‘Moana’ director calls out critics amid ‘unnecessary’ backlash

The director of the live action Moana remake has insisted the movie isn’t a “mirror” of the animated 2016 film.

Thomas Kail was enlisted to helm the reboot, which stars Dwayne Johnson as demigod Maui, a role he voiced in the animated movie and Catherine Laga'aia as the titular heroine.

While Disney fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of the new film, early reviews have completely panned it, calling it everything from “dismal” to “unnecessary.”

However, in the wake of the backlash, Kail has spoken to Variety, insisting that there are multiple differences between his film and the 2016 one.

He said, “Our film has scenes that are totally different. It has different people saying things. It has different jokes. It has different order of things. It is not a mirror of the original script in any way. It is the same story and same characters, but it was not just connecting a dot between this and the original.”

“Our hope was that because it’s flesh-and-blood human beings, there’s an inherent difference from the embodiment of that, in terms of the preservation of culture and also what the movie feels like when you see a 16-year-old who’s in the middle of a storm or facing a lava monster,” he added.

Kail further mentioned, “That’s a very different feeling than when you’re watching the animated version.”

He was also asked if he reads reviews of his work to which he answered, “I get the gist of things. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I learned early on that getting a sense of a conversation was enough for me. I want as many people as possible to watch the movie, and I love making things for people.”

“If that can be a tool to get people to watch it, great. But I also feel like there’s lots of ways to reach the people,” he stated.

Another aspect of the film that caused controversy when the Moana trailer was released was the wig that famously-bald Dwayne wears to play Maui.

However, Thomas Kail said that a glimpse of the curly locks in the trailer doesn’t have the same impact as when you watch the whole film. “Maui’s power and spirit comes from his hair. Maui without hair is not Maui. So, we knew Maui had to have it. It’s a different experience when you see it in a two-minute trailer. When folks have been watching the movie, you sort of say ‘there’s Maui,’ and then you don’t think about it.”