Frozen Reo Māori director Tweedie Waititi. Photo / Supplied
REVIEW:
For director Tweedie Waititi, Frozen is her third take on a Disney production, following renditions of The Lion King and Moana. Tweedie's important work ensures there is space for te ao Māori to be both popular and relevant for children and whole families.
What makes her proud of her job, she says, is seeing the actors and actresses grow within the industry. It's not just about the film - it's about the team who are able to use the experience as an opportunity to practice, extend and flex their reo.
"It's all about getting us out of the box that we've always been put in." Reflecting on the release of The Lion King Reo Māori, which premiered in June, she says that though there may be no lions in NZ.
"Why should we box ourselves in?"
Our reo can be used to translate "whatever we want, however we want… To show our babies a different huarahi [road]…to continue raising the bar."
In her humble and genuine Māori way, Tweedie acknowledges her broader team.
She credits music producer Rob Ruha, Pere Wihongi (who played Olaf), translator Pania Papa and co-director Chelsea Winstanley, who she says all "work hard and make it easier for me to be the best director that I can be."
In Tweedie's words, the premiere of the film is "a day to celebrate us, our reo and being proud to be Māori. That's what today is about."
"Frozen is an opportunity to celebrate our diverse Māoritanga, including our fair-skinned whānau and our inter-woven Pākehā whakapapa. No matter our diversity, we are able to watch this film and say we are one as Māori."
Shortland Street actress Awhimai Fraser (Waikato, Tāmanuhiri, Ngāti Pūkenga) played Queen Elsa. Similarly, in our culture, the deity presiding over colder climates is a female too - Hinetakurua (winter maiden).
In both scenarios, the mana of the whenua belongs to a wāhine.
I met Awhimai at the premiere and her wairua felt majestic. I thought she was a strong fit for her character.
Jaedyn Randell, 21, was the voice of Princess Anna.
She said that she warmly welcomed the challenge of the role; given that she did not grow up fluent in te reo Māori.
Her talent as an actress shone through in her ability to deliver a convincing performance - not only in te reo Māori, but furthermore in te mita o Ngāi Tahu.
The mita of Ngāi Tahu - local to Te Wai Pounamu and its snowy mountain ranges and pristine blue waterways - was chosen as the appropriate dialect to give a voice to the film.
It felt fitting that their voice was the main one in the movie.
There were also other dialects recognisable to the crowd - including te reo o Ngāti Tūwharetoa, te reo o Rangitāne and te reo o Te Tai Rāwhiti.
I wasn't too familiar with Kāi Tahu mita before the film, but it sounded right. The rhythms of the language used in their mita told a story of its own.
Kotahi Mano Kāika is the Kāi Tahu Māori language revitalisation strategy.
It is a 25-year strategy which aims to have at least 1000 Kāi Tahu households speaking te reo Māori by the year 2025.
Translator Hana O'Regan says the film will help the inter-generational transference of the language and expand its life expectancy going into the future.
An opportunity for further enhancement next time would be to deepen the narrative for te ao Māori and to not only subtitle and translate a film, but to make an even higher-quality production where characters' mouths match the words they speak - and to take the opportunity to speak about familiar landmarks and names.
It was a captivating film for all of New Zealand to enjoy, especially for our babies who are still learning the language, but also for the ones who know it well already.
Through their laughter, I could tell that it just lit up their worlds and it makes me happy that they can reap the rewards of everything that our culture has come from and the places it's going.
Because, for a lot of us who didn't have reo Māori animations to watch growing up, it was a friendly capitalisation on the fun of the reo.
It enabled our tamariki to see that it doesn't just have to be spoken at home or on the marae, but it can be a language to take confidently into all spaces.
