Many people consider working as an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios to be the pinnacle of the profession. From the outside, it looks like such a glamorous position, being able to work with such iconic characters, tell incredible stories and contribute to Disney’s legacy of animation. What many don’t realize is just how challenging it is to get to those kinds of positions, and all the work that these animators put in away from the public eye. For Disney Animator Katie Low, her path to the studio was unconventional and a testament to her resilience and perseverance.
Low has been at Disney for almost 8 years, working on titles like Ralph Breaks the Internet, Frozen 2, Raya and the Last Dragon, and most recently, on Moana 2. Like countless people, Low’s love of animation began when she was a child.
“I was totally a kid that had The Little Mermaid on repeat and then I cycled through a lot of those classic ’90s golden age Disney movies, or late 80s, so I also loved Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin and I really grew up cycling those as my Halloween costumes too, so I was a Disney kid through and through,” Low said.
Low attended college at Harvard, where she was a pre-med major. She didn’t take her first animation class until her junior year. After college, she struggled to find a job in animation, and pursued various opportunities to try to position herself to get her foot in the door. She talked about the various points during her journey when she considered whether animation was for her.
“There were a few times actually. So I as you know, I was pre-med in college and I just kind of took an animation elective to get my feet wet. But at the end of school, I definitely didn’t have enough work, or I hadn’t had enough training, to actually get a job in animation. So I had applied around and gotten zero word back and kind of thought, ‘Oh maybe maybe this isn’t going to happen.’ And then I happened to get a job in live-action for NBC as a page, so that was a year, but I kind of realized, ‘Wait, I still really want to do animation. How do I do animation?’ Low said. “So then that’s when I started looking at grad school, and I applied to a bunch of schools and the first ones I heard back from were ‘No’s’, so that again was a moment where I thought, ‘Oh shoot, how do Ido this? How do I break in?’ And luckily Savannah College of Art and Design, SCAD, did take me, so I had that lifeline. But there are absolutely moments of doubt. And then just specializing in animation, that takes years to get the right mastery. So again, my first real jobs in animation were as production assistants, which is not being an animator, so it still took a little bit of time to get over and I studied a little bit of extra animation on nights and weekends. It was a journey for sure.”
At Disney, Low has worked on some high-profile projects, and with the studio’s effort to tell more diverse stories, she has had the chance to work on films that are particularly resonant to certain communities. Low talked about how important it is to her to work on those kinds of projects and how they inspire her to take that extra level of care to ensure authenticity.
“Oh my gosh, it means everything to me, really. Knowing how important these characters are, and representation is on the big screen, it’s hard to put into words. It’s intangible. Like the gut feeling of what it means to me, and we live in this age of the internet where you can see audience reaction to your work and you can see little kids dressed as the characters or your character is somebody’s security toy and it just, oh gosh it really makes me cry sometimes,” Low said. “And especially the posts where you see somebody reacting to their people being portrayed in a Disney film for the first time, it just really hits home, the the huge impact these films have. So I definitely bring something extra when I animate those kinds of characters, and I have this extra drive to really do this characters and cultures justice, and do my research and try to get every little bit of ounce of authenticity as I can.”
The Moana films are the rare blockbuster films that highlight the Pacific Islander communities, and the sequel features even more authentic representation. Low explained the level of detail that went into ensuring that those communities were well represented.
“I worked on one of the final sequences of the film, when different Islanders are finally reaching Motufetu and we pulled from various cultures, like the Solomon Islands and the Satua Islands, and Tahiti, and so I knew that those cultures have different ways of wayfinding, different vessels, different canoes, and [I] definitely did my research to kind of look up any footage I could find, any photos I could find, to see, ‘Okay how are how are people posed on these boats, how do they work?’ So that’s one example.”
Watch my full conversation with Katie Low and catch Moana 2 in theaters while you still can!
About Moana 2:
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ epic animated musical “Moana 2” reunites Moana (voice of Auli‘i Cravalho) and Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson) three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.
The voice cast also includes Hualālai Chung as Moni, Rose Matafeo as Loto, David Fane as Kele, Awhimai Fraser as Matangi, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda as Simea, Temuera Morrison as Chief Tui, Nicole Scherzinger as Sina, Rachel House as Gramma Tala, Gerald Faitala Ramsey as Tautai Vasa, and Alan Tudyk as Heihei. Directed by Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller and David G. Derrick Jr., from a script by Jared Bush and Ledoux Miller, the film is produced by Yvett Merino and Christina Chen and executive produced by Jennifer Lee, Bush and Johnson. “Moana 2,” which features music by Grammy® winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy nominee Opetaia Foa‘i and three-time Grammy winner Mark Mancina, “Moana 2” opens in theaters on Nov. 27, 2024.
Ron is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of POC Culture. He is a big believer in the power and impact of pop culture and the importance of representation in media.
