Mickey Mouse, the mascot of everything Disney, has been the animated standard-bearer for 88 years, but in all that time he’s never embraced the Hawaiian language — until now.
“Aloha!” the little mouse says in Disney’s new animated short, “Ku‘u Lei Melody,” which debuts Friday on the cable channel Disney Junior.
Mickey’s new adventure is a cute tale aimed at children, and while it never explicitly says “Hawaii” at any point, the language, music and cultural references are Hawaiian — and come with the blessings of Hawaiian recording artists Raiatea Helm and Johnson Enos, both of whom helped. (And if you’re a kid who knows your geography, the map of the Hawaiian Islands leaves no doubt.)
WHEN TO WATCH
Mickey Mouse’s “Ku‘u Lei Melody” premieres on Disney Junior at 6:50 p.m. Friday.
The executive producer on the project, Emmy Award-winning animator and director Paul Rudish (“The Powerpuff Girls,” “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”), came up with the story while vacationing with his family at Hamoa Beach in Hana, Maui.
“There was a kid playing a guitar nearby, and I always wanted to set a Mickey short in Hawaii,” he said. “And as my mind was drifting around in the Hawaiian breeze there, I thought of the ghost stories I had heard, and I started thinking about some of the things I had read about Hawaiian legends and the various gods, and this thing kind of percolated and took shape.”
In “Ku‘u Lei Melody,” Mickey Mouse is a musician struggling to finish a song. He’s close but just can’t sort it out. The story hinges on a singing spirit, voiced by Helm’s sweet soprano, who entices Mickey to follow her.
“Ultimately, she leads him to the mortal being he needs to meet, and he finds that someone else is working on the same song and they put it together,” Rudish said.
Rudish said “Ku‘u Lei Melody” also drew some inspiration from one of his favorite Mickey Mouse cartoons — the character’s only Hawaii-themed story that came out in the 1930s. In it Mickey also plays guitar on the beach, Minnie Mouse does the hula and Goofy goes surfing, as he does in the new cartoon.
There is no Hawaiian language in it at all, said the 46-year-old Rudish.
Initially, Rudish and his staff crafted their Hawaiian references by simply translating words out of his Hawaiian dictionary. But when Helm heard what they wanted, she contacted Enos to help with accuracy, especially when it came to the song Mickey ultimately sings.
“They weren’t interpreting things correctly,” said Helm, a Grammy Award nominee. “They meant well, but they didn’t know until Johnson and I explained to them that you have to make sure the poetry, the words, are correct.”
The Disney staff wanted Helm but were so convinced she would not be available, they initially didn’t ask. But when they did, Helm jumped at the chance.
“I’m honored they thought of me,” she said. “Their first words were that they wanted to stay true to the Hawaiian culture. They wanted someone from Hawaii that would represent the true Hawaiian spirit in their animation.”
But perhaps the spirit at work here was Mickey Mouse. Helm was on the mainland taking advantage of a travel package she successfully bid on in a silent auction months earlier. Her destination?
Disneyland.
