Disney.com.au
Matewa Media and The Walt Disney Company are thrilled to announce the fifth Disney film to be reimagined into Te Reo Māori, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Oscar®-winning animated film Encanto.
Encanto, which won Best Animated Feature at the 2022 Academy Awards®, tells the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in a magical house called an Encanto. Having captured the hearts of many globally, Encanto’s themes of whānau and intergenerational relationships resonate with the te ao māori.
Encanto Reo Māori will not be tied to a specific mita (dialect). The translations for the film will be helmed by mātanga reo Māori, Pānia Papa and Leon Blake.
“Coming straight off the back of Coco Reo Māori, we are confident that we’ll deliver another high standard film. We’re looking forward to kicking into Encanto with all the magic and challenges that lay ahead,” says Director and Producer of Encanto Reo Māori Tweedie Waititi.
The Walt Disney Company together with Matewa Media (founded by International Award Emmy winner, Tweedie Waititi and Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Chelsea Winstanley) are on the hunt for arero māori to step up and help bring this magical iteration of Encanto Reo Māori to life.
The first round of online auditions opens from today. Each character will have a different audition piece; most will require auditionees to sing a snippet from the film's award-winning soundtrack. Waititi and Winstanley have advised that all levels of Reo Māori fluency are welcome.
The announcement of this fifth Reo Māori Disney film comes after a successful audition process for Disney and Pixar’s Coco Reo Māori which will be released in cinemas for Matariki 2023.
The Reo Māori versions of Disney’s The Lion King, Frozen and Moana are now streaming on Disney+.
