105 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.

The Oceanic Story Trust of Pacific experts rejected an early design showing Maui as what?

The Trust rejected a bald Maui, saying hair carried mana in Pacific cultures, so he was redesigned with long flowing hair.

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

Auli'i Cravalho, born in Kohala, Hawaii, made her acting debut as Moana and returned to voice her in the 2024 sequel.

Which prominent actor and former professional wrestler voices the demigod Maui?

Dwayne Johnson, the former WWE wrestler, voices Maui and performs the demigod's boastful song himself.

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

'You're Welcome' is Maui's signature song, where he boasts about his past heroic deeds and gifts to humanity.

What glowing relic does the ocean choose Moana to return?

The Heart of Te Fiti, a small glowing green stone, was stolen by Maui a thousand years earlier; the ocean chose Moana as a toddler to return it.

Disney's 'Moana' (2016), set about two thousand years ago on a fictional island, draws its mythology and culture from which region?

Polynesia's real nations, from Samoa to Tahiti, were blended into Moana's fictional island, and the directors consulted an Oceanic Story Trust to keep it honest. The story is set roughly two thousand years ago.

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

Ron Clements and John Musker, partners since The Great Mouse Detective (1986), pitched Moana in 2011; the duo also made Aladdin and Hercules.

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

Motunui's people were once voyagers who stopped sailing, and Moana leads them back to sea at the film's close as chieftess and wayfinder.

In 'Moana', what are the tiny coconut-armored pirates called, the ones Maui dismisses as 'murdering little pirates'?

The Kakamora are coconut-armored pirates who sail fleets of lashed-together flotsam and attack to seize the heart; Maui sums them up as 'murdering little pirates'.

In 'Moana', what is the lava demon called that defeated Maui a thousand years earlier and now guards the goddess's island?

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

Who provides the voice of Moana's grandmother?

House, who is of Māori heritage, also reprised the role for the film's Māori-language dub.

Which Broadway songwriter co-wrote the film's original songs with Opetaia Foa'i and the film's composer?

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Hamilton, wrote the songs with Foa'i and Mancina, working on Moana while Hamilton was opening on Broadway in 2015.

What magical item allows Maui to shapeshift into various animals?

The hook is badly damaged in the first assault on Te Fiti's island and destroyed in the second, before the goddess restores it.

What does Moana's rooster repeatedly try to eat in the village?

A rock: the dimwitted rooster pecks at and swallows a stone while the villagers question keeping him, and Moana pulls it back out of his beak.

Who voices Moana's father, Chief Tui?

Morrison, of Māori heritage, reprised the role for the Māori-language dub; a Hamilton cast member supplied Tui's singing voice.

What is the name of Moana's mother?

Sina, Moana's mother, is voiced by Nicole Scherzinger, who is of Native Hawaiian descent and reprised the part for the Hawaiian-language dub.

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, from Brampton, Ontario, sang the pop version that plays over the end credits; the song won a Grammy but lost the Oscar to a song from La La Land.

What type of creature is Tamatoa?

Tamatoa is a giant coconut crab, a real species that climbs trees and cracks coconuts; the film version hoards treasure on his glowing shell.

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 at birth, throwing him into the sea; the gods took pity on the infant, gave him the hook and made him a demigod.

Who wrote the screenplay for Moana?

Jared Bush, who co-directed Zootopia earlier in 2016, wrote Moana's screenplay; he later co-directed Encanto with Byron Howard.

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

Maui cannot control his shapeshifting after so long without the hook, getting stuck in half-animal forms; Moana lures Tamatoa away with a glowing barnacle decoy of the heart.

Which of these is NOT a creature Maui transforms into during the film?

Maui never becomes an octopus; he does turn into an iguana, a shark and, in a gag cameo, a reindeer resembling Sven from Frozen.

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 is Moana's 'I Want' number, voicing her longing to go beyond the reef?

'How Far I'll Go' is Moana's 'I Want' song, sung as she gazes past the reef; it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

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

Mini Maui, the living chest tattoo, nags the demigod into doing right; he is drawn by hand while the rest of the film is computer-animated.

When the blight strikes Moana's island sixteen years on, 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.

The soundtrack's lyrics are in English, Samoan and which other Pacific language?

Tokelauan appears alongside Samoan in 'We Know the Way', written by Opetaia Foa'i, whose parents were Tokelauan and Tuvaluan.

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.

The stolen heart at the centre of the film is a stone of what kind?

Pounamu, or greenstone, is the New Zealand jade prized in Māori carving, which is why the heart glows green.

What is the name of Moana's pet chicken?

Heihei, the dimwitted rooster, stows away in the canoe's hold and later catches the heart in his beak during the final battle.

In the post-credits scene, the stranded crab grumbles that people would help a Jamaican crab with which name?

Sebastian, the Jamaican-accented crab from The Little Mermaid, is the name-check: stranded on his back, Tamatoa grumbles that people would help a crab called that.

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

Mad Max: Fury Road inspired the chase, with drum-beating pirates boarding from a flotilla of lashed-together rafts, as the directors acknowledged.

What specific type of bird does Maui often transform into?

He flies off as a hawk after abandoning Moana, and accompanies the voyagers in the same form at the film's end.

Which actor voices Moana's rooster and also a villager who suggests cooking it?

Tudyk, Disney's go-to voice cameo, plays Villager No. 3, an old man with culinary designs on the bird.

Songwriter Opetaia Foa'i's New Zealand-based vocal group, heard on the soundtrack, is called what?

Te Vaka, founded by Foa'i in New Zealand in 1995, performs the Pacific-language tracks on the soundtrack; the name means 'the canoe'.

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

Jackson originated George Washington in Hamilton; another actor speaks Tui's lines.

In 2012 the directors took research trips to which three places?

Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti were the 2012 stops, where the directors met elders, navigators and villagers; the trips led them to form the Oceanic Story Trust.

Moana sets sail from the secret cavern aboard what kind of vessel?

A camakau is a Fijian single-outrigger sailing canoe; Te Fiti repairs it at the end along with Maui's hook.

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.

Which song does Moana sing when she resolves to return the heart herself?

'I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)' comes after Moana asks 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 her as a wayfinder who will lead the people back to sea.

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

It opened AFI Fest before its US release on November 23, the day before Thanksgiving.

Moana's other nomination at the 89th Academy Awards was in which category?

Animated Feature was the second nomination, alongside Best Original Song; both lost, with Zootopia taking the animation prize.

Which Terry Pratchett novel were the directors trying to adapt before Moana?

Mort, Pratchett's Discworld novel about Death's apprentice, fell through over rights, so Clements and Musker pitched original ideas instead, one of which became Moana.

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

John Lasseter, then Disney Animation's chief creative officer, told the directors to go and look; the 2012 trips reshaped the story around a chief's daughter rather than Maui.

Polynesians abruptly stopped long-distance voyaging roughly how long ago, per the film's research?

Three thousand years ago the migrations paused for about a millennium, a gap researchers call the Long Pause; the film is set when voyaging resumed.

What surname was given for Moana at the 2015 D23 Expo but dropped from the final film?

Waialiki was the surname Disney announced at the 2015 D23 Expo; the finished film never gives her one, calling her simply Moana.

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'.

Under what name was Te Kā referred to in early drafts?

Te Pō was the early name, echoing Hine-nui-te-pō, the Māori goddess of night and death in whose body Māui dies trying to win immortality for humans.

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

Don Hall and Chris Williams, fresh from directing Big Hero 6, came aboard as co-directors to help with story and are credited on the finished film.

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 cast member is, like Maui's voice actor, of Samoan descent?

Oscar Kightley, the Samoan-born New Zealand writer and actor, voices a fisherman; Maui's actor has a Samoan mother, while House, Clement and Morrison are Māori.

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

Troy Polamalu, the Pittsburgh Steelers safety of Samoan descent, voices Villager No. 1; Cravalho's mother Puanani voices Villager No. 2.

Which animator hand-drew Maui's sentient tattoos, the only hand-drawn element in the film?

Eric Goldberg, the Disney veteran who animated the Genie in Aladdin, drew the tattoos by hand over the computer-animated character.

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?

Maui insists that anyone who wears a dress and has an animal sidekick is a princess, brushing off Moana's protest that she is the chief's daughter.

Where did the Moana soundtrack peak on the Billboard 200?

Number two was the peak, reached in January 2017; the soundtrack was held off the top by The Weeknd's Starboy.

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' at the January 2018 ceremony, held at New York's Madison Square Garden.

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

'City of Stars', composed by Justin Hurwitz with lyrics by Pasek and Paul, took both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

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

'More' was the discarded first attempt; Marcy Harriell's demo of it appears as an outtake on the deluxe soundtrack.

Where did the songwriter lock himself for a weekend to write 'How Far I'll Go'?

His childhood bedroom in his parents' home in Manhattan's Inwood neighborhood: Miranda wanted to force his mind back to age 16, Moana's age.

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

David Bowie died on 10 January 2016, and Miranda, listening to him on a loop that week, wrote 'Shiny' as a glam-rock number in his style.

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

Maui teaches Moana wayfinding, the traditional art of navigating by the stars and ocean swells; she later measures the stars with her hand as he showed her.

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?

Announced at a Papeete press conference, 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 was dubbed into Zulu in 1994, the first Disney film in an African language; Moana's Pacific-language versions followed the same idea.

Which short film accompanied Moana in theatres?

Inner Workings, Leo Matsuda's short about a man's warring brain and heart, played before Moana; the Blu-ray added the mini-short Gone Fishing.

Which airline painted Moana livery on three of its Airbus A330s in October 2016?

Hawaiian Airlines unveiled three Moana-liveried Airbus A330s in October 2016 ahead of the film's release, flying them on long-haul routes from Honolulu.

Which Moana tie-in product did Disney pull after complaints it promoted brownface?

The Maui 'skin suit' costume, a full-body brown outfit printed with his tattoos, was pulled from the Disney Store in September 2016 after brownface complaints.

After three weekends at No. 1, Moana lost the top of the December 2016 US box office to which Disney-owned 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's annual streaming rankings put Moana at number one among films in both 2023 and 2024, measured in minutes viewed on Disney+.

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

Moana was the 12th official Disney Princess, the first since Merida; she cameoed with the whole line-up in Ralph Breaks the Internet.

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, Grammy winners for The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, wrote the sequel's songs; both were in their twenties when hired.

Which film kept the original songwriter too busy to return for Moana 2?

Mufasa: The Lion King, Barry Jenkins's 2024 prequel, had Miranda writing its songs at the time Moana 2 was being developed.

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 is set how many years after the first film?

Three years on, Moana is 19 and a seasoned voyager; the sequel opens with her scouring other islands for signs of other people.

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 receive in the sequel, the island's first in a thousand years?

Tautai, a Samoan word for a master navigator or fisherman, is the title Moana receives at the ceremony early in the sequel.

Who voices Loto, the quirky craftswoman in Moana's crew in Moana 2?

Rose Matafeo, the New Zealand comedian behind Starstruck, voices Loto; David Fane plays grumpy farmer Kele and Hualālai Chung plays Moni.

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

Bats swarm at Matangi's command; she keeps Maui prisoner in her lair inside a gargantuan clam.

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

Simea, about three years old, idolizes her big sister; Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda voices her.

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

'Beyond' is Moana's big solo in the sequel, sung as she answers the ancestors' call to find Motufetu; its writers called it a spiritual successor to 'How Far I'll Go'.

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

Over 178 million views in 24 hours beat the marks set by the Frozen 2 and Inside Out 2 teasers, Disney said of the May 2024 trailer.

What does Moana become after her ancestors revive her at the end of Moana 2?

A demigod: Moana dies touching the cursed island to raise it, and her ancestors and the ocean revive her with powers like Maui's.

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.

Which comedian voices the storm god in Moana 2's mid-credits scene?

Tofiga Fepulea'i, the Samoan New Zealand comedian of the Laughing Samoans duo, voices the god in the mid-credits scene, where Tamatoa also reappears.

Who directed the 2026 live-action Moana?

Thomas Kail, who directed Hamilton on stage, was attached when the live-action remake was announced in April 2023.

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.

Which actor is the father of the 2026 film's Moana star?

Jay Laga'aia, the New Zealand-born Australian actor who played Captain Typho in the Star Wars prequels, is her father.

Who plays Moana's grandmother in the 2026 live-action Moana?

Rena Owen, star of Once Were Warriors, plays the grandmother; John Tui plays Chief Tui in the remake.

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.

Cravalho played Ariel in which 2019 ABC television special?

She has also played Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway.

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 a hook made from his grandmother's jawbone; the South Island was his canoe.

Which feat is common to most Polynesian Māui traditions?

He also steals fire from the underworld and fishes up islands with his magic hook.

Opetaia Foa'i was born in 1956 in which country?

He grew up in New Zealand, founded Te Vaka and now lives in Australia.

Maui's actor said the live-action version was inspired by which late grandfather of his?

High Chief Peter Maivia, the Samoan wrestling pioneer and father of Johnson's mother Ata, died in 1982; Johnson has called Maui a tribute to him.

How many US theatres screened the sing-along version of Moana released in January 2017?

More than 2,000 US theatres carried the sing-along edition from January 27, 2017, two months after the original had opened in 3,875.

The te reo Māori dub of Moana premiered free in 30 Auckland theatres in 2017 to mark what?

Māori Language Week, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, held every year since 1975, was the occasion; the dub was the first Disney film in te reo Māori.