100 Facts About Moana

Aloha my wonderful merfolk!

Where do I begin to talk about Moana. Disney just keep getting better and better. Personally, in my opinion, I rank this movie higher than Frozen. Sorry but I feel Frozen got a lot of hype it perhaps shouldn’t have gotten? It’s good but Moana is SO GOOD! I love that shes Polynesian, I love the story about getting the heart of Te Fiti back in order to save her island. The whole story is fantastic, the music is so good and the characters are brilliant too. Moana is up there with Tangled when it comes to modern Princess stories. Sorry, I mean Cheifs daughter.

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1. Moana was released November 23^rd
2. It is the 56^th film in the Disney Animated Feature Canon.
3. Inner Workings was the short film that accompanied Moana theatrically.
4. This film is considered to be a part of the Disney Revival era.
5. Dwayne Johnson would repeatedly ask the other voice actors present if he was giving a good performance due to his annoyance at celebrities who are cast in animated movies and voice their characters badly.
6. Lin-Manuel Miranda has said the character of Tamatoa the Giant Crab was a tribute to David Bowie.
7. The genies lamp from Aladdin can be seen on Tamatoa’s shell.
8. When he first gets his hook and is trying to shapeshift, Maui changes into various animals including Sven from Frozen.
9. Maui’s tattoos are all hand-drawn.
10. This is the first full-length Disney animated feature film since Winnie the Pooh in 2011 to feature pure hand-drawn animation.
11. The spiral on Moana’s necklace and on the sail of her boat is called a koru.
12. The villager who suggests cooking Hei Hei is voiced by Alan Tudyk.
13. He also provided Hei Hei’s vocal effects.
14. Lin-Manuel Miranda signed on to write the music for this film before his Broadway musical Hamilton became a smash hit.
15. He would occasionally chat with the crew through skype whilst backstage, sometimes still in costume.
16. This is the first Disney film with a largely Polynesian cast.
17. Moana was featured in Zootropolis as a film called Meowana.
18. In real life, the decorator crab glues mollusc shells and invertebrates, like sea anemones and sponges, onto its shell.
19. John Musker and Ron Clements researched for months and immersed themselves in the Polynesian culture in order to make the film respectful to Polynesian culture and mythology.
20. The tattoos on Chief Tui’s abdomen are the same tattoos worn by pro-wrestler, Peter Fanene Maivia, Dwayne Johnson’s maternal grandfather.
21. When Maui transforms into shark head Maui, his stomach tattoo changes to him with a shark head holding his hook.
22. Many of the characters are Pacific island language names or words.
23. Moana means Ocean and Blue in both Hawaiian and Maori.
24. Vaiana, the title of the European and Asian releases, means fresh water.
25. Hei Hei means chicken in Maori.
26. Pua, Moana’s pet pig, means offspring or flower and may be short for Pua’a which is pig.
27. To find Maui, Moana follows a star pattern that resembles Maui’s hook.
28. Maui’s fishhook is a real-lfe constellation in some Polynesian cultures.
29. In Western culture it’s called Scorpius and the hook is likened to a scorpions tail.
30. He real fishhook/scorpions tale looks nothing like the star pattern shown in the movie.
31. This is one of the few animated Disney fims in which neither Frank Welker nor Dee Bradley Baker supply the animal vocals.
32. This is the first full-length computer animated feature fil written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements.
33. This is the fifth consecutive Disney animated feature for Alan Tudyk.
34. Dwayne Johnson had always wanted to work with John Musker and Ron Clements.
35. Due to the newer practie of theatres having late shows the evening before the official release date, the film was first shown on lead actress Auli’I Cravalho’s 16^th
36. When Moana strikes the drum on the ancient hip in the cave on her home island she has a vision of her ancestors roaming the sea’s and the constellation of Orion can clearly be seen.
37. It is positioned in the sky so as only someone in the southern hemisphere could see it in that position
38. This is the only clue as to the film’s geographic setting,
39. Starting in December 2014, Disney hosted a global casting call for the role of Moana.
40. Thousands of girls auditioned for the role through the internet and real-life casting calls in different locations.
41. In Maui’s song ‘You’re Welcome’ he picks a coconut and rolls it down his arms and uses his elbow to flip it up to Moana, just like Aladdin does with an apple for Jasmine in Aladdin.
42. 2016 was the first time Disney had released two animated feature films the same year since 2002.
43. The original idea was to branch away from the Disney Princess template and focus entirely on Maui.
44. The crew travelled to Polynesia and became so fascinated with the culture that Moana was created as the new focus character.
45. Alan Tudyk is the only cast member who isn’t of Polynesian descent.
46. This is the first Polynesian-themed Disney animated feature film since Lilo and Stitch.
47. Moana island is called Motunui, which in several Polynesian languages, Motu means Island and Nui means big.
48. At least two real-life Pacific Islands are named Motu-Nui.
49. Rock that peek out from under sand and vegetation on Motunui is solidified Pahoehoe, Hawaiian for ‘smooth, unbroken lava’.
50. That means Motunui is a volcanic island that has risen or been pulled out of the sea.
51. When Moana sits up in the sand at Maui’s island, the scene was copied from Disney’s Frozen.
52. The animators used the exact same scene as when Anna wakes up in her bedroom.
53. One of the Kakamora has face-paint very similar to Baymax in Big hero 6.
54. This was Dwayne Johnsons first musical.
55. As Maui jumps onto the Realm of Monsters he shouts ‘Cheehoo’ which is the Samoan Holler, an expression of excitement.
56. This is the first Disney animated film to use the Samoan Holler.
57. It can easily be mistaken for the Goofy Holler which has shown up in many Disney films.
58. Different actors provide Tui’s singing voice and speaking voices.
59. This is the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film to do this since Mulan.
60. Moana began development in 2011.
61. A fallen statue of Maui on a desert island seems to allude to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s classic poem Ozymandias.
62. Villagers are seen beating a rug which resembles the magic carpet from Aladdin
63. Flounder makes an appearance in the background sketch graphic during the song ‘You’re Welcome’.
64. Maui says to Moana, ‘If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess’ which is a common theme for the heroine of a Disney story.
65. Moana’s father has a tattoo that is reminiscent of Dwayne Johnson’s Samoan tribal tattoos on his left pectoral muscle and left arm.
66. The first draft of the screenplay was written by Taika Waititi who would go on to direct Thor: Ragnarok.
67. During Moana’s vision of the voyagers, the leaders necklace appears to be a combination of the necklaces worn by Moana’s father and grandmother.
68. Two scenes in this movie reference Pocahontas.
69. Chief Tui echoes a scene in which a fatherly chief acknowledges his daughter by saying ‘it suits you’
70. In Tomatoa’s song ‘Shiny’, he mentioned Moana’s granny saying ‘listen to your heart’ also from Pocahontas.
71. Auli’I Cravalho and Nicole Scherzinger are both from Hawaiian.
72. While Moana sings ‘How far I’ll Go’ alongside Pua the pig, Pua ends up under a rug that has the same design as the Magic Carpet from Aladdin.
73. Fifth Harmony member Dinah jane auditioned for the role of Moana.
74. When Moana goes into the sea as a young child, a giant turtle swims past that resembles Squirt from Finding Nemo.
75. This is Auli’I Cravalho’s acting debut.
76. Te Fiti slightly resembles the Spring Sprite from the Firebird Suite segment in Fantasia 2000.
77. Te Ka slightly resembles the firebird that the sprite accidentally awakens.
78. This is Jermaine Clément’s fourth animated film.
79. Auli’I Cravalho said she didn’t meet Dwayne Johnson until they did a photo shoot, after all actors were done recording their voice work.
80. This is the second computer animated Disney feature film to use brief traditional animation.
81. This is the seventh Disney Animated Feature Film directed by John Musker and Ron Clements.
82. The whole kakamora chase sequence alludes to Mad Max: Fury Road.
83. This is the fourth Walt Disney Animation Studios Film in which the titles appear at the end.
84. In many European countries, the title and main character were changed to Vaiana to avoid referencing Italian actress Moana Pozzi.
85. The voice actors had to come back and re-record some of their lines.
86. Three rocks in Tamatoa’s lair make the shape of Mickey’s face.
87. This is the first film directed by John Musker and Ron Clements to have an oceanic setting since The Little Mermaid.
88. It’s the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film since Chicken Little to have different music accompanying the Disney logo at the start of the film.
89. This is the second time Dwayne Johnson has played a demi-god.
90. When baby Moana walks up to the ocean, she and the water both cock their head similarly to the way Kala and baby Tarzan do in Tarzan.
91. This is Dwayne Johnson’s third Disney movie.
92. This is also Jermaine Clement’s third Disney film.
93. Olaf’s nose from Frozen makes a short appearance when Moana is packing up the boat to leave.
94. His hand twig also appears to the right of the food container.
95. Moana is the second Disney princess to be part of a tribal civilization.
96. Doug Walker of Nostalgia Critic has to make a video responding to fan questions as to whether he played a part in the movie; it was simply a person with the same name.
97. All the characters in the movie are barefoot.
98. Moana wears the same outfit throughout the entire film.
99. No other human characters meet Maui except Moana.
100. The title character of Wreck-It Ralph has a cameo during the credits, possibly to anticipate Wreck-It Ralph 2.

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a mermaid be waiting for you, in mysterious fathoms below