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The beauty of the Hawaiian language comes to life in Disney’s first olelo version of “Moana,” currently in production phase at the University of Hawaii’s Academy for Creative Media in collaboration with Disney. Read more

The beauty of the Hawaiian language comes to life in Disney’s first olelo version of “Moana,” currently in production phase at the University of Hawaii’s Academy for Creative Media in collaboration with Disney.

Auli‘i Cravalho returns as the voice of the heroine Moana, and said Friday she was proud to be part of the project from the recording studio at Honolulu Community College. It is the first Disney picture to be rerecorded in Hawaiian, and will be the 46th language version of “Moana,” in addition to Tahitian and Maori.

“I started ‘Moana’ when I was 15; the movie came out when I was 16,” said Cravalho, who divides her time between Honolulu, Los Angeles and New York. “I’m 17 now, and I got to really grow up with the character. She’s headstrong and brave and loved her family so much, and now that I get to revoice her in Hawaiian, she connects me to my culture in another way.”

One of the most thrilling moments was singing the hit song “How Far I’ll Go” in Hawaiian.

“Hawaiian is a beautiful language,” said Cravalho, “and I must say that ‘How Far I’ll Go’ has never sounded so beautiful than it does in the Hawaiian language.”

She did not grow up speaking Hawaiian, but learned the language while at Kamehameha Schools, where she is a senior. She hopes audiences will love the Hawaiian remake as much as she does.

“‘Moana’ in English really connected with a worldwide audience, and I think she kind of just reminded all of us to think outside the box,” she said, “to journey no matter how far it is, to figure out who we are and what it is that that voice is telling us and calling for us to do. To hear that in Hawaiian, I think, will really influence an entire generation of young Hawaiians like me who are hopefully going to learn more about their culture, who will be inspired to learn their language.”

Chris Lee, director of the Academy for Creative Media and executive producer of the project, said it was the first time university departments across three different campuses, including UH Manoa, UH West Oahu and HCC, have collaborated together. ACM is working with Disney Character Voices International on the project, which has created a one-of-a-kind opportunity for students.

More than 140 Native Hawaiian speakers auditioned in November, and 23 were cast for the film. Character voice recording commenced in mid-January.

UH-Manoa student Kaipu Baker is the voice of Maui.

“I’m pretty stoked,” said Baker, 20. “Actually, I thought maybe I would get a minor role, maybe something in the background. Turns out they liked me. … I just tried to be as confident as I normally am times like a billion, just to resonate the confidence that the Maui character exudes.”

He grew up speaking Hawaiian at home in Kahaluu.

“I am excited about the fruit of this project,” he said. “It’s definitely one domino along the giant game of dropping dominoes for olelo to spread and be heard as normal, to normalize olelo, to legitimize it.”

The production team is made up of Puakea Nogelmeier, UH-Manoa director of the Institute of Hawaiian Language Research, who oversaw the team that did the translation, while the UH-Manoa Theatre &Dance Department’s kumu Tammy Hailiʻopua Baker oversaw casting and dialogue.

Translating some of the phrases into Hawaiian was a huge challenge, according to Nogelmeier, but also fitting the required syllable counts and matching lip flaps. Nogelmeier and his team translated about 100 pages of script and 10,000 words.

“Sometimes we’d have to throw a line in the air and look at 40 possibilities to see what might fit,” he said.

Paige Okamura, a Hawaiian-­language graduate student, was part of the review team for the script.

“There are always moments where there is no translation from English to Hawaiian,” she said. “It’s a different mindset, a totally different perspective and worldview, so those are probably the most challenging moments.”

The goal is to complete the Hawaiian version of “Moana” for its premiere this summer, according to co-­producer Sharla Hanaoka, director of creative media at UH West Oahu. The university hopes to distribute the film as DVDs and Blu-ray discs through the state Department of Education as a Hawaiian-language educational tool.