142 Fun Facts About Moana

What is the name of Moana's loyal pet pig?

Pua the pig is Moana's loyal island companion; he rides along on her first attempt to sail past the reef and is terrified by the wreck.

Who provides the voice for the character of Moana in the animated film?

Auli'i Cravalho nearly skipped the casting call, thinking plenty of others had already applied; Disney says she was the last girl seen on the last day of auditions.

Which actor voices the demigod Maui in Moana?

Dwayne Johnson sings Maui's boastful number himself; its writer judged his vocal range from online clips of him singing to crowds in his wrestling days.

Which song is famously sung by Maui, showcasing his many accomplishments?

'You're Welcome' doubles as a con: while Maui lists his gifts to humanity, he is steering Moana into a cave so he can trap her and sail off in her boat.

When they first meet, what does Maui autograph for Moana, using her rooster's beak as a pen?

Her oar: Maui assumes she is a fan, signs it with the bird's beak and quips that writing with a bird is called tweeting, so she whacks him with it.

In Moana, Maui stole the goddess's heart hoping to give humans what gift?

The power to create life was meant as his grandest present to mortals, but the theft backfired: once the heart was gone, a darkness began slowly consuming the islands.

Which director made 'Moana' with his longtime partner John Musker?

Ron Clements and his partner first set out to make a film all about Maui, but after their island research trip they threw out most of that story and rebuilt it around a chief's daughter.

What is the name of Moana's home island, where her village resides?

Motunui's people were once voyagers who had stopped sailing; by the film's close Moana, now their chief, leads them back out to sea.

What are the tiny coconut-armored pirates who attack Moana and Maui at sea called?

The Kakamora look cute to Moana until they swarm her canoe after the heart; Maui has already summed them up as 'murdering little pirates'.

In 'Moana', what is the lava demon that blocks the way to the goddess's island called?

Te Kā is the goddess herself: only at the climax does Moana realise the lava demon is Te Fiti, corrupted without her heart.

Which New Zealand actress voices Moana's grandmother?

Rachel House came back to the role for the te reo Māori dub in 2017, this time directing the recording as well as acting in it.

In Moana, Maui boasts in song that coconut trees first grew after he buried which creature's guts?

An eel is the creature, a nod to an old Pacific legend in which the very first coconut palm grows from the spot where an eel is buried.

After sailing off in Moana's stolen canoe, what does Maui nickname the rooster he finds aboard?

Boat snack sums up Maui's plan: he starts feeding the rooster to fatten him up, though the bird survives the whole voyage uneaten.

What does Moana's rooster try to eat in the village, prompting talk of cooking him?

A rock is his snack of choice, and a watching villager wonders aloud whether a bird that dim should just be cooked; Moana insists his strengths lie beneath the surface.

Which New Zealand actor voices Moana's father, Chief Tui?

Temuera Morrison speaks the chief's lines in the 2016 film but not his songs: whenever Tui breaks into song, a Broadway singer takes over.

What is the name of Moana's mother?

Sina, voiced by Nicole Scherzinger, catches Moana packing to leave the island and, rather than stopping her, helps her pack.

What does Moana's grandmother reveal hidden in a secret cavern on the island?

A fleet of ancestral ships fills the cavern, proof the islanders were once voyagers; Moana later takes one of those canoes to sea.

Which Canadian singer recorded the end-credits version of Moana's 'I Want' song?

Alessia Cara's pop version came out on its own three weeks before the soundtrack, so the song reached listeners before anyone had seen the scene it was written for.

What type of creature is Tamatoa?

A coconut crab is a real giant of the Pacific, nicknamed the robber crab for carrying off whatever is left unattended: a fitting model for a villain who hoards shiny treasure.

What is the name of the realm where Tamatoa lives?

Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters, lies beneath the sea; Moana and Maui reach it by leaping from a portal atop a towering island.

Maui confesses that the gods made him a demigod after what happened to him?

Maui says his human parents abandoned him as a baby, throwing him into the sea; the gods took pity on the infant and raised him as a demigod.

Which future director of Encanto wrote the screenplay for Moana?

Jared Bush holds the sole screenplay credit, though the script began with another writer's first draft, of which almost nothing survived.

While Moana distracts Tamatoa, what goes wrong the moment Maui reclaims his weapon?

He cannot control his shapeshifting after a thousand years without it: Maui flickers through the wrong animals until Tamatoa pins him and Moana has to trick the crab to save him.

Among his many animal forms, Maui briefly turns into which Disney sidekick from another film?

Sven, the reindeer from Frozen, appears for a split second among Maui's transformations, an in-joke from the studio that made both films.

Who scored Moana, his third Disney Animation film after Tarzan and Brother Bear?

Mark Mancina composed the score; he had earlier written the music for the action films Speed and Twister in the 1990s.

Which song introduces village life in Moana, with her father insisting the island has all she needs?

'Where You Are' is the chief's case for staying put, but her grandmother slips in a verse of her own, singing of dancing with the mischievous water instead.

What is the name of the animated chest tattoo that acts as the demigod's conscience?

Mini Maui, hand-drawn in an otherwise computer-animated film, sides with Moana and helps talk the demigod into returning the heart.

When blight strikes Moana's island, what shrinks alongside the dying vegetation?

The fish catch collapses along with the coconut crop, so Moana proposes sailing past the reef to find new fishing grounds, which her father forbids.

'We Know the Way' is sung partly in Samoan and which other Pacific language?

Tokelauan, the language of three atolls that form a New Zealand territory, carries the chorus because songwriter Opetaia Foa'i's parents came from Tokelau and Tuvalu.

Before Moana, the film's directing duo also made which Disney princess film?

The Little Mermaid (1989), the duo's first princess film, launched the Disney Renaissance; they also made Aladdin, Hercules and The Princess and the Frog.

Te Fiti's glowing green heart is described as pounamu, the Māori treasure stone that is mostly which gem?

Jade, in its nephrite form, makes up most pounamu, which Māori treasure as taonga; it is found only in the South Island, so much souvenir 'greenstone' is actually jade from overseas.

What is the name of Moana's pet chicken?

Heihei, the dimwitted rooster, stows away on Moana's canoe and, in the final battle, stops the heart from tumbling into the sea.

In Moana's post-credits scene, a stranded Tamatoa complains the audience would help him if his name were what?

Sebastian, he grumbles, would get help: flipped on his back, the giant crab tells the audience that with that name and a cool Jamaican accent they would totally rescue him.

The coconut-pirate attack on Moana's canoe is an intentional homage to which 2015 film?

Mad Max: Fury Road is the model: the directors called the sequence their homage to George Miller, made possible because computer animation let them zip the camera through the chase.

Which bird does Maui most often shapeshift into?

A hawk is Maui's favourite form: he flies off as one when he abandons Moana, and returns as one to soar beside her people's canoes at the end.

Which actor provides the clucks and squawks of Moana's rooster?

Alan Tudyk plays both sides of one gag: he squawks as the rooster and also voices Villager No. 3, the old man who suggests cooking the bird.

Songwriter Opetaia Foa'i's New Zealand-based band, heard on Moana's soundtrack, is called what?

Te Vaka, whose name means 'the canoe', was founded by Foa'i in 1995 and took the stage at the film's world premiere to play its songs live.

Which Hamilton cast member provides Chief Tui's singing voice?

Christopher Jackson originated George Washington in Hamilton, whose creator wrote Moana's songs, which is how a Broadway star came to sing for a chief another actor speaks.

On a research trip, an island elder asked the Moana directors to be 'swallowed' for once by what?

His people's culture, he said, had been swallowed by the outside world for years; the directors say they took the challenge to heart and recruited Pacific experts to vet the film.

What does Moana coat in glowing algae to make the fake heart that fools Tamatoa?

A barnacle smeared with bioluminescent algae passes for the heart just long enough: Tamatoa drops Maui to chase it, then realises he has been tricked.

Moana's grandmother dies and returns to guide her at sea as which creature, matching her tattoo?

Moana's grandmother returns as a manta ray, the animal inked on her back; her glowing spirit appears just when Moana has given up.

After Maui abandons her, which song does Moana sing before diving to retrieve the heart?

'I Am Moana', subtitled 'Song of the Ancestors', follows her plea for the ocean to choose someone else; her grandmother's spirit reminds her who she is, and she dives for the heart.

At the end, Moana claims leadership by placing what atop the stack left by previous chiefs?

A shell goes on top of the pile: each chief before her had added a stone, and Moana's shell marks a chief who will lead her people back to the ocean.

Where did Moana have its world premiere on November 14, 2016?

El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles is operated by Disney, which reopened the restored movie palace in 1991 as the showcase for its own films; Moana's premiere there was part of the AFI Fest line-up.

Besides Best Original Song, Moana was nominated at the 89th Academy Awards in which other category?

Animated Feature was the other nomination; both were lost, the animation Oscar going to another film from Disney's own studio released the same year.

Before Moana, its directors tried to adapt Mort, a novel by which British fantasy author?

Terry Pratchett's Mort, about Death's apprentice, slipped away when the film rights could not be secured, so the directors pitched three original ideas instead, and one became Moana.

Which Disney Animation chief sent the directors on South Pacific research trips after hearing their pitch?

John Lasseter answered the pitch with two words, 'Go research', and would not let the project move forward until the directors had been to the islands.

Moana is set as islanders end a gap of many centuries in Pacific voyaging that archaeologists call what?

The Long Pause separates the settling of Samoa and Tonga from the later push east; nobody knows why voyaging stopped, so the film supplies its own reason: a stolen heart.

Asked why she is acting strangely, how does Moana's grandmother describe her job on the island?

The village crazy lady is her own cheerful answer, 'That's my job', given moments after joking that she will come back as the animal in her tattoo, or she chose the wrong tattoo.

Which New Zealand filmmaker wrote the first draft of Moana's screenplay?

Taika Waititi wrote the earliest draft before leaving for other projects; he joked that all that survived of it was 'EXT: OCEAN - DAY'.

What whoop does Maui let out as he leaps into the Realm of Monsters?

Chee-hoo is Maui's victory whoop, shouted mid-plunge on the way down to the monsters' realm; the sequel built a whole song around it, 'Can I Get a Chee Hoo?'.

Which two directors, fresh from Big Hero 6, joined Moana as co-directors to fix story problems?

Don Hall and Chris Williams took over the story because the lead directors were already working 12-hour days and Saturdays guiding the animation.

How old was the actress who voices Moana when she was cast?

She was 14 when cast in 2015, turning 16 the day before the November 2016 release; her resemblance to the already-finished character design was a coincidence.

Which former NFL star voices Villager No. 1 in Moana?

Troy Polamalu, the retired Pittsburgh Steelers safety, voices Villager No. 1, one of many performers with Pacific Island roots the filmmakers made a point of casting.

Which Disney animator, who brought Aladdin's Genie to life, hand-drew Maui's moving tattoos?

Eric Goldberg, who also co-directed Pocahontas, animated the tattoos by hand, so a traditionally drawn character moves across a computer-animated one.

Moana was produced in a makeshift warehouse in North Hollywood alongside which other film?

Zootopia shared the North Hollywood warehouse while Disney Animation's Burbank headquarters was renovated; the two films were released eight months apart in 2016.

According to Maui, what makes Moana a princess?

A dress and an animal sidekick are all it takes, Maui insists when Moana protests that she is a chief's daughter, a joke at the expense of Disney's own princess formula.

Whose album kept Moana's soundtrack at Billboard number two in January 2017?

The Weeknd's Starboy returned to number one that week, even though the Moana soundtrack was the best-selling album in the country.

Which Grammy did 'How Far I'll Go' win at the 60th Grammy Awards?

Best Song Written for Visual Media went to 'How Far I'll Go' in January 2018, a year after the ballad had lost both the Oscar and the Golden Globe.

Which La La Land song beat 'How Far I'll Go' at both the Oscars and Golden Globes?

'City of Stars' took both prizes for La La Land, whose Oscar night ended with the film wrongly announced as Best Picture before Moonlight was named the winner.

'How Far I'll Go' replaced an earlier attempt at a Moana song called what?

'More' was the first draft, dropped because it only had Moana curious about the wider world, while the final song has her torn over an island she loves.

Where did the songwriter lock himself away to write 'How Far I'll Go'?

His childhood bedroom at his parents' home: he said he 'went method', forcing himself back to age 16, when his own dreams felt an impossible distance away.

Which musician's death in January 2016 helped inspire Tamatoa's song 'Shiny'?

David Bowie died in January 2016, and the songwriter, mourning him with the records on repeat, wrote 'Shiny' as a tribute in his style.

What skill does Maui teach Moana during the voyage to Te Fiti?

Wayfinding, the traditional art of navigating without instruments, is what Maui teaches her, and she ends the film leading her people back onto the open sea.

Under what title was Moana released in Italy?

Oceania was the Italian title; media reported the change avoided association with the late Italian adult-film star Moana Pozzi.

Why was Moana renamed Vaiana in many European countries?

A trademark conflict forced the change: 'Moana' was already registered in parts of Europe, so the film became Vaiana there, a name the sequel kept.

Moana was the first motion picture fully dubbed into which language?

Tahitian got its first fully dubbed film, announced at a press conference in Papeete; the dub went to schools but was never sold to the public.

Which earlier Disney film got a special dub in the language of its source culture?

The Lion King got a Zulu dub in 1994, with a Disney team travelling to South Africa to find the voices; Moana's Pacific-language versions followed the same idea.

Which short film accompanied Moana in theatres?

Inner Workings pits a man's cautious brain against his fun-loving heart; director Leo Matsuda took the idea from see-through anatomy pages in an encyclopedia he pored over as a child.

Which carrier gave three of its Airbus A330s a Moana paint scheme ahead of the film's 2016 release?

Hawaiian Airlines unveiled the first of the three jets in Honolulu that October and flew them as far as Sydney, Tokyo and Auckland until March 2017.

Why did Disney pull a children's Maui costume from sale two months before Moana opened?

It drew brownface complaints: the zip-up suit gave children brown skin printed with Maui's tattoos, and Disney stopped selling it within days.

After three weekends at No. 1, Moana lost the top of the December 2016 US box office to which film?

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened on December 16, 2016 and took the top spot from Moana, one Disney release toppling another.

Moana was the most-streamed film in the US in 2023 and 2024 according to which measurement firm?

Nielsen ranked Moana the most-watched film on US streaming in both years, over seven years after its release, as families replayed it for billions of minutes.

Moana was the first addition to the official Disney Princess line-up since which heroine?

Merida, of Pixar's Brave, was crowned the 11th princess at a 2013 ceremony; Moana followed as the 12th in 2019, added with no coronation at all.

What is the name of the Moana-themed walk-through attraction at EPCOT?

Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana opened at EPCOT in October 2023, an outdoor trail where guests play with water that moves like the film's living ocean.

Moana 2 was originally announced in December 2020 as what?

A Disney+ television series was the original plan; Bob Iger announced in February 2024 that it had been reworked into a theatrical feature for November 2024.

Which songwriting duo took over Moana 2's songs when the original's songwriter was unavailable?

Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear were hired after Disney's music chief heard their Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, a Grammy winner that began as TikTok videos.

The first film's songwriter skipped Moana 2 but wrote the songs for which other Disney film?

Mufasa: The Lion King got his songs instead; he said it was never a straight choice, as the Mufasa script reached him just as he finished his previous Disney musical.

Roughly how much did Moana 2 gross worldwide?

About $1.06 billion worldwide made Moana 2 the third highest-grossing film of 2024, behind Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine.

Moana 2 opens with Moana searching nearby islands for what?

Other people are what she seeks, three years on from the first film; a vision of an ancestor then explains why she finds none: a storm god sank the island that once linked them all.

Which storm god is the villain of Moana 2?

Nalo, the god of storms, sank the island of Motufetu, which once connected the peoples of the ocean, and cursed it to keep them apart.

Which title does Moana's father bestow on her at a ceremony early in Moana 2?

Tautai is the title; lightning nearly strikes her as she receives it, bringing a vision of an ancestor who bore it and a warning about a sunken island.

Which comedian, creator of the rom-com series Starstruck, voices the craftswoman Loto in Moana 2?

Rose Matafeo voices Loto, the brainy craftswoman Moana recruits for the voyage along with a grumpy farmer and a devoted Maui fan.

Matangi, who holds Maui captive in Moana 2, commands which animals?

Bats swarm at Matangi's command from her lair inside a giant clam, yet she turns out to resent her master and helps Moana escape.

What is the name of Moana's little sister introduced in Moana 2?

Simea arrived in the three years between the films and wants to be just like her big sister, who tells her about their family's seafaring past.

Which Moana 2 song was billed as a spiritual sequel to 'How Far I'll Go'?

'Beyond' is Moana's solo as she decides to answer the ancestors' call and leave home again; it was the sequel's first single, out three weeks before the film.

Moana 2's first trailer set a Disney animation record with roughly how many views in 24 hours?

178 million views in 24 hours passed the 157 million of the studio's previous record holder, for a sequel Disney had announced under four months before.

Which companion, left ashore for the first film's voyage, sails with Moana in Moana 2?

Her pet pig finally gets his voyage, redrawn with one small tusk to show the three years that have passed since he stayed behind.

Which Polynesian language got a Moana 2 dub without the first film ever being dubbed in it?

The Māori version premiered in New Zealand simultaneously with the English release.

In Moana 2, an ancient ancestor visits Moana as which sea creature?

A whale shark is the form his spirit takes: he was lost at sea seeking the same sunken island, and he warns that her people will die out unless she finishes his voyage.

Which director, best known for staging Hamilton on Broadway, made the 2026 live-action Moana?

Thomas Kail was hired in May 2023, weeks after Disney announced the remake; the Tony-winning stage director had never made a narrative feature film before.

Where was the live-action Moana filmed between July and November 2024?

Atlanta and Hawaii hosted the four-month shoot, combining Georgia soundstages with Pacific island locations.

Who plays the title role in the 2026 live-action Moana?

Catherine Laga'aia, a 17-year-old from Sydney in her first film, won the part after the original voice star chose to pass the baton and stay on as an executive producer.

Which Once Were Warriors star plays Moana's grandmother in the 2026 live-action Moana?

Rena Owen plays Gramma Tala, the elder who urges Moana to defy her father and sail, opposite John Tui as the chief.

Which university accepted Moana's voice actress in 2021 to study environmental science?

Columbia University admitted her in 2021 to study environmental science, but she deferred to keep acting.

Moana's voice star took the lead in which 2019 ABC live musical special?

The Little Mermaid Live! put her on screen as Ariel, a second Disney princess for the teenager who had only been heard, not seen, as Moana.

Where was the actress who voices Moana, reportedly the last of hundreds to audition, discovered?

A charity video contest entry caught the eye of an Oahu talent agent, who brought her in to audition even though she had not planned to try out.

In Māori legend, Māui's fish became which landmass?

The North Island of New Zealand is Te Ika-a-Māui, 'the fish of Māui', hauled up with his grandmother's enchanted jawbone; in some tellings the South Island is his canoe.

Which feat recurs in most Pacific traditions about Māui?

Snaring the Sun is told from island to island; in one telling the captive Sun buys its freedom with a bargain, keeping the days long in summer and short in winter.

Unlike most Disney princesses before her, Moana goes through her whole story without a what?

Love interest is the missing piece: Moana has no romance at any point, a deliberate step away from the old princess formula that critics singled out.

Maui's actor said his return for the live-action Moana was inspired by which late grandfather?

High Chief Peter Maivia, a Samoan-born wrestler who died in 1982, was the 'mana and spirit' the star said he drew on in agreeing to play Maui again.

The te reo Māori dub of Moana screened free in over 30 New Zealand cinemas in 2017 to mark what?

Māori Language Week was the occasion, and demand was fierce: some of the free screenings were fully booked online within 30 minutes.

The Disney heroine Moana takes her name from a word in several Polynesian languages meaning what?

Ocean is what moana means in several Polynesian languages, fitting for a girl the sea itself picks out. A 1926 silent documentary shot in the Pacific carries the same title.

Pacific cultural advisers on Moana vetoed a proposed scene in which the heroine threw what during a tantrum?

Coconuts flew in the proposed tantrum until the film's panel of Pacific experts objected and the scene was scrapped. The same advisers shaped the story over five years.

Moana opened in American cinemas over which holiday weekend, the same slot Frozen had used?

Thanksgiving gave Moana $82.1 million over five days, at the time the holiday's second-biggest opening behind Frozen, and knocked Fantastic Beasts off the top spot.

Moana joins the other Disney princesses for a cameo in which 2018 film?

Ralph Breaks the Internet puts the princesses in one room, and Moana later helps save Ralph by spinning fountain water into a spiral. Her original voice actress returned for the scene.

The animator who hand-drew Maui's tattoos for Moana also led the animation of which Aladdin character?

The Genie was his breakthrough as a lead animator, followed by Phil in Hercules. On Moana his tattoo figures were sketched on paper before being merged into the finished shots.

Moana 2 was the third-biggest film released in 2024; which sequel topped that year's worldwide box office?

Inside Out 2 led the year, with Deadpool & Wolverine second, which put Moana 2 ahead of Despicable Me 4, Wicked and every other 2024 release.

Moana's original voice actress went on to play Janis in the 2024 film of which stage musical?

Mean Girls cast her as Janis ʻImiʻike in 2024, eight years after she made her screen debut as a Disney heroine with no acting credits behind her.

In Moana 2, what do Moana and her crew follow across the sea to reach a lost island?

A comet marks the route after an ancestor appears to Moana in a vision and warns that her people will die out unless the island is found.

Instead of starring in the 2026 live-action Moana, the heroine's original voice took which job on it?

Executive producer was her credit on the remake, and she helped choose the newcomer who replaced her in the title role.

In Moana 2, what does the villain use to strip Maui of his powers and strike Moana down?

Lightning hits both heroes: one bolt takes Maui's powers as he hauls up a sunken island, and another kills Moana just as she touches it.

Moana returned to American cinemas for two weeks in October 2023 to celebrate which company milestone?

Disney's 100th anniversary brought Moana back from October 13 to 26, 2023, with the new short Once Upon a Studio playing before it.

Buttons did not exist in Moana's world, so her designers fastened the heroine's dress with what?

A boar's tusk holds the dress together, a touch added by visual development artist Neysa Bové. She made the dress red because the colour signalled royalty at the time.

Which relative of Moana's lead voice actress has a small part in the film as Villager No. 2?

Her mother, Puanani Cravalho, voices Villager No. 2, sharing a cast list with a daughter who had never made a film before.

Hawaiians name which constellation after a prized tool of Māui, the demigod who appears in Moana?

Scorpius is Ka Makau Nui o Māui to Hawaiians, and the demigod's tool even has a name of its own there: Manaiakalani.

Moana's directors compared the pairing of a determined girl and a washed-up hero to which Western?

True Grit gave the directors their template: John Musker wanted an action-adventure heroine who could dive off cliffs and battle monsters.

At her audition for Moana, the future voice of the heroine sang thirty seconds of which Tangled song?

I See the Light was her favourite Disney song, and she sang it as the last girl seen on the last day of casting.

In Moana 2, Moana gathers a crew to find which sunken island that once linked every other island?

Motufetu was sunk by a storm god who wanted power over mortals, and its curse breaks only when a human touches the island again.

Moana's Hawaiian-language dub was never sold on home media; where was it sent free of charge instead?

Schools in Hawaii received the dub for free after its 2018 premiere, with the original lead actress voicing Moana again in the language of her home state.

What does Moana gain for the first time when her ancestors bring her back near the end of Moana 2?

A tattoo appears on Moana as she is revived. Maui dives in after her and summons the spirits of her ancestors with a chant.

In the legend that opens Moana, Maui is the shape-shifting demigod of which two things?

The wind and sea are Maui's domain in the film, while the Māui of Polynesian tradition is better known as a trickster who pulled whole islands out of the water.

At the climax of Moana, the heroine realises the lava demon blocking her path is really who?

The goddess she seeks is the demon itself: Te Fiti was corrupted when her heart was stolen, and once Moana returns it she heals the blighted islands.

After their first meeting in Moana, where does Maui trap the heroine before sailing off in her boat?

In a cave is where Maui leaves her, but she escapes and confronts him, and he reluctantly lets her aboard.

What does Tamatoa, the giant crab of Moana's Realm of Monsters, hoard obsessively?

Treasure is what Tamatoa hoards, which makes him the keeper of something Maui badly wants back; Moana distracts the crab while Maui makes the grab.

In Moana, what do the many tattoos covering the demigod Maui's body keep a record of?

His great deeds and victories are inked across his skin, so he can retell his whole life just by turning around and showing his back.

What form does the life-giving goddess Te Fiti take in the legend that opens Moana?

A living island is how the film pictures Te Fiti, the goddess of nature, who used the stone at her heart to bring life to the sea.

In Moana's opening legend, Maui steals Te Fiti's heart to give humanity the power of what?

Creation was the gift Maui wanted for mortals, but the theft made Te Fiti crumble and brought a volcanic demon down on him.

Which New Zealand star voices the giant crab Tamatoa in both the animated and live-action Moana?

Jemaine Clement, one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, has voiced the crab in animation, in a sequel's mid-credits scene and in live action.

Nicole Scherzinger, who voices the chief's wife in Moana, found fame as the lead singer of which pop group?

The Pussycat Dolls made her famous, and she returned to the role in the sequel and in the film's Hawaiian-language dub.

The tiny armoured pirates of Moana take their name from legendary small people of which island nation?

Solomon Islands legend tells of a short-statured people by that name, rather like the menehune of Hawaii and nothing like Disney's pirates.

What did the designer of Moana's necklace carve on top of it as a nod to her life as a voyager?

Stars are carved along the top because, as the designer put it, a voyager steers by them; she also curved the piece to suggest both land and sea.

Which member of Moana's crew in Moana 2 is a historian and a devoted fan of Maui?

Moni keeps his island's history and idolises Maui, and he nearly dies when the villain's sea monsters ambush the crew.

In Moana 2, what is the trade of Kele, the grumpy elder who joins Moana's crew?

Farmer Kele sails beside a craftswoman and a historian, a crew Moana picks from her own island after her ancestors call on her.

In Moana 2, Matangi, who holds Maui captive, keeps her lair within which giant sea creature?

A clam of monstrous size hides the lair, and Moana's crew must paralyse it, with help from an old enemy, before they find Maui there.

What does Matangi hope to win for herself by helping Moana in Moana 2?

Her freedom is the prize: Matangi serves the villain unwillingly, and his defeat would release her from the lair where she is confined.

In Moana 2, the villain's curse has cut the tiny armoured pirates off from what, turning them into allies?

Their home island was lost to them when the storm god sank the island that linked all the others, so the pirates lend Moana's crew a weapon and a warrior.

Moana's voice actress says the heroine became the first Disney princess allowed to do what between films?

Grow older is what the sequel lets her do, so the actress could record in her natural adult voice instead of pitching it up to sound sixteen.

Disney's Maui in Moana has no family, but the Māui of Māori tradition has four of which relatives?

Brothers surround the Māui of tradition: in Māori tellings they refuse to take him fishing, so he stows away in their canoe.

To make Moana's wet curls look real, what did animators ask models with similar hair to do?

Dunk their heads in water: that was the brief, and Disney also wrote a new program, Quicksilver, to make the curls move believably.

Tamatoa, the name of Moana's giant crab, was also borne by a dynasty of kings on which Polynesian island?

Raiatea had a line of kings named Tamatoa, the last of whom, Tamatoa VI, reigned until 1888.

A Pacific anthropologist faulted Moana for leaving out which goddess, Māui's companion in Polynesian lore?

Hina is missing from the film, though anthropologist Tēvita O. Kaʻili argued she is the one who makes many of Māui's feats possible.