‘Over the Moon’ director explains why Cathy Ang is perfect as Fei Fei

In Netflix’s new animated musical “Over the Moon,” Filipino-Chinese actress Cathy Ang lends her voice to Fei Fei, a young girl who goes on a lunar adventure to prove the existence of a legendary Moon Goddess.

In a recent roundtable over Zoom, the director Glen Keane talked about how Cathy was fit to play the main character, in more ways than one.

According to the Oscar-winning animator, who also worked on Disney classics like “Little Mermaid” and “Pocahontas,” Fei Fei’s features were actually inspired by the Asian-American actress.

“So much of, actually, Cathy Ang’s expressions are Fei Fei’s,” Keane told GMA News Online.

“Designing Fei Fei, a lot of Cathy is in the design of how she looks,” he added.

Moreover, Keane said Cathy was able to deliver a kind of “sincerity” to convey the deeply emotional experiences Fei Fei had to go through in “Over the Moon.”

“The main character of a movie has to carry an enormous weight because everybody in a movie theater or in a living room is going to, she is the vehicle that we are going to travel through the film with, and this story is going to take people thorugh pain and loss,” Keane said.

“We needed an actress who could deliver that kind of sincerity and if you meet Cathy Ang, this is a woman who exudes a warmth, her heart, her sincerity, you can’t help but love her,” he added. 

“Over the Moon” is about a young girl named Fei Fei who goes on an exciting adventure fueled by her love for her family and a passion for science.

The story takes off as she builds a rocket ship to the moon to prove the existence of the legendary Moon Goddess Chung’e and discovers a whimsical land of fantastical creatures.

The exhilarating new musical adventure also touches on some heavy stuff. Not to give too many details away, Fei Fei deals with dramatic changes at home, as all children do at some point in their lives.

“This is a very real thing, and no child is immune to going through pain and loss, whether its the death of a parent or a divorce or a divorce or the world turning upside down like in the pandemic, and we took it very seriously to be able to go through that,” Keane said.

“Over the Moon” premieres today, Oct. 23, on Netflix.

Cathy Ang joins an all-Asian star-studded cast, which includes “Hamilton” star Philippa Soo who voices the goddess Chung’e, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Sandra Oh, Robert G. Chiu, Margaret Cho, and Kimiko Glenn.

The Filipino-Chinese singer-actress lends her voice to many of the film’s original songs, including one of the biggest musical numbers, “Rocket to the Moon.” – RC, GMA News