FILM · 2016 · USA
Moana
38 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (38)
- #001
The spiral on Moana's necklace and on the sail of her boat is called a koru. It represents an unfurling fern frond, symbolizing new life, new beginnings, personal growth, hope, a fresh start, perfection, rebirth, awakening, purity, rejuvenation and peace. As a double spiral it also symbolizes kinship and belonging.
- #002
Dwayne Johnson believes voice acting is the hardest career in acting and is personally angered when celebrities take roles in animated films despite voicing their characters poorly. When Johnson was cast in the film, he repeatedly asked other voice actors whether he was really giving a good performance.
- #003
The genie's lamp from Aladdin (1992) can be seen on Tamatoa's shell.
- #004
The tattoos on Chief Tui's stomach are the same as those worn by Dwayne Johnson's maternal grandfather, the professional wrestler Peter Fanene Maivia.
- #005
Toward the end, Moana gently presses her forehead to Te Ka's and then does the same with the newly restored Te Fiti. This is a traditional Maori greeting that expresses mutual respect.
- #006
Lin-Manuel Miranda said that the giant crab character Tamatoa is a tribute to David Bowie.
- #007
Alan Tudyk is the only main cast member who is not of Polynesian descent. All the other main cast members are at least partly of Polynesian or New Zealand descent.
- #008
Directors John Musker and Ron Clements spent months researching to make the film respectful of Polynesian culture and mythology, and immersed themselves in that culture.
- #009
In the trailer, Maui says he caught the sun with a fish hook and pulled land from the ocean. In Maori legend, Maui fished one of the New Zealand islands out of the ocean and caught the sun because the days were too short. Another version says Maui caught the sun with a net.
- #010
The original idea was for the film to depart from the Disney Princess template and focus entirely on Maui, with the story a loose combination of several legends about him. The team traveled to Polynesia and was so affected by the culture that Moana was created as the new focus character.
- #011
The villager who suggests cooking Heihei is voiced by Alan Tudyk, who also provided Heihei's sound effects.
- #012
When Maui first takes his hook and tries to shapeshift, he turns into various animals. For a moment he turns into Sven the reindeer from Frozen (2013).
- #013
When Moana first meets Maui, she raises her eyebrow in a strange way. This is Johnson's signature move from his wrestling career and the crowd's reaction.
- #014
Although it is a computer-animated film, Maui's tattoos were drawn by hand. This makes it the first feature-length Disney animated film to include pure hand-drawn animation since Winnie the Pooh (2011).
- #015
According to archaeological evidence, the exploration of West Polynesia proceeded rapidly until around 900 BC, then suddenly stopped for more than 1,000 years, then just as suddenly resumed, and within a few centuries all of East Polynesia was colonized. Several plausible explanations exist, but the exact cause of the "Long Pause" remains a mystery.
- #016
It is the first Disney film with a largely Polynesian cast: Dwayne Johnson, Auli'i Cravalho, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, Oscar Kightley and Troy Polamalu.
- #017
In real life, the decorator crab attaches mollusk shells and invertebrates such as sea anemones and sponges to its shell.
- #018
The black rock fragments visible beneath the sand and vegetation on Motunui are solidified pahoehoe, the Hawaiian word for "smooth, unbroken lava." This means Motunui is a volcanic island that rose from the sea, or was "pulled" from it.
- #019
Moana's island is called Motu Nui. In various Polynesian languages, "motu" means "island" and "nui" means "big." At least two real Pacific islands are named Motu Nui: one just off Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui) and one in French Polynesia. Both are less than 1,000 feet in diameter.
- #020
The pillars Moana and Maui climb to reach the entrance to Lalotai are faithful recreations of basalt columns. Columnar basalt forms when thick lava cools slowly, and it has also been observed on Mars. Moana and Maui are in fact jumping into the middle of an ancient lava flow.
- #021
The blue glow that follows Tala's spirit is a real-world phenomenon caused by plankton known as dinoflagellates. They are found in all aquatic environments, including snow and ice. When they are especially pronounced, they can make waves, a boat's wake and even the water around a swimming person glow brightly, as seen in the film.
- #022
The first baby listed in the Production Babies credits is Sebastian, Lin-Manuel Miranda's son, who was born during the making of the film. He was named after the crab in The Little Mermaid (1989).
- #023
Most of the characters' names are Pacific island words or names. Moana means "ocean" and "blue" in both Hawaiian and Maori. Vaiana, the title used in Asia and most of Europe, means "fresh water." Moana's pet rooster, Heihei, means "chicken" in Maori. Moana's pet pig, Pua, means "offspring" or "flower" and may be short for "pua'a," meaning "pig." Maui is the name of a Polynesian demigod and of Hawaii's second-largest island. Moana's father, Tui, is named after a bird native to New Zealand, Temuera Morrison's home. Tala, Moana's grandmother, who tells the legend of Maui, Te Fiti and Te Ka at the start of the film, means "story" in Samoan and is the name of the goddess of the stars in Tagalog mythology. The giant crab Tamatoa means "trophies" in Maori.
- #024
In the Production Babies section of the credits, a star is shown next to the name "Cooper." This was done to honor Cooper, the son of animation supervisor Malcon Pierce, who was born during production but sadly passed away before the film's release.
- #025
Auli'i Cravalho said she did not meet Dwayne Johnson until all the actors had finished their voice recordings and they took a photo together.
- #026
When Maui turns into a shark's head, his stomach tattoo transforms into him as the shark's head grips his hook.
- #027
After Maui breaks his hook, and before Moana calls Te Ka to him with the heart, Maui performs the haka, a traditional Maori war cry.
- #028
Apart from Moana, no human character meets Maui.
- #029
Moana appeared as a film titled "Meowana" in Zootopia (2016).
- #030
Pua and Heihei were nearly cut from the film because of an internal belief that they did not help much in the story. Adam Green suggested that Heihei could be stupid, written to contrast with Pua's innocence. John Musker liked the idea but gave Green a very narrow time frame, since the film was moving forward in production and the work usually took about four weeks. Green finished it in two weeks, and the characters stayed in the film.
- #031
Lin-Manuel Miranda said The Little Mermaid (1989) inspired him to become a songwriter for this kind of film. Interestingly, both The Little Mermaid (1989) and Moana (2016) were directed by the famous directing duo of John Musker and Ron Clements.
- #032
When Moana strikes the drum of the ancient ship found in the cave on her home island, she has a vision of her ancestors voyaging the seas, including an example of navigating by the stars. The constellation Orion, as seen from the southern hemisphere, is close to the horizon. This is the only clue to the film's geographical setting.
- #033
To find Maui, Moana follows a star pattern resembling Maui's fishhook. "Maui's Fishhook" is a real-life constellation in some Polynesian cultures. In Western cultures it is called Scorpius, and the hook is likened to a scorpion's tail. The real Fishhook/Scorpius does not resemble the star pattern shown in the film at all.
- #034
The shell Moana places on the rock tower makes her the 16th chief of Motonui.
- #035
At the start of the film, while Moana's grandmother tells the story, she unrolls two scrolls downward. One of them shows the giant crab Tamatoa, whom Moana and Maui will encounter later in the film.
- #036
This is Alan Tudyk's fifth consecutive Disney animated feature, after Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014) and Zootopia (2016).
- #037
Te Ka means "The Fiery" in various Polynesian languages, while Te Fiti means "The Shiny/Shining."
- #038
Dwayne Johnson had always wanted to appear in a feature-length Disney animated film and to work with directors John Musker and Ron Clements. He said he loved Aladdin (1992) when it came out, and that his daughter loved it and The Little Mermaid (1989).
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