Auliʻi Cravalho is the voice for the animated Moana.
DWAYNE, "THE ROCK" JOHNSON, a former professional wrestler and football player, is more than a muscle-bound, action movie star.
In the upcoming animated movie, Moana, he displays his singing talent. He sings "You're Welcome," a brand new song written for the movie by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame.
For centuries, the greatest sailors in the world masterfully navigated the vast Pacific, discovering the many islands of Oceania. But then, 3,000 years ago, their voyages stopped for a millennium – and no one knows exactly why.
Moana is a sweeping, animated feature film about an adventurous teenager who is inspired to leave the safety and security of her island on a daring journey to save her people. Inexplicably drawn to the ocean, Moana (voice of Auliʻi Cravalho) convinces the mighty demigod Maui (voice of Johnson) to join her mission, and he reluctantly helps her become a way finder like her ancestors who sailed before her.
Together, they voyage across the open ocean on an action-packed adventure, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds, and along the way, Moana fulfills her quest and discovers the one thing she’s always sought: her own identity.
In casting of the voices, Disney sought Pacific Islanders to play the main roles. The selection of Johnson, who is Samoan/American, was a no-brainer. He is the highest-paid movie star in Hollywood.
In open auditions, Disney found Cavalho, who is Hawaiian/American.
Is Dwayne Johnson eyeing a new role as President of the U.S.?
AN ACTOR as President of the United States? How outlandish does that sound?
Oh, wait a minute. That's already been done, right?
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is not rejecting the idea after an article in the Washington Post said that he might actually win if he ran for president.
'I can’t deny that the thought of being governor, the thought of being president, is alluring," said the Samoan/American actor. "And beyond that, it would be an opportunity to make a real impact on people’s lives on a global scale. But there are a lot of other things I want to do first.'
Could this be the first nudge of the boulder that will start gaining momentum until it can't be stopped? The retired wrestler seemed very intrigued by the opinion piece written by The Washington Post, which supported his background and skill set as a good fit for the POTUS. So much so, that he actually commented back on it.
“I care DEEPLY about our county… and the idea of one day becoming President to create real positive impact and global change is very alluring," Dwayne wrote. "Buuuuut until that possible day, the most important thing right now is strong honest leadership from our current and future leaders of this country.”
Since the San Andreas actor is a registered Republican, the author of the piece, Alyssa Rosenberg, argues that since the party is desperate for nonwhite voters, The Rock could be a viable option.
This political speculation began earlier this month when the 44-year old Johnson hinted at the possibility of a career in politics in an interview with British GQ.
"I’ll be honest, I haven’t ruled politics out." he said. "I’m not being coy when I say that, but at the moment I am not sure."
The popular actor has mastered the first step in being a politician -- ambiguity.
Congressional Delegate Eni F. H. Faleomavaega speaks about the
citizenship status of American Samoans
IT WAS SAMOANS vs. Samoans that made it easier for the U.S. Supreme Court to turn down an appeal that would have granted automatic citizenship to residents of American Samoa.
By declining to review the appeal of Tuaua vs. the United States today (June 13), the decision of the lower court stands. American Samoa is the only overseas U.S. territory without birthright U.S. citizenship.
Plaintiff Leneuoti Tuaua
“We’re obviously very disappointed. This means there will be many Samoans living in California, including veterans, who will not be able to vote in November,” said Neil Weare, a civil rights lawyer and president of We the People Project, which sponsored the lawsuit brought by the Samoan Federation of America, based in Carson, California.
Current law considers American Samoans to be “nationals,” not full citizens like those born in Puerto Rico, Guam and other U.S. territories. Nationals are allowed to work and live anywhere in the United States, but unlike citizens, they can’t vote or hold elective office.
The territory has a population of roughly 55,000 but it also affects the thousands of Samoans who reside on the mainland and Hawaii. There are about 61,000 American Samoans living in California and another 60,000 living in the other states.
Those born in the other U.S. territories -- Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Marianas -- all get citizenship at birth, but that was determined by statute in Congress. No such statute exists for American Samoa.
The challengers said that the law violates the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled last year that birthright citizenship does not automatically apply to the nation’s unincorporated political territories.
The government of American Samoa opposes birthright citizenship, arguing that unique Samoan cultural traditions "might be threatened by a fundamental change in the status of the American Samoan people." The leaders believe that if full citizenship rights were given to their residents, they would lose autonomy over local laws, which includes a law that allows the land to be communally owned by Samoan families. About 90 percent of American Samoa falls under this status. The land cannot be sold or rented to anyone "whose blood is less than one-half Samoan."
The territory's leaders said that "whether birthright citizenship should extend to the people of American Samoa is a question for the people of American Samoa and its elected representatives, and not for this (Supreme) Court to decide."
The lower court ruled that under the Insular cases distinction, birthright citizenship is not a "fundamental" right owed to the "unincorporated" territories. The Insular cases is a set of laws based on racist views of the early 20th century that didn't think the Samoans were intellectually capable of ruling themselves.
The main plaintiff in the original suit is Leneuoti Tuaua, who says he was denied a job in a California law enforcement agency because he was not a citizen.
American Samoans can claim U.S. citizenship if one of their parents is a citizen or by residing in a U.S. state. After three months they can begin the naturalization process which takes five years.
The other option would be to have a U.S. Congressional representative champion their cause with legislation.
AS HOLLYWOOD gets dragged into the 21st century and kicking and screaming to the inevitable realization that casting diversity in motion pictures is good for business, it's a different story in the fantasy world of animation. Apparently, drawing characters of color is easier than casting actors of color.
The first trailer for Moana, Disney's latest animated movie, debuted today (June 12). It features the first Polynesian princess in Disney's universe of princesses.
In the latest addition to the Disney princess canon, Moana (Aul i'i Cravalho) sets sail for a fabled island. Joining her on the adventure is the demi-god Maui (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson).
The 'Moana' poster was released last week.
Funny, but while watching the trailer it looks like The Rock, who is part Samoan, put his all into his role. I have not heard him more animated (pun intended). The tats the animators drew on Maui look fantastic!
Johnson said the film is "visual and singing journey unlike anything you have ever seen before."
Notably, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of the Broadway musical Hamilton, wrote some original music for the movie. His Hamilton co-star Phillipa Soo, who plays Hamilton's wife on stage, also stars in Moana in a still unnamed role.
It is the first role for Aul i'i Carvalho, who is Hawaiian/American, and had to undergo a rigorous audition process to find an actress with a Pacific Islander heritage to play the princess. I imagine then, if Disney stays true to form in merchandising, that this Christmas, Pacific Islander parents will be buying Moana dolls that look like their daughters and temporary tattoos for their boys.
Moana joins an ever-growing list of Disney's princesses of color. After criticism arose that all the Disney princesses had been white, Disney began introducing a more diverse line of young female characters: Jasmine was the first Arab princess (1992), Pocahontas was the first Native American princess (1995), Mulan was the first Asian princess (1998), and Tiana was the first African-American princess (2009). This July, Disney will finally introduce its first Latina princess, Elena of Avalor.
It would be really good if Disney Studios, which makes moves under Lucas Films and and Marvel Studios among others, employs the same casting diversity for its real live actors that it does for its animated ones.
"Moana" will be out in theaters on Nov. 23, 2016 in time for the holiday season. Watch the first trailer below:
When Greg Louganis was competing in the Olympics, he was virtually unbeatable.
EVEN AFTER winning all those Olympic gold medals in diving, perhaps one of the most significant honors bestowed on Greg Louganis will be having his image on a cereal box.
Louganis, arguably the best-ever competitive diver ever in the history of the sport, will be featured on the boxes of Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions, General Mills announced April 4.
The belated honor comes decades after Louganis, a Samoan/American, was competing in his prime winning gold medals in the Olympics. He became the only man to sweep the Olympic diving events in back-to-back games when he won gold medals in both springboard and platform diving in the '84 and '88 Olympics.
Times change, gay athletes are gaining acceptance.
Three new sports icons will grace Wheaties cereal boxes, including Olympic diver Greg Louganis, an LGBT rights activist whom sparked a petitionwhich tens of thousands of people supported.
The General Mills breakfast cereal, known for featuring prominent athletes on its bright orange packaging, announced Monday that four-time gold medalist Greg Louganis will join swimmer Janet Evans and hurdler Edwin Moses on three separate boxes starting next month.
More than 43,000 people, inspired by an HBO documentary about the diver, had signed an online petition to get General Mills to belatedly feature the 56-year-old Louganis, who they say was overlooked for the honor at the height of his career.
Louganis, who came out as gay publicly in 1994 and revealed he was HIV-positive a year later, has said that homophobia likely blocked him from being featured on a Wheaties box after the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, the New York Times reports.
“This means so much more than it would have back then,” he told the newspaper. “Getting it now means people will see me as a whole person — a flawed person who is gay, H.I.V.-positive, with all the other things I’ve been through.”
Greg Louganis today is an advocate and mentor for LBGTQ athletes and issues.
He's now a role model for other athletes including British Olympic diver Tom Daley, who came out as gay when he was around 20 years old.
General Mills spokesman Mike Siemienas told NPR he couldn't provide an answer as to why Louganis wasn't on the box previously because no one who was involved in those decisions still worked at the company. Siemienas said a committee is responsible for determining which athletes are on the boxes.
Wheaties unveiled the "legends" cereal boxes after the documentary detailing Louganis' athletic career and experiences as a gay man sparked a petition on Change.org to get the diver on the iconic Wheaties cereal box. Created by Julie Sondgerath, who had never met Louganis, the petition garnered nearly 45,000 signatures.
"Back in '95, I wasn't expected to live very long because we thought of HIV-AIDS as a death sentence, so to be here today, now 56, the box means so much more to me than it would have then because I feel like I'm being embraced as a whole person, not just for my athletic achievements."
The cereal boxes will be in stores from May, Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, through at least the summer.
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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.
ONE OF THE Democratic Party's rising stars may lost her spot on Hillary Clinton's Christmas card list. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard - the first Hindu and first Samoan/American member of Congress and one of the first female combat veterans t win a house seat - resigned her position as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
And, as if to underline her dissatisfaction with the party machinery, she endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders' bid for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
“After much thought and consideration, I’ve decided I cannot remain neutral and sit on the sidelines any longer,” she wrote in an email to fellow DNC officers obtained by Politico.
The congresswoman from Hawaii commended the Vermont senator for his foreign policy, and his opposition to the hawkish policies of fellow presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“There is a clear contrast between our two candidates with regard to my strong belief that we must end the interventionist, regime change policies that have cost us so much,” Gabbard said.
“This is not just another ‘issue.’ This is THE issue, and it’s deeply personal to me,” said Gabbard, who is a combat veteran and still in the National Guard. “This is why I’ve decided to resign as Vice Chair of the DNC so that I can support Bernie Sanders in his efforts to earn the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential race.”
“As a veteran and as a soldier I’ve seen firsthand the true cost of war. I served in a medical unit during my first deployment, where every single day I saw firsthand the very high human cost of that war,” Gabbard said on MSNBC’s Meet the Press,
Of the remaining Democratic candidates, Clinton is the more hawkish of the two, favoring a more interventionist policy in the middle east. In 2014, she criticized President Obama for favoring a dipolomatic resolution in Syria.
Sen. Bernie Sanders welcomed Gabbard's endorsement, calling her “one of the important voices of a new generation of leaders.”
"There’s a very clear contrast and clear difference when it comes to our two Democratic candidates and who will exercise good judgment, who will stop us from continuing these interventionist regime change wars that we’ve seen in Iraq and Libya and now in Syria that have cost our country so much in terms of American lives, trillions and trillions of dollars, what to speak of the hundreds of thousands of lives in the Middle East that have been lost to this and the impact on our economy here at home,” Gabbard said to Politico.
“Bernie Sanders is that candidate who will not take us, service members and our country, into these interventionist wars and Hillary Clinton, through her record, has proven that she will continue that and that’s what’s important to me and I think it’s important for our voters to know before they go and head to the pollstomorrow and into the coming weeks.”
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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.
