of a girl
traveling the wide ocean on a raft towards a mysterious island shrouded by fog;
in short, a mythological story that follows a hero’s journey. Though the sail
features an ethnic insignia of some form, Disney’s image clearly focuses on the
awe and adventure associated with a fabled past. In other words, Polynesian
culture is referenced but not the focus in this image. The reader can glean
from the article’s text that Maui, who is a key person in Polynesian mythology,
is implicated, casting some amount of legitimacy on Disney’s attempt to
diversify their films.
Musker and Clements’ have been involved
in past efforts at diversification - including Aladdin and The Princess and
the Frog – and as a result, they are ready to take on this new task of
bringing Polynesian culture to a mainstream American audience. They are
appropriate choices if Disney truly desires to hold onto Millennial attention. Both
movies, in spite of flawed representations, attempted to show Other as human,
or at least human enough to be featured as main characters. Though systems of
oppression are not removed, these films mark an important step towards better
representation; non-white people are given characters to cherish, even if they
are Americanized.
In a similar vein, Lilo and Stitch advances Hawaiian culture by providing an
Americanized version. Lilo and her older sister Nani are both shown as living
an Americanized but impoverished life but not fully by choice. Poverty constrains them and makes practicing
their culture much more difficult. Nani struggles to care for Lilo while
searching for a job after losing her old one. As a result, a social worker
almost takes Lilo away from Nani several times during the movie. Thus Lilo and Stitch provides an uplifting
depiction because the sisters continually work towards upholding their Hawaiian
heritage in spite of institutional barriers. For example, Lilo is depicted doing
Hula dancing with her classmates. She also welcomes Stitch into her family by
iterating that “ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or
forgotten” (Lilo and Stitch). From this backdrop, one can be hopeful that Moana will also be empowering for people
of color.
At the same time, there is trepidation
over Disney trying to depict Polynesian culture. With movies like Brave and Frozen, Disney focused on white lead characters, suggesting that
they wanted to avoid controversy that they faced with Aladdin and other films. Disney may, with Moana’s release, set off another controversy. Haunani-Kay Trask’s
piece “From A Native Daughter” expresses concern over the Americanization of
Hawaiian culture. In particular, Trask notes that, “[T]he historian’s mission
has been to justify [Hawaiian peoples]’s passing by celebrating Western
dominance. […] And what had the historians said? They had said that the
Americans “liberated” the Hawaiians from an oppressive “feudal system.”” (Trask
3-4). Historians tend to whitewash history, painting a picture of the white man
as the savior. As a result, Americans and other colonizers see their task as
“liberation,” not simply colonization. Trask’s frustration is then a result of
history being used to erase Hawaiian culture, rather than a means of exploring
and understanding non-white cultures. Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s
Burden” highlights the nobility with which colonizers see themselves;
colonizers are burdened to conquer other lands in other to liberate them.
Though the poem was written in context of American invasion of the Philippines,
the colonization efforts are perfectly analogous. The concern with Moana is that Disney will continue to
pursue a post-colonial interpretation of native peoples, instead of creating
uplifting images of them. A simple announcement cannot allay fears of this
outcome. Furthermore, the provided press release (Figure 1) suggests that the
emphasis is on the adventure, not on creating uplifting images. Thus optimism
that Disney will continue to work towards respectfully acknowledging many different
kinds of people must be balanced out by their indirect participation in systems
of oppression that dehumanize non-normed peoples.
Despite these reservations, Disney
appears to be on the right track for diversity by announcing Moana. Jon Musker and Ron Clements’ past
efforts, as well as Lilo and Stitch,
suggest that Disney is drawing upon its previous efforts to present a film that
appeal to a diverse group of Americans. At the same time, the fear that
institutional cruelty will be furthered by this film remains strong. Thus
Disney is facing pressure to respectfully represent people of color and to
create a film that is empowering. As Millennials come of age, this pressure is
mounting. Despite these reservations,
Disney appears ready to rise to the challenge and improve their track record on
diversity with empowering representations.
Works Cited
Giroux, Henry A. and Grace Pollock.
The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End
of Innocence. Lanham,
Maryland: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2010. Print.
“Amid
The Stereotypes, Some Facts About Millennials.” NPR. 18 Nov 2014. Web.
Accessed 20 Nov 2014.
Accessed 20 Nov 2014.
“Walt
Disney Animation Studios Announces 2016 Film: Moana!” Disney. 20 Oct 2014.
Web.
Accessed 20 Nov 2014.
Lilo and Stitch.
Dir. Ron Clements and Jon Musker. Walt Disney Pictures, 2002. Film.
Trask,
Haunani-Kay.
From A Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i.
From A Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i.
Honolulu: Univ. of
Hawaii Press, 1993, 1999.
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