Matangi aids Moana as Nalo being defeated means she can be free from the clam she is in. She reveals she has Maui and had him here to assure her and Moana would reunite, before sending them to where they have to go. As they continued their journey after retrieving Maui’s Fish Hook from Tamatoa, Moana and Heihei watched Maui regain control of his shapeshifting abilities.
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 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.
Films
- A visit from her ancestors tells her she must break the curse imposed by the power hungry god Nalo by bringing the island of Motufetu to reconnect the people.
- Born on the island village of Motunui, Moana is the eldest daughter of Tui and Sina, granddaughter of Tala, and the older sister of Simea, with an inherited love for the ocean and voyaging.
- She asks him to teach her, and after he refuses at first, the ocean uses one of the Kakamora’s blow darts to numb the demigod, leaving him unable to sail.
- She wears a cropped red tube top around her upper torso, starting below her arms and ending above her midriff, complete with two strings of cowrie shells wrapped around her.
- Though the villagers were ticked off by Heihei’s stupidity and wanted to eat him, Moana believed there was more to Heihei and convinced her people to keep him around.
- She reveals she has Maui and had him here to assure her and Moana would reunite, before sending them to where they have to go.
A Kakamora named Kotu helps the crew paralyze a gargantuan monster clam inside of which is Matangi’s lair. While the crew finds Maui, Moana meets Matangi and learns that she is not happy serving Nalo. Matangi helps Moana escape and reunite with Maui and her friends, before sending them to where Nalo is. Moana shared a close relationship with her pet pig, Pua whom she has known since she was a preteen.
Journey of Water
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.
Voice
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.
Short films
- She shows him the heart and asks him to help her return it, but Maui 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.
- They confront Te Kā, who Moana manages to outsmart in order to make it past Te Fiti’s barrier islands.
- Set three years later, it follows Moana reuniting with the demigod Maui and assembling a wayfinding crew to find the lost island of Motufetu, break its curse, and reconnect the people of the ocean.
- 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’s grandmother, Tala, tells the story of Maui, the shape-shifting demigod of the wind and sea and master of sailing who stole goddess Te Fiti’s heart.
- Tala, on the other hand, was very affectionate with Moana, trying to encourage her granddaughter to not only accept her responsibilities as future chief, but her love for the ocean and sailing.
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.
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.
Moana of Motunui is the title character of the 2016 Walt Disney Animation Studios film Moana. Created by directors Ron Clements and John Musker, Moana is voiced by Hawaiian actress and singer Auliʻi Cravalho. Moana returns in the sequel film Moana 2, which premiered in November 2024, again voiced by Cravalho, as well as a live-action remake film, in 2026, in which she will be portrayed by Catherine Laga’aia. When Moana got into another argument with her father, after attempting to convince him to help restore the Heart in attempt to save Motunui, Moana and her father were informed that Tala was suddenly dying, much to their shock. Upon approaching Tala’s deathbed, Moana was saddened to watch her grandmother die before her eyes and did not want to leave her side. However, after Tala urged her to leave Motunui, find Maui, and restore Moana the Heart of Te Fiti, Moana decided to fulfill her grandmother’s dying wish and as she left to begin her journey, she saw Tala being reincarnated into a giant manta ray.
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.
Lego Disney Princess: The Castle Quest
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.
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.