Learn How to Draw Mini Maui from Disney's Moana

Get excited, get very excited! This Thanksgiving Disney is releasing Moana and I can already tell that it is going to be a smash hit! While we were at the Pete’s Dragon Event last month we were also treated to a little sneak peak of the film. Once it started playing I instantly fell in love. The colors, music, and characters were absolutely stunning. Moana is a story about a little girl who follows her heart and is drawn to the ocean.

From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes “Moana,” a sweeping, CG-animated feature film about an adventurous teenager who sails out on a daring mission to save her people. During her journey, Moana meets the once-mighty demigod Maui, who guides her in her quest to become a master wayfinder. Together, they sail across the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds, and along the way, Moana fulfills the ancient quest of her ancestors and discovers the one thing she’s always sought: her own identity.

Disney really wanted to make sure that Moana was grounded and showed respect to the pacific island culture that inspired it. Music is a huge part of thier culture, so Disney wanted to make sure that Moana had incredible music that blends contemporary song with deep rooted heart pounding music from the pacific. To do this they teamed up with a trio of amazing musicians. Lin-Manuel Miranda from Hamilton, Mark Mancina from The Lion King and pacific island musician Opetaia Foa‘i from Te Vaka!

The cast was also extremely important for Disney. They wanted actors and actresses that could both act and sing, and if possible they wanted to cast performers that had roots in oceania. Filmmakers auditioned hundreds of talented young women throughout the Pacific Islands before finding the gifted Native Hawaiian Auli‘i Cravalho to voice Moana. She is beautiful and adorable and the perfect heroin! I cannot wait to share our interview with her with you soon! And Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson voices Maui—half god, half mortal, all awesome, who guides her in her quest to become a master wayfinder as she sails out on a daring mission to save her people.

Learn to Draw Mini Maui from Disney's Moana!

One of my favorite things about the character Maui is Mini Maui. Maui is covered with tatoos that represents some of his great accomplishments throughout the century. One of Maui’s many tatoos’ is Mini Maui who also happens to be Maui’s conscience, his Jiminy Cricket with attitude. Watch the clip below to see Mini Maui in action!

Learn How to Draw Mini Maui

We just learned how to draw Mini Maui from animator Eric Goldberg! #Maui #petesdragonevent

A photo posted by Mom Blogger • Lauren (@artcraftsfamily) on Aug 8, 2016 at 2:52pm PDT

Learn how to draw Mini Maui from Disney Animator Eric Goldberg! I was totally geeking out hearing him talk about and teaching us how to draw the character! This was the first time he taught anyone how to draw Mini Maui, so we all felt pretty special. So awesome!

Inner Workings

Opening in front of Moana is a new short called Inner Workings by first time director Leo Matsuda. Before watching the short, Leo came out to tell us a little bit about it. He told us that he was always inspired by the human body and how it worked and always wanted to share his fascination with its many layers. He also wanted to share a bit of his Japanese and Brazilian heritage. ” My Japanese side is very logical and my Brazilian side is very carnival and party. I always start a war between both sides, and I think this short represents a little bit of that.” I thought Inner Workings was sweet, colorful, and very funny.