Royal Oak native Amy Smeed is chief animator for Disney's "Moana 2."

When Amy Smeed landed a key job on Moana 2, it wasn’t just another assignment. It was a reunion with one of her favorite heroines from her many Disney projects.

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

Amy Smeed, who grew up in Royal Oak, Michigan, is head of animation at Disney "Moana 2."

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

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

As entertaining as it was groundbreaking, Moana grossed more than $640 million at the global box office and infused new energy into Disney’s new generation of confident princesses.

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“Moana” followed the daughter of the chief of the island of Motunui as she embarked on a journey to save her homeland with the help of a demigod. “Moana 2” takes place three years later, when the 19-year-old title character sets off on another dangerous seafaring expedition to remote areas of Oceania after being contacted by her ancestors.

This time, however, she’s accompanied by a crew that includes an enthusiastic young engineer, a grumpy senior farmer, and a history-loving storyteller.

For the voice cast of Moana 2, Auli’I Cravalho returns as Moana and Dwayne Johnson is back as demigod Maui. So does Nicole Scherzinger as Moana’s mother Sina. The new voice actors include Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, a little sister of Moana, Simea, who aspires to be her older sibling’s mini-me.

According to Smeed, there have also been changes behind the scenes over the past eight years. “With each project we do, we continue to get stronger in terms of character animation,” she says. “In terms of technology alone, we put a lot of effort into the water and hair in the first film. With the advancement of technology, these things look even more amazing this time.”

When it comes to the status of women in animation, Smeed is encouraged by efforts to bridge the gender gap in animation, both in the schools and colleges she regularly attends and in the ranks at Disney, where she saw more leadership opportunities for women.

“What I love is seeing this new generation of women getting interested in character animation. We saw this in how many women applied for animator jobs. It seems like every year we have more and more women showcasing their work with their roles, and that’s why we’ve been able to bring more female animators into our studio.”

The Detroit metropolitan native grew up watching the Disney animated films that often arrived during the holidays. After graduating from Kimball High School in Royal Oak, 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 she worked on animation for Jennifer Lee’s “Chicken Little,” “Meet the Robinsons,” “Bolt,” “Tangled,” “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Frozen,” among others , the first female director of a Disney animated film.

Originally planned as a streaming series for Disney+, “Moana 2” became a feature film after Disney shifted its focus back to the big screen. With “Moana 2” hitting theaters over Thanksgiving weekend, it’s likely to be another great year for Disney movies, thanks to “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool vs. Wolverine.”

Smeed says she came to the project after “Moana 2” transitioned from a series to a film. As someone who knew the film 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 in her community. She has more self-confidence. She’s still the same real character we fell in love with in the first film. … But this time she has been at sea for the last three years,” Smeed noted.

As an example of what has changed, she cites a subtle difference in Moana’s body language that reflects her growth as a person. In the first film, she stood even straighter in anticipation of what would happen next. Now she steps on her heels more, showing that she is more grounded and confident.

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

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

Building a main character can take six to nine months, according to Smeed, and is one piece of the puzzle that happens in pre-production.

During production, Smeed says one of her usual activities is to sit with the directors and give them feedback as they watch the daily animated films. “We look at every single scene and make sure we get the most out of it for what’s important at the 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 when you have two characters at waist height,” she says. “When you have a full-bodied character, it takes longer.”

According to Smeed, finishing “Moana” and “Moana 2” was bittersweet because “you almost feel like I miss them.” She says her three favorite characters from her Disney experience are Moana, Rapunzel from “Tangled,” and Anna from Frozen (who was voiced by Kristen Bell, another former Oakland County resident).

“Even though they are very different and unique, they still have this spirit within them,” Smeed says of the trio. “We have always said about Rapunzel that she has an irrepressible 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 out there.”

Smeed is especially grateful to be able to inspire girls like her 16-year-old daughter. “I love it, especially when I’m raising a daughter, that they can look at these characters and find something that they can resonate with and hopefully they can aspire to achieve the same thing, like not being one of them Letting anything get in their way,” she says.

On November 26, 2024 By Oliver Sinclair

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Royal Oak native Amy Smeed is chief animator for Disney’s “Moana 2.”

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