Post-production is essential to completing any film, especially an animated one like Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana 2.

From the sound work and character designs, the two teams work together to bring the sights and sounds of the animated sequel to life through practical tools for sound and the importance of authenticity, using real-life references and personal experiences to enhance character design.

The Nerds of Color joined their fellow journalists to take a sneak peek of the upcoming Moana 2. While we offered our thoughts on the first 30 minutes of footage and spoke to the directors and producers of the sequel, this piece focuses on the behind-the-scenes artists that make the sequel possible.

Supervising sound editor Shannon Mills, who has lent his expertise to 11 Disney animated projects, emphasizes sound’s critical role in bringing these fantastical worlds to the big screen. “In an animated film, the sound team starts with nothing, having to create every sound from scratch,” Mills explains. Whether it’s the battles in Raya and the Last Dragon, creating a magical house in Encanto, or the lovable robot in Baymax, the team has designed every sound you hear in those films.”

We learned that foley is one of the oldest and most essential crafts within film sound. Foley is the creation and reproduction of everyday sounds recorded on a stage. And Foley artists like Skywalker Sound’s Ronnie Brown offered captivating demonstrations of her playful craft. For instance, Brown used coconut shells to represent the sounds of Pua’s footsteps as he moved along Moana’s boat. For Hei-Hei’s fancy footsteps, she used Wisteria pods that had dried and curled up.

“The cool part about working on animation, especially for Disney, is that it gives me the opportunity to add a little bit of comedy,” Brown shared. “One of my favorite parts about Foley is combining things that are expected and not expected.”

In one scene, Moana tumbles down into the jungle below and gets caught up in a few vines, which eventually snap, dropping her further into the jungle. “The sounds I have for that are kind of a combination of really literal leaves and other foliage,” Brown said. “To represent the vines snapping, she used some rubber and some leather. She has to pay attention to the comedic timing and the characters’ movements to help the audience’s viewing experience.”

To create these sounds, it’s important for Brown to have as many props as possible. These props can range from shammies and bags of flour to car parts and wooden doors. One of the props that Brown as one too many of are gloves. “I’ve been told I have too many gloves,” she joked. No prop is too small or obscure for her as she also has different poles, swords, big knives, pens, and crayons at her disposal.

Miller even kept the boots that created the sound for Darth Vader’s footsteps. But it’s not just the aforementioned material that can be used; she also considers different surfaces like metal, rocks, grassy moss, and sand — that figures considering how Moana will probably encounter a few beaches on her journey and that Anakin Skywalker hates sand.

Using her one of my favorite non-literal sounds from the film, Brown demonstrated how she used a stress cheese with a little bit of hair gel, a baby bottle, and the wet shammy to represent the cockeyed, fizzy, floppy mudskippers that help feeds a great beast. Using the magic of recording, Brown was able to record a group of sounds using those same props to create a group of mudskippers flopping about. So it would sound very different on its own. But when mixed with the dialogue, music, and other effects, it helps enhance the audience’s viewing experience.

It’s because of foley artists like Ronnie Brown, that Moana 2 isn’t just a cinematic experience, it’s a pure escape into a world that not only looks real but sounds real too.

For the character design, Daniel Arriaga (Art Director — Characters), Amy Smeed (Heads of Animation), and Kevin Webb (Heads of Animation) emphasized the importance of capturing Moana’s maturity and confidence, while still maintaining her core traits of determination and athleticism. Physical changes like her new red chief’s costume and slightly altered hairstyle were designed to reflect her growth over the three-year time gap since the first film.

Now that grounded and more confident Moana has found her place in the world as a Wayfinder, she finds herself confronting a new challenge when a curse threatens the safety of her people. As such, she has to wrestle with the idea of leaving this island in order to save it and is unsure if she can come back home because there is so much at stake.

Part of her evolution includes getting older and becoming chief. That maturity takes the form of a more voluminous hair, while color choices like having Moana wear the color red to represent her becoming chief. “That’s why you see that subtle, subtle change, but still our Moana, but just with something a little bit more updated,” Arriaga said. “And other than that, you know, she’s been sailing for the past three years, so she’s just gotten more fit.”

In addition to Moana, the team introduced several new characters, each with their own unique personalities and design elements. These include Moana’s younger sister Siema, the energetic and inventive Loto, the Maui fanboy and documenter Moni, and the reluctant but essential farmer Kaylee. Arriaga used his own children as a reference point to capture the sibling relationship that we will see between Moana and Siema.

Additionally, the team used reference videos of themselves to create a more realistic performance that audiences can believe in. These reference videos helped bring authenticity and relatability to these new characters.

Moana 2 opens in theaters on November 27, 2024.