ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the relationship of material surface, (e)motion and color in Disney's feature film Moana, which has received some popular attention as the 'first' Disney film to feature a Polynesian princess. Moana demonstrates specific capacities to create magical worlds through computer-generated imagery, the animated surfaces of water, sky, and light that play a central role in the story. Giuliana Bruno has spoken of film, architecture, and clothing as linked aesthetic surfaces in that all three have the ability to "house the motion of emotion" or make mood. Rodgers and Hammerstein's smash Broadway musical South Pacific only intensified the American cultural popularity of the tiki aesthetic, while Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's bars and restaurants expanded architectural franchises they had begun in the twenties and thirties. Disney's Moana tells the backstory of Maui's epic legends using a device dubbed 'Mini Maui' by the animators where the tattoos on his arms, chest, and back come to life and move around.
