We really wanted someone from the culture to sort of do that. And we heard about Taika [Waititi]. We saw his movie Boy, which that he had directed and written and which was great. We read another one of his scripts that was great. And we brought him in, showed him what we were doing. He really liked the idea.
Ron ClementsThere are stories of Maui everywhere in the South Pacific. They're different. Different areas have different interpretations. But and so we [with John Musker] fashioned, that was kind of the inspiration and we came up with a very simple basic storyline, focusing on Maui.
Ron Clements[John Musker] got me reading the mythology and we very early on we worked up a basic storyline centered around the character of Maui. He just seemed like a great character to kind of build a movie around. He's this mythic demi-god, bigger than life character. He pulled up islands with his magical fishhook. He slowed down the sun. He's Pan Pacific.
Ron ClementsWe really wanted someone from the culture to sort of do that. And we heard about Taika [Waititi]. We saw his movie Boy, which that he had directed and written and which was great. We read another one of his scripts that was great. And we brought him in, showed him what we were doing. He really liked the idea.
Ron ClementsIt was really John's [Musker] idea to begin with to tell a story set in the world of the South Pacific, Polynesia. He started, he just loved the world and he started reading a lot of mythology, which most people are not that familiar with.
Ron Clements