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    • Royal Oak native Amy Smeed is lead animator for Disney’s ‘Moana 2’
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    Royal Oak native Amy Smeed is lead animator for Disney’s ‘Moana 2’

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    When Amy Smeed landed a major job on “Moana 2,” it wasn’t just any assignment. It was a reunion with one of her favorite heroines from her numerous Disney projects.

    “We work so hard on these films and we really fall in love with our characters. I think Moana in particular is a character that I admire so much. Maybe this sounds strange, but I feel like I learned a lot from her. She is someone who takes risks. She believes in herself,” said Smeed, head of animation for 2016’s “Moana” and its sequel “Moana 2,” which opens Wednesday.

    Smeed, who grew up in Royal Oak, broke a glass ceiling eight years ago with “Moana.” She became the first woman to hold that title in a Disney animated film.

    “Moana” was praised for its cultural representation. Inspired in part by oral histories from the Pacific Islands region known as Oceania, it reflected both the history of early Polynesian ocean-faring explorers and the filmmakers’ efforts to honor that heritage and weave it into an adventure saga led by a brave 16-year-old girl.

    As entertaining as it was, “Moana” ultimately earned more than $640 million at the worldwide box office and brought new energy to Disney’s new generation of powerful princesses.

    ‘Moana’ followed the daughter of the chief of the island of Motunui as she embarks on a journey to save her homeland with the help of a demigod. “Moana 2” picks up three years later as the title character, now about 19, sets off on another dangerous, seafaring expedition to remote parts of Oceania after her ancestors are contacted.

    This time, however, she is accompanied by a crew consisting of an enthusiastic young engineer, a crabby senior farmer and a storyteller who preserves history.

    For the voice cast of “Moana 2,” Auli’I Cravalho returns as Moana and Dwayne Johnson returns as demigod Maui. That includes Nicole Scherzinger as Moana’s mother, Sina. One of the new voice actors is Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Simea, Moana’s toddler sister, who aspires to be her older sibling’s mini-me.

    Changes have also taken place behind the scenes over the past eight years, according to Smeed. “With each of our projects, we get stronger and stronger in terms of character animation,” she says. “In terms of technology alone, we paid a lot of attention to the water and the hair in the first film. As technology advances, those things look even more amazing this time.”

    Regarding the status of women in animation, Smeed is encouraged by the efforts she has seen to close the gender gap in animation, both at the schools and colleges she regularly visits and within the ranks of Disney, where she has more leadership opportunities for women. .

    “What I like is seeing this new generation of women interested in character animation. We’ve seen that in terms of how many women have applied for jobs as an animators. It seems that every year there are more and more women presenting their work with their roles and that has also allowed us to bring more female animators to our studio.”

    The Detroit native grew up watching the Disney animated films that often arrived during the holidays. After graduating from Royal Oak’s Kimball High School, she studied art at Western Michigan University for about three years before transferring to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she began taking computer animation courses and fell in love with the process.

    Smeed began her career at Disney Animation Studios, where her animation work included ‘Chicken Little’, ‘Meet the Robinsons’, ‘Bolt’, ‘Tangled’, ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ and ‘Frozen’, which was directed by Jennifer Lee, the first female director of a Disney animated film.

    Originally planned as a streaming series for Disney+, “Moana 2” shifted to a feature film after Disney put its emphasis back on the big screen. Because it opens over Thanksgiving weekend, “Moana 2” will likely boost what has already been a banner year for Disney movies, thanks to “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool vs. Wolverine.”

    Smeed says she became involved with the project after “Moana 2” transitioned from a series to a movie. As someone who knew the cinematic character well, she was more than qualified to oversee the subtle changes in Moana now that she’s three years older.

    “She’s more of a leader of her community. She has more self-confidence. She’s still the same authentic character we fell in love with in the first film. … But this time she has been at sea for the past three years,” Smeed notes.

    As an example of what has changed, she points to a subtle difference in Moana’s body language that reflects her growth as a person. In the first film she stood more on her toes waiting to see what would happen next. Now she stands back more on her heels, indicating that she is more grounded and confident.

    Smeed describes her role in the film (she and Kevin Webb are both heads of animation for “Moana 2”) as one that requires monitoring the big picture and paying attention to small details. “Ultimately, my job is to get the director’s vision on screen,” she says, in this case referring to the “Moana 2” directing trio of David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana. Ledoux Molenaar.

    She describes Disney as a “super-collaborative studio” and says she is constantly reaching out to the many teams involved in feature film animation. One of those groups is the character rigging team, which essentially creates the digital skeleton that controls characters’ ability to move so realistically.

    Putting together a main character can take six to nine months, Smeed notes, and is a piece of the puzzle that takes place in pre-production.

    During production, Smeed says one of her usual activities is sitting with the directors and providing feedback as they watch the animation dailies. “We look at every single scene and make sure we get the most out of it for what’s important at that moment,” she says.

    Computer-generated animation is a laborious process that requires extreme patience because, as Smeed explains, it consists of 24 frames per second. “The average animator animates about 3 to 4 seconds a week, and that’s if you have two characters at their waist,” she says. “If you have a character with a full body, it will take longer.”

    According to Smeed, it was bittersweet to finish “Moana” and “Moana 2” because “there’s a feeling of almost, I miss her.” She says her three favorite characters from her Disney experience are Moana, Rapunzel from “Tangled” and Anna from “Frozen” (who was voiced by another former Oakland County resident, Huntington Woods native Kristen Bell).

    “Although they are very different and unique, they still have this spirit within them,” says Smeed of the trio. “We always said about Rapunzel (that) she has an unstoppable spirit. And I think that applies to each of them in slightly different ways. I love that our characters can be an inspiration to other women.”

    Smeed is especially grateful that she can inspire girls like her 16-year-old daughter. “I think it’s great, especially raising a daughter, that they can look at these characters and find something that they can resonate with and hopefully they can strive to get that same thing, like none of them let anything get in their way stand,” she says.

    She may have three favorites, but for now, consider Moana first among equals. As Smeed says, “She always thinks about others and nothing can stop her.”

    Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].

    ‘Moana 2’

    In theaters on Wednesday

    Rated PG; action and danger

    1 hour, 40 minutes

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