Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana is about an adventurous teenager who, with help from mighty demigod Maui, sails out on a daring mission across the open ocean, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds to prove herself a master wayfinder and to fulfil the ancient quest of her ancestors and save her people. Moana (also known as Vaiana [4] or Oceania [5] in some markets) is a 2016 American animated musical fantasy action-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Te Kā was referred to in early drafts of the film as Te Pō, [26] a reference to the Māori goddess Hine-nui-te-pō, who was originally the life-giving goddess Hine-tītama, but became the goddess of death upon discovering that her husband, the god Tāne, was also her father. Native people of the Pacific possessed knowledge of the world and their place in it prior to the incursion of foreigners. Strong social media numbers showed among the highest the studio has seen there, similar to how Zootopia started off slow and later became a blockbuster phenomenon.

I wear this culture proudly on my skin and in my soul, and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reunite with Maui, inspired by the mana and spirit of my late grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, is one that runs very deep for me. from Wednesday to Sunday, the third biggest three-day Thanksgiving opening [97] (behind Frozen and Toy Story 2) and the second-biggest five-day Thanksgiving opening [98] (behind Frozen), dethroning Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them off the top spot. The Kakamora are an intense team of crazy, coconut-armored pirates who sail the ocean and will stop at nothing to get what they want. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that " Moana is beautiful in more ways than I can tell, thanks to the brilliance of more animators than I could count.Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, [122] while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave an 89% overall positive score and a 79% "definite recommend". Critics also lauded Moana for centering on a strong female protagonist whose narrative is not confined to finding a Prince Charming, a contrast to princess characters of past Disney films. The film stars Auliʻi Cravalho as the voice of Moana and also features the ensemble voices of Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, and Alan Tudyk.

The genesis of one of those ideas (the one that was ultimately green-lit) occurred in 2011, when Musker began reading up on Polynesian mythology, and learned of the heroic exploits of the demigod Māui.Disney initiating a partnership with Hawaiian Airlines [75] to promote the film has been perceived as having the motive of fetishizing Polynesian island nations as exotic vacation spots, the people and culture of which exist only to entertain foreign audiences, [76] as well as Auliʻi Cravalho speaking with The New York Times in an interview sharing travel tips for visitors to Hawaii.

Critiques of these promotional tactics focus on how adverse effects of tourism have devastated native communities in the Pacific, resulting in environmental degradation and poverty. On October 25, 2016, at a press conference in Papeete, it was announced that the film will be the first motion picture to be fully dubbed in the Tahitian language. The songs were written by Opetaia Foa'i, Mark Mancina, who previously collaborated with the studio on Tarzan and Brother Bear, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, while the score was written by Mancina. On the announcement, Johnson remarked "I'm deeply humbled and overcome with gratitude to bring the beautiful story of Moana to the live-action big screen. Things You Should Know About Disney's Moana Starring Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson".During animation production, Disney animators were able to integrate some of Cravalho's mannerisms into Moana's behavior as depicted onscreen. Chinese Embrace Makoto Shinkai's 'Your Name,' Reject 'Moana'" Archived 2017-07-11 at the Wayback Machine. Moana features a star packed cast of unforgettable characters including Dwayne Johnson taking on the role of demigod Maui, Nicole Scherzinger voicing Sina, Moana’s mother, Jemaine Clement voicing Tamatoa, and newcomer Auli’l Cravalho as wayfinding adventurer Moana herself.