BURBANK -- BURBANK - On The Red Carpet is going behind the scenes of Disney's "Moana 2" to give fans a sneak peek at how voice actors, animators and foley artists work at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank.
Huallai Chung, who plays Moni, gave George Pennacchio a beginner's lesson on voice acting! George got in the recording booth and tackled his best impression of Kele, a grumpy old farmer who's part of Moana's wayfinding crew.
Another aspect of animation films is creating all the sounds heard, like the footsteps of Moana's pet chicken Hei Hei, voiced by Alan Tudyk. Foley artist Ronni Brown showed On The Red Carpet her resourceful ways of using random objects to create character noises, like a stress cheese foam with hair gel and a baby bottle nipple, "it just requires a lot of inventive thinking on the fly and if something doesn't work, I try something else," she said.
Something else required to make "Moana 2" and all the incredible visuals? The huge team of animators who draw using mostly 3D computer animation. Mini Maui, the tattoo on Maui (played by Dwayne Johnson) who keeps him in line, is achieved by traditional hand drawing skills. Austin Taylor, a "Moana 2" animator, weighed in on Mini Maui to On The Red Carpet. "Mini Maui is essentially what Jiminy Cricket is to Pinocchio: his conscious," he said. Taylor also gave George a step-by-step lesson on drawing Mini Maui. Fans can join in the fun and watch the full tutorial here.
"Moana 2" hits theaters only on Wednesday, November 27.
Disney is the parent company of this station.