Following the release of Moana 2 in theaters, Dorkaholics was invited to speak with Katie Low, an animator for the Walt Disney Animation Studio.
Hi Katie, my name is Neil. I’m with Dorkaholics, where we believe that there’s a dork in everyone, and our job is to bring that dork out into the world.
Katie Low: That’s awesome. It’s so nice to meet you. Thanks so much for having me.
Yeah, no problem. Thank you for making time to speak with us. A question I love to ask people when they’re on Dorkaholics is what made them a dork growing up?
Katie Low: Oh my gosh, I was the ultimate dork growing up. I was a straight A student. I read every book imaginable, um, definitely super into all of the STEM things, science, tech, etc. So I played cello. I, yeah, I did all of the dork things and, um, and continue to be an animation dork.
I read [that] when you got to Harvard, you were originally pre med. You didn’t take an animation class till junior year.
Katie Low: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. I was sort of the stereotypical premed student going into college and I had studied a lot of science and math and all of that. But then, I had to change apart after organic chemistry and there were just so many amazing animated movies that I had grown up with and we’re continuing to come out, especially Disney animation had Wreck it Ralph come out around when I graduated. I could feel my heart start to shift towards animation. I was a bit of a late comer. So I had only taken an elective course in animation at Harvard. It was enough to get my feet wet and be super intrigued and know that I wanted to switch, but I was a little lost coming out of school. Utimately, I went back to grad school to study animation at SCAD. So that was a little bit of a winding journey.
Oh, wow. I’m, I’m recalling you just saying you did cello growing up. Did you take any other types, forms of art? Like things that people would imagine would be a stepping stone to animation.
Katie Low: Well, I definitely was a kid who did a lot of drawing and I wrote my own stories. My mom has this big binder full of all of the stories that I wrote and illustrated myself when I was growing up. But it’s funny cause when I reached high school, I actually didn’t take art. I kind of really prioritized all those things I thought would get me into college. So, I pivoted, but then my heart and soul was still attached to the artist’s side. So I went back to it.
I remember reading this quote that said that animation provides the necessary distance to discuss very difficult subjects. So I’m curious, what are, what’s a topic or a few topics within Moana 2 that meant something to you?
Katie Low: I was really privileged to get to animate some of the scenes. I don’t want to do a total spoiler because some of the scenes I animated are at the end, but I was really lucky to animate some of the characters that were inspired by the Solomon Islands and Satoile Islands and Tahiti Islands. And I know that those regions hadn’t been super represented before in feature animation. So I was so excited to get to depict this world of ancient wayfinding that is such an amazing tradition. So that meant a lot to me to show the incredible community of Oceania, and I’m just so honored. And the reception of the film by those people has been so meaningful to me. I have been living on TikTok, watching reactions and, I’ve been lucky to see some of the reactions of those people who are depicted and it makes me cry.
