Disney’s music supervisor and 2013 Oscar winner, Tom MacDougall thought he’d heard it all.
That was until last week when he, and six of Disney’s top notch music team landed in Fiji to hear Pacific music genius Igelese Ete’s choir, Pasifika Voices (a nurturing hub for many of Fiji’s musical success).
MacDougall who has supervised music for all of Disney and Pixar’s animated features since 1995, is finalizing the music score for Disney’s latest animated princess feature – Moana – set for release November 23, 2016.
Their trip came about after the Wellington-raised, Samoan-born Igelese Ete traveled at his own expense to leave a personal message at Disney studios last year saying: “that they cannot produce a movie about the Pacific and not include voices of the Pacific.”
In 2002, Disney produced Lilo & Stich, a story about a lonely Hawaiian girl who adopts a strange creature, and used a choir from Auckland. Igelese told Disney that was “Not really Pacific”.
So the Disney team flew in hoping to hear the music of the Pacific. One that captures the Pacific’s heart, soul and mythical essence. But in reality, they knew it was a very long shot, if not impossible, as they had no prior experience of what’s available in the Pacific, talent and technical wise.
So they kept expectations to a minimum, aiming to come away with ‘something’ good enough for a placeholder in the film score.
But what they got, they were totally unprepared for.
“The balance of the choir and the beauty of their voices, the feel and blend of what we felt will take the film [Moana] to a whole new level,” gushed Music Editor, Earl Ghafarri.
“Its everything we could wish for. We can’t wait to take it back and have everybody listen to it. As we go back and do the rest of the music – this is going to lift everybody up.”
Don Harper, Moana’s Orchestral Conductor could only muster, “It was an exceptional experience.”
The soundtrack for Moana is due for release in late October. There will be 20 Fijian and Solomon Islands names amongst the credits.
For Oscar winner, MacDougall, he gave Igelese and Pasifika Voices the ultimate accolade.
“I have been working in a lot of movies and whether recording in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the world, I can sincerely say that the experience in working with Pasifika Voices has been the absolute tops,” Mr MacDougall stated.
