Who Voices Hei Hei in Moana? the True Story Behind Disney's Luckiest Sidekick
By James H. Sterling
Casting a seasoned screen and stage actor to provide non-verbal bird noises raised eyebrows among studio executives. Yet Walt Disney Animation Studios had already come to view Alan Tudyk as an essential collaborator. Having played King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph and the neurotic Duke of Weselton in Frozen, Tudyk understood how to inject theatrical narrative stakes into raw vocal noises.
Inside the recording booth, Tudyk approached the part like a classical physical tragedy. Rather than relying on sound libraries or digital synthesizers, he performed every squawk, frantic inhale, and confused cluck in real time. He varied the pitch depending on the physical comedy: high, whistling gurgles for when Heihei swallowed rocks, and guttural, windpipe-straining screams when the rooster realized he was surrounded by open water.
The technical challenge came down to respiratory control. Voicing an animal that constantly panics requires rapid, shallow breathing that can leave an actor lightheaded within minutes. During Disney promotional junkets, Tudyk humorously recalled arriving at the studio expecting complex dialogue, only to spend four hours screaming into a high-end condenser microphone while matching the storyboard animators' hyper-kinetic sketches.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
