One of the things I LOVED about Disney's Moana was the music. The songs told many stories of their own and tied many character scene tog...

One of the things I LOVED about Disney's Moana was the music. The songs told many stories of their own and tied many character scene together so well. 

If you read my interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda then you know he worked closely with Opetaia Foa'i, a polynesian musical artist who's founder and lead singer of Te Vaka.

Note: Disney and ABC TV invited me on this all expense paid trip to Los Angeles for the Moana Event and ABC TV Event. While I will share different events and activities during the trip, any personal views expressed are always 100% my own.

While attending the Moana Red Carpet and Premiere Party, I was able to see Opetaia Foa'i and Te Vaka performed live. It was such a great experience that I'll never forget.

Especially after I had the chance to interview him while I was in L.A. for the #MoanaEvent press day. Besides being such a talent person, Opetaia is passionate about his culture and keeping authentic Polynesian music alive for future generations. He was very proud to have an influence for the music and songs for Disney Moana.

What was your favorite part in the process while making music for Moana?

I couldn't believe, what I call an aesthetic Heaven, that people can be around a table talking about anything they like and there's no one running anybody down. It's incredible.  So all that's new to me. 

In my culture, music is like breathing air. Some could never understand why I was always, trying to write songs or do something musically. So it was a hard journey for me to "go get a real job".

So I think I can understand what Moana was going through.

How much time did you spend working and collaborating with Lin Manuel to create some songs together?

Before I became famous. It was awesome because we had a lot of time, so when we got together, he works very fast and I work very fast too.  It was quite an amazing combination. You've got Mark Mancina, who is very experienced along that line. And you've got Lin-Manuel Miranda, who's very good with lyrics and directing.  Then there's me, I don't read music but I do write from emotion. I can grab a scene and get emotion out of it very quickly.

We found that that combination worked really well.  I'm very childish in the Studio and luckily so was Lin and Mark, so we had a lot of fun together.

What's song in Disney Moana had the most meaning to you?

Well, the first track that I wrote was "We Know the Way". I wrote that 2013 on the flight back home when John, Ron and Osnat explaining what they wanted. And of course voyaging is my thing, you know. I'm so excited that I wrote that.

And then we got together in Carmel with Mark and Lin. I remember that we were pacing up and down outside and getting all the lyrics together. Smoke coming out of us. And they come up with those beautiful lyrics and just slaughtered it. We knew something was special about this.

And they were so right!

Written and performed by Opetaia Foa‘i and Lin-Manuel Miranda, “We Know the Way” showcases the rich and vibrant voyaging life of Moana’s ancestors.

If you enjoyed “We Know the Way” and other songs and music in Disney's Moana, then make sure to get the Moana soundtrack.

The Disney's MOANA soundtrack includes seven original songs and a full original score, plus two reprises as well as two end-credit versions of songs from the film.

MOVIE SYNOPSIS

From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes “Moana,” a sweeping, CG-animated feature film about an adventurous teenager who sails out on a daring mission to save her people.

During her journey, Moana (voice of Auli‘i Cravalho) meets the mighty demigod Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson), who guides her in her quest to become a master wayfinder.

Together, they sail across the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds, and along the way, Moana fulfills the ancient quest of her ancestors and discovers the one thing she’s always sought: her own identity.

Voice Cast: Auli‘i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Jemaine Clement, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Tudyk.

Directed by: Ron Clements and John Musker
Produced by: Osnat Shurer
Featuring music by: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa‘i

Visit the official MOANA website - www.movies.disney.com/moana

Facebook: www.facebook.com/disneymoana
Twitter: www.twitter.com/disneymoana
Instagram: www.instagram.com/disneyanimation

The holiday season can be such a hectic time for us, which can affect how we sleep. Add in the change of Daylight Savings Time and it's ...

The holiday season can be such a hectic time for us, which can affect how we sleep. Add in the change of Daylight Savings Time and it's a wonder we're not walking sleep deprived zombies.

4 Tips for Better Sleep from Dr. Michael Breus

• Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time, even on the weekends. That consistency is helpful for your internal biological clock to help you get a good night’s rest


• Caffeine…stop drinking beverages with caffeine by about 2 pm in the afternoon. This will give the body enough time to get it out of the system so that it won’t keep you up at night and affect your sleep.


• Alcohol can play a big role. While alcohol does make people feel sleepy, it keeps them out of the deeper stages of sleep. If you have a glass of wine (even two) with dinner have it three hours before you go to sleep.


• Sunlight….It turns out that about 15 minutes of sunlight after you wake up in the morning helps reset that circadian clock and brighten your mood!

When looking at a time change like this, keep the kids on a consistent schedule. Don’t tell them they will gain an hour, because many will say, “Then can I stay up an extra hour?”. Keep everything in the schedule consistent, so whatever the bedtime routine is, keep it going.

Sleep deprivation effects every organ system and every disease state. It slows reaction time, cognition, and dampens mood. IN fact there is data to show that sleep deprivation over time can lead to: lowered immune function, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, increased pain, accelerated cancer growth, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, lowered reaction time, increased stress, poor decision making, poor marital satisfaction, and lowered testosterone.

The ResMed study is the first of its kind to give out ( 1000) or have people purchase ( for 50$) a very accurate sleep monitor, and advice engine. So not only does this monitor your sleep, to a very high standard, but it gives tips to improve your sleep, that are customized for the individual. The study will acquire about 1M nights of Data over time, and we will release the results of these data at CES in Jan of 2017. These data are meant to be a “Wake up call” to everyone to determine sleep habits, sleep deprivation, etc.

I do, it uses a proprietary algorithm and a scanner ( built int the hardware) to measure respiration, heart rate, etc, to then determine, how long it takes to fall asleep, how long you stay asleep, how many times you wake up and for how long, it can wake you up at the optimal time (in your personal sleep schedule), and offers personalized advice based on your score. It is the only monitor on the market to do all of these things, that I am aware of. The S+ is also more accurate than other popular items like the FitBit.

It turns out that each of us has a unique bio-time for our circadian rhythm often referred to as your Chronotype. You may already know about 2 of these, the early bird, and the night owl, but there are also 2 others ( in between early and night, and those who suffer from insomnia) These types are hard-wired into our genetics ( PER3 clock gene).

In this new program, I present the most cutting-edge research for how to get back in sync with our body’s natural rhythms to achieve maximum health, happiness, and productivity.

When we stop focusing on the "how" and "what" of our lives and start focusing on the "when," we reveal our body's natural schedule and unlock our hidden potential.

I show how making small tweaks to your daily schedule—such as when to have the first cup of coffee, when to answer emails, when to nap—will nudge the rhythm of your day back in sync with the rhythm of your biology, and then, everything will start to feel easier and flow naturally. Backed by over 200 evidence based studies I have put together a fun, interesting, and enlightening read.

For the past 3 weekends Disney's MOANA has been #1 at the box office! Which, if you've seen the movie, you'll agree is well earn...

For the past 3 weekends Disney's MOANA has been #1 at the box office! Which, if you've seen the movie, you'll agree is well earned and so deserving thanks to the vision of some many people including Directors Ron Clements and John Musker.

Talking about the steps they took to respect Polynesian culture, while making MOANA, Ron and John shared

RON: The big thing we did was a huge research five years ago when we first pitched the movie. We spent like three weeks in Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti. We met with cultural ambassadors, linguists, anthropologists, Sailors and chiefs, etc

We learned about their connection to and the importance of respect for nature. Respect for the environment, the inter-connectedness, extended families and the idea of your heritage and your legacy.

JOHN: We got to sail in Fiji with navigators. Went to Tahiti for three weeks. We really try to connect with the culture and learn how proud they were of their background as the greatest navigators the world has ever seen.

We also kept people involved from the Pacific islands. We had an oceanic story trust that we bounced story ideas off including costume ideas and the way the characters looked throughout this process. We would Skype with them. They came out to visit sometimes.

Sharing some of the ideas behind the Realm of Monsters, Ron and John said

RON: Undersea colors actually are so high key and Gooding, our production designer, said when we go below the sea there's that kind of phosphorescence that's down at the bottom of the ocean.

JOHN: And they're jumping off a giant cliff and going down under the ocean to a world in the ocean, which is from inspired mythology.

RON: There's other worlds that they thought of. And in fact, even when people die there's a myth that the next world is you jump off a cliff and you go to the bottom of the sea and there's a place which is sort of the realm of the underworld. In our case, this is the realm of monsters.

JOHN: We have some monsters that didn't make the cut. Some that were in the movie, you see a little bit, there are eight-eyed bats. We have bats in there but there was a giant sort of eight-eyed bat. That was in the myth and it was fun to explore that. We liked the idea of getting contrast from the world, because you're on the boat so long and up on the surface. We wanted to break it up and have a different area to sort of explore. So that was the origin of that whole place.

Talking about the challenges of a primarily computer animated film, Ron and John shared

RON: Some things are the same in terms of the script and the story-boarding and the voice actors. But the actual production process is, is quite a bit different. We had to actually have tutorials before even the movie started.

JOHN: Steve Goldberg worked on Pros and gave us a tutorial and said these jobs don't exist in CG. In CG they've got to build the characters, literally sort of create them in three-dimensional space. They've got to rig them which means they'll put all the armature in there so they can move around. They got to create the world they work in. So, it's a longer set of time.


RON: There are amazing things. I mean with, with the camera movement and the textures and the hair.

JOHN: And certainly, the ocean in the movie we were able to do stuff in CG.

RON: And the lighting. There's a lot of cool things you can do. But a lot of things even like that had to be figured out in the movie. Even the idea of a living ocean that has a personality of a monster, a lava monster, some of those things particularly where character animation and effects animation merge, that isn't done usually.

So there were a lot just to figure out how to do. A lot of really smart people sort of said, we actually don't know how to do this. But we are confident that we will figure it out.

JOHN: We'll figure it out before the end of the movie. And they did. They really did.

When was the last time you stopped to think about your "gut" health? Most of us don't think about our digestion system unless ...

When was the last time you stopped to think about your "gut" health? Most of us don't think about our digestion system unless there's an issue. But we should be more aware of our digestive health.

• The company has been around for 20 years and mainly focus on digestive health.
• The probiotics line are free of GMOs, wheat, gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts, and artificial ingredients.
• The probiotics line has formulas specially designed for everyone in the family, including kids and seniors.

• Nearly three quarters of women (72 percent) have experienced a digestive/gut issue in the past 12 months with gas/bloating (53 percent) being the most reported issue, but nearly two in three women (64 percent) aren’t even willing to talk about gut issues with their friends.

• Nearly a quarter of women (22 percent) don’t consider the status of their digestive health when they think about their overall health and wellness, but it can affect your entire body, including mood, memory, immunity, digestion and more.

• Furthermore, some women are unaware that diet (16 percent), stress (21 percent), aging (43 percent) and even their living environment (52 percent) are factors that can upset the delicate bacterial equilibrium in the gut, which can make it difficult to feel your best.

Now that Disney's Moana is playing in theaters, I hope you've seem it (at least 2 times!). Today I'm sharing the interview with ...

Now that Disney's Moana is playing in theaters, I hope you've seem it (at least 2 times!). Today I'm sharing the interview with Nicole Scherzinger (voice of “Sina” mom of Moana) done while I was in L.A for the #MoanaEvent.  In the interview Nicole shares how the role really touched her.

In terms of your character, Sina, was there certain view points you brought more into the character from your personal experiences?

Definitely anything that I do, I think artists do, you draw from personal connection.

It was interesting because in the script they had a couple different ways they wanted to get the story across. Especially the part where she’s trying to explain to her daughter (Moana), that she can’t go on the reef. Trying to explain, her father’s been there and he’s had a great loss so he’s just trying to protect her.

And I think she says a line like "Moana, sometimes who you are or who you want to be, it’s not meant to be."

And I drew from that experience and I drew from my mother. I know that my mom and my tutu and all the women in my family have sacrificed everything for their children. They’re just selfless. That’s just who the women in my family are. And when I thought of that line, I really thought I’m sure they had their own dreams. And their own aspirations.

I was like how do I turn this into a positive? ‘Cause she's saying it’s not meant to be. And I felt that it was a bit negative, you know, ‘cause we’re always like, no, you can do it. You can achieve it. Which is why she actually lets her go in the end.

So it was like how can I make this make sense to me? And it was just kinda like speaking from experience. Sometimes you have to look past yourself.

There's a scene in Moana about picking a personal spirit animal, so I asked Nicole which animal she'd choose

I used to call myself a "bish". That was a bird and a fish. But now I wanna be called a lesh maybe. Or lurd. Trying to make it up. I think of myself as like a lioness, too. Like I love a lion. A lion and either a bird or a fish.

On why she wanted to have a part in Moana, Nicole shared

I felt I had to be a part of the project, and that’s because I’m from Hawaiian descent. I knew that the movie was gonna be about the Polynesian people. And, I don’t think Disney ever really did a film like that. I know they touched upon it in Lilo and Stitch, but my family were like, no, that’s the fake kind. Plus I didn’t wanna go back home and hear from family "how come you’re not in Moana?".

So because of that and it’s the story of our people. Where we come from. And I’m just so proud that Disney did right by us. By the Polynesian people. And stayed true to our culture, where we come from, our power, our people, our lifeline and just told a beautiful story about a young girl.

It wasn’t a love story, it was a heroine story about a young girl’s journey, which we can all relate to. You know, discovering who we really are and what we’re meant for. What our purpose and our destiny is. And that’s a beautiful story.

photo credit: nicole scherzy instagram

About live performances versus voicing in a booth, Nicole shared

So the stage is my favorite place to be. Really musical theater is. But but I do love being in the recording studio as well I love touring. Doing this movie was such a new experience for me because I’ve never been an animated character.

And when you’re acting, you’re acting to not the other actor or the character, you’re acting with just a person giving you the lines. And so you have to just imagine everything. To be so creative in your head.

And they show you these sketched out drawings of your character in the scene. Everything looks penciled in. And you just have to kinda close your eyes and put yourself there and be extra animated.

I thought it was hilarious because they have cameras all throughout the whole recording studio, because it makes sense, you know.

Because they see all the different expressions of your face and try to incorporate it into the character to bring it to life as you. So you have that going on.

Can you see me in this video #Repost via @disneyanimation from my #MoanaEvent L.A trip? ・・・ Blogger roundtable... the verdict is in, they loved #Moana! Mark your calendars for its premiere in theaters on November 23rd so you can fall in ❤️ with it too!

A video posted by Onica Cupido (@mommyfactor) on Nov 17, 2016 at 7:53am PST

Another great moment I had while in L.A was I sitting down with Lucy Dahl, youngest daughter of Roald Dahl, for a mini breakfast and intervi...

Another great moment I had while in L.A was I sitting down with Lucy Dahl, youngest daughter of Roald Dahl, for a mini breakfast and interview, to celebrate the release of “The BFG” to Digital HD, Blu-ray™ and Disney Movies Anywhere.

What part of the book were you excited to see come alive in the film?

Lucy Dahl: Oh that’s Dream Land. When Sophie goes into Dream Land, just that three or four seconds is just extraordinary, that’s my favorite. I could watch that again and again.

It was exactly how I had imagined it and I think that’s probably why I love it so much. But also, the BFG. Steven took a great deal of trouble in getting the BFG right. These shoes (on TheBFG) are a copy of a pair of my father’s sandals that he used to wear every summer. The BFG’s clothes are copies of my father’s clothes from his cupboard that we still have.

My father based him a little bit on himself and a little bit on our great family friend Wally Saunders. He was a country man and he worked in our garden helping dad and he would help dad drive us to and from school.

And he would build. As the family grew, we built on the house. So Wally was an extraordinary countryman from Buckinghamshire and he had the big ears. The accent that BFG has in the film was, was taken from Wally’s accent from video clips that we have of Wally.

Lucy also shared what it was like being on set with Steven Spielberg

It was really incredible and I loved being on the set. Steven Spielberg treated me, honestly, like a queen which I didn’t expect. I thought he’d just be like, hey, nice to meet you and get on with his work.

He literally took me with him all day everywhere he went and showed me everything and it was really the most incredible experience ever.

But the thing that I didn’t like was Giant Land that was over there and on the set because it wasn’t true, but everything else was so true to how it was in my imagination and in my mind that it was just incredible.

I felt really like my father was walking around with me on the set, as delighted as I was. The whole journey has been huge.

Lucy also shared why she thinks TheBFG is a great film for families

Well, I do love BFG. I really do love BFG. I think Mark Rylance was amazing. I think the team was amazing.

Because children are so used to bang, wand, colors. But The BFG is slow enough to speak to your heart. I mean, the heart speaks to the heart.

With this coming out over Christmas where it’s more of a quiet time, I’m really hoping that children will slow down a little bit and realize that it’s about love. Because it’s really a love story.

Steven and I talked about it for an hour, actually. We talked about the difference between BFG and E.T. because it’s the same group of creators and he said that they’re the same because it’s a love.

They’re two lonely hearts that find one another. They’re different characters and it’s a different type of love, but really, the importance of this story is that how one heart will find another heart, whatever the world, wherever they live.

• Bringing “The BFG” to Life – Ruby Barnhill (Sophie) hosts a phizz-whizzing journey through the making of “The BFG.” This behind-the-scenes documentary details the film’s progression through interviews with Roald Dahl’s daughter Lucy Dahl, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, executive producers Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Kristie Macosko Krieger, and numerous members of the talented cast and crew.

• The Big Friendly Giant and Me – Sophie wasn’t the first “bean” in Giant Country—many illustrations were created as if drawn by a little boy who was there long before Sophie. This charming, in-world short will bring the drawings to life with animation and narration, recounting the friendship and the dreams shared between the boy and the Big Friendly Giant.

• Gobblefunk: The Wonderful Words of The BFG – A whoopsey-splunkers tutorial on the meaning of the gloriumptious gobblefunk in “The BFG.”

• Giants 101 – Jemaine Clement (Fleshlumpeater) and Bill Hader (Bloodbottler) introduce us to the loathsome giants in “The BFG,” along with movement choreographer/motion capture performer Terry Notary, who collaborated with the actors and Director Steven Spielberg prior to filming to develop their movements and character traits.

• Melissa Mathison: A Tribute – An homage to Melissa Mathison, the extraordinary, Oscar®-nominated screenwriter of “The BFG” and “E.T.,” whose talent and heart were as immense as the giants in “The BFG.”

• John Williams: Scoring A Dream – A journey through the film’s concept art and memorable moments, interwoven with the sights and sounds of legendary composer John William’s scoring session.

• Gobblefunk: The Wonderful Words of The BFG 
• Melissa Mathison: A Tribute