Inspired by Polynesian mythology, Moana is depicted as the strong-willed daughter of a chief of a Polynesian village, who is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with the goddess Te Fiti. When a blight strikes her island, Moana sets sail in search of Maui (Dwayne Johnson), a legendary demigod, in the hope of returning the relic to Te Fiti and saving her people. She then forms a crew and embarks on a voyage to recover the lost island of Motufetu and restore the channels that connected the people of the sea. The goddess revives the dying islands across the world, and restores Moana’s boat and Maui’s fishhook. Moana asks Maui to return home with her, but Maui gently declines, showing Moana a new tattoo on his body, inspired by her heroism. The two warmly embrace before Maui shape-shifts into a hawk and flies away.

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The franchise consists of two animated films, Moana (2016) and its sequel Moana 2 (2024), as well as a live-action remake adaptation of the 2016 film, scheduled to be released on July 10, 2026. Gramma Tala finds Moana on the beach after she tries to sail past the reef only to become shipwrecked back home and shows Moana a secret cave hidden behind a waterfall. Tala then gives Moana the heart of Te Fiti after showing her the curse of draining life away from trees and the island itself, saying that it is the only way to save her people. She goes to her father and tells him what Tala told her, but he doesn’t listen and sees it as another excuse for her to leave the island. Moana, realizing that Nalo is trying to stop humans from breaking the curse, asks Maui to lift Motufetu enough for her to touch it.

  • Reaching the top of the mountain, Moana realizes that the island is gone and that Te Kā is actually Te Fiti without her heart.
  • That afternoon, Moana’s grandmother Tala shows her a secret cavern of ships and reveals Motunui’s people were voyagers until Maui stole Te Fiti’s heart; the ocean was no longer safe without it.
  • Ever since she was a baby, Moana had a close relationship with her grandmother, Tala.
  • After escaping the cave, the ocean sends Moana back on the sailboat to convince Maui.
  • A Kakamora named Kotu helps the crew paralyze a gargantuan monster clam inside of which is Matangi’s lair.
  • It features the voice talents of Auli’i Cravalho as Moana and Dwayne Johnson as Maui, as well as Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, and Alan Tudyk.

Tui and Sina, Moana’s parents, try to keep her away from the ocean to prepare her to become the island’s chief. Sixteen years later, blight strikes her island and to attempt to prevent it, Moana suggests going beyond the reef which her father forbids her to. She tries with Pua the Pig but is overpowered by the waves and is shipwrecked back to shore. Tala shows Moana a secret cavern full of ships, revealing her ancestors were voyagers but stopped after Te Fiti’s heart was stolen due to the ocean no longer being safe. She further explains Te Kā is causing the blight and she must seek Maui and the heart to stop it. Three years after restoring the heart, Moana has started to go on her own adventures and gained a little sister named Simea.
Using her wayfinding skills, she returns to Te Kā and gets past Te Kā to return the heart. Reaching the top of the mountain, Moana realizes that the island is gone and that Te Kā is actually Te Fiti without her heart. She asks the ocean to clear a path so that she can have Te Kā approach her.

Development

She ignores his protest, which brings Te Kā to partially destroy Maui’s hook, severely damaging it and sending them far back across the ocean. Out of anger, Maui leaves Moana stranded in the middle of the ocean, fearing that going back to fight Te Kā will permanently destroy his hook. He flies away after telling her that the ocean chose the wrong person to save her people which is something she has been trying to find out why. A follow-up to Moana was originally developed as a miniseries for Disney+, but by February 2024 it had been reworked into a theatrical sequel. Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foaʻi, the composers and co-songwriters of the first film, returned to score and write the songs, while Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear provided additional songs. When they approach Motufetu’s location, Nalo unleashes his storm on them, with Maui being forced to double-back to take out some of the tornadoes going for Moana and her crew.

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She fought and outsmarted the pirates, managing to rescue Heihei where the two managed to escape and jump back onto their boat, with Heihei spitting out the Heart upon hitting the canoe’s mast. After escaping from and defeating the Kakamora, Moana and Heihei continued their journey with Maui reluctantly accompanying them. Moana blows her conch shell from atop Motufetu, and soon, her call is answered as other rafts begin to arrive from various directions. Maui compliments Moana’s tattoos by saying “my tattoos are still cooler than yours”.

  • Maui returns, having had a change of heart, and buys Moana time to reach Te Fiti by fighting Te Kā, destroying his hook in the process.
  • She connects with Te Fiti and opens her eyes to show her what she has become.
  • In the first film, Moana is slim yet slightly muscular, with brown skin, brown eyes, a small nose and waist-length wavy black hair.
  • Her hair also appears to be a little bit longer and some of it is in front of her face now.
  • Moana bids farewell to Te Fiti, returning home where she reunites with her parents and the rest of the villagers.
  • Not knowing how to sail, Moana rushes to her people and asks for their assistance in restoring the heart.

Deleted Scene: Under The Sea

She uses her wits and agility to escape, and catches up to Maui with the help of the ocean. Moana orders him to return the heart, but upon seeing it, Maui tries to leave the boat, only to be brought back by the ocean. He claims the heart is cursed, something Moana refuses to believe until they fall under attack by a band of pirates called the Kakamora.
Once she followed her grandmother’s advice, Moana discovered she and her people were descended from voyagers who sailed beyond the seas to find new islands. This discovery excited Moana, prompting her to ask her grandmother why they stopped sailing the ocean. Moana heard Tala explain because Maui stole the Heart of Te Fiti, monsters roamed the seas and Te Kā’s curse destroyed islands and made sea voyage dangerous. Moana then saw Tala reveal that Te Kā’s curse has now reached Motunui and was shocked to hear Tala also reveal she had been chosen by the Ocean to save all of Polynesia from Te Kā’s curse as she was given the Heart of Te Fiti. As Nalo’s storm dissipates with the curse broken, a recovered Maui dives back into the water to find Moana, aided by the ocean now that Nalo’s power was broken, only to find her lifeless body floating just above Motufetu’s peak.
Moana fails to heed her father’s words and waddles to the ocean shores in bliss. There, she helps a struggling newborn sea turtle make its way to the ocean against predators, using a leaf. Just then, Moana is acquainted with the ocean, which reveals itself to have a mind of its own. Having witnessed her unselfish kindheartedness with the baby sea turtle, the ocean chooses her to receive the heart of Te Fiti, but when Tui arrives and takes her back to the village, Moana inadvertently leaves the heart at the shore. On the Polynesian island of Motunui, the inhabitants worship the goddess of nature, Te Fiti; a living island who, long ago, brought life to the ocean using a pounamu stone as her heart and the source of her power.

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She wakes up the next morning on a small island inhabited by Maui, who traps Moana in a cave after distracting her with a tune. After escaping the cave, the ocean sends Moana back on the sailboat to convince Maui. She shows him the heart and asks him to help her return it, but Maui Moana backs away fearing that the heart is a trap for the person carrying it and that other creatures would kill to steal it for themselves.

She also wears the same outfit from the first film, but the top of her red tube top switched to white single strap top and the sun patterns on her skirt switched to a new pattern. It features a white top with a pattern on it, a red skirt with the same pattern with a coconut fiber skirt. After Moana gets struck by lightning, her ancestors revive her as a demigoddess and give her a magical tattoo. Moana sets sail on a camakau from the cavern along with her dimwitted pet rooster, Heihei, who stowed away on it. They are caught in a typhoon and shipwrecked on an island, where she finds Maui, who boasts about his achievements.
However, Moana tells him to go for the island while they try to divert Nalo’s attention since he is after them due to his hatred of humanity. As they climb a mountain to reach the entrance to the underworld, Maui questions why the ocean chose Moana to save the world, though she doesn’t seem to know, herself. Despite her sudden feeling of self-doubt, Moana follows Maui into Lalotai, and eventually finds the fishhook. She distracts Tamatoa long enough for Maui to take back his hook, but the demigod finds that his shapeshifting abilities are out of whack.