Moana is one of my top favorite Disney movies. The songs, action scenes, lessons, and setting just hit everything I desired in a Disney film. We get a princess with no prince mixed in. Frozen tried to do that, but still had a love interest.
Unlike a ton of Disney princess flicks, Moana is a 🏅story of self-discovery, not romantic love. We even get a princess with a realistic body: somebody short and not hour-glass shaped. Also don’t even get me started on Maui, my favorite character⛎. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson voicing him was so perfect.
The study of Polynesia🌟n culture and the amount of work put into the special effects was a ton of work for Disney that resulted in a movie that gained a lot of respect for its diversity, realism, and 🌊animation.
To get the movie to its final product though, there were tons of makeovers. Plot, characters, and how people looked were definitely not the same as they were in previous drafts of Moana. Part of this list shows some of those unexpected ideas that th♋ankfully did not make it to the final product.
Also this is Disney, and Disney loves its Easter Eggs. Moana is full of subtle homages to past Disney movies such as The Little Mermaid, Frozen, and even Wreck-it-Ralph. Of course those 🎉little discoveries are on this list as well!
25 Inspired by Stars 𝓰
. In Hawaii,ꦆ they see the Scorpio constellation as Maui’s fishhook. It’s pretty neat to think about how different cultures looked at the sky and saw different shapes, which told different stories.
Did you know the fishhook has a name? It’s Manaiakalani!
Like how Maui described in his song, “You’re Welcome,” the actual Maui from Polynesian myth used his hook to lasso the sun to make days longer and bring up islands out o🅷f the sea for people to live on. Who can blame Maui for being full ofꦬ himself when he’s done all that?
It’s due to the Greeks and Babylonians that t𒐪he Maui’s fishhook his also known as Scorpio. I guess the sc🍷orpion’s stinger and fishhook would be the same stars in this case.
24 Maui Could’ve Been Bald 📖
Demigod Maui rocks a fine head of curls in the movie, but did you know he almost didn’t? In fact, in previous drafts...he was bald! Moana directors .
However, when they showed a bald Maui concept to Disney’s Polynesian cultural advisors, they didn’t approve. "The advisers said, 'Maui isn’t bald. He has this long, rich hair that’s part of his mana (spiritual energy),” Clements said. “And we all🙈 said, OK, Maui will hไave hair.”
With hair being probably one of the more difficult aspects to animate, I guess the animation team and budget suddenly had more of a challenge. However thꦯey succeeded, giving Maui♏ his beautiful curls that would even make “The Rock” envious.
23 🌄 Heihei🌺 was originally sassy
Princesses get animal sidekicks. It’s a Disney rule. Disney has given us Mushu from Mulan, Jacque and Gus from Cinderella, Meeko from Pocahontas, Sven from Frozen, Flounder from The Little Mermaid, Pascal and Maximus from Tangled, and Rajah and Abu from Aladdin, while Moana was gifted with a chicken.
Heihei the chicken stands out from these sidekicks due to being extraordinarily dumb.
However, that wasn’t the plan from the beginning. Team Moana saved the chicken by dumbing him down as far as they could. There was a rumor that Maui saying “The chicken lives!” at the end of the movie is an inside joke for the Disney team, as they had a l⛎ot of trouble getting the chicken to stay in the film.
22 Mini Maui
Maui’s tattoos detail the his achievements and backstory. Though one specific tattoo appears to have a mind of its own, a “Mini Maui.” Though it doesn’t talk (thank God), it does have a lot to say to Maui in Moana. Maui seems to underst💙and Mini Maui through hand gestures and body language alon💜e.
This Mini Maui appears to actually be 𓆏a sort of conscience for Maui. Like Pinocchio’s Jiminy Cricket, Mini Maui tries to steer this demigod on the right path. This isn’t a coincidence,
I have a question though, what achievement did Maui have that gave him Mini Maui? That is the real secret I want to know. If all of this tattoos are earned, what earned him a consciou༒s being running around on his skin?
21 𓂃 From Hair to Sea ൲
So much animation power went into the ocean in Moana. Since the sea is an actual character and most of the story takes place on the sea, the animation team ha🌠d their work cut out for them. The splashing, the waving, and the rising and falling all seem like a hard time.
The last time an animation team had their work cut out for them was with Rapunzel’s long hair from Tangled.
. I suppose i꧟t does have a flow to it that it sort of like water. If I was Rapun💯zel when she had long hair, I’d never want to visit the beach. Imagine what the wind would do to it!
20 Moana Used to be a Sꦬecondary Character ꧋
Early concept ideas for the story of . Moana was going to just be a s🌄econdary character that was on a mission to save⛎ her love interest. Talk about a different story!
When Ron Clements and John Musker actually visited the Pacific Islands for story inspiration, theirౠ idea for Maui to be the main character changed. They were fascinated with the people’s connection to the ocean and respect for nature, so they changed nearly their en😼tire story.
Thank goodness too! We have enough love stories in Disney, so we didn’t need Moana to be on a mission fꦡor love. It was refreshing for a princess to take on an adventure more for the world and her people.
19 Only "The Rock" 𒁃
To any who wanted to audition to be the voice of Maui, they were out of luck. Disney didn't open up auditions for Maui — they only wanted Johnson, and reached out to him directly. “It wasn’t Dwayne right at the very beginning but very soon thereafter,” . “(Maui was a) demi-god who was bigger than life, a charismatic figure who did these amazing deeds. And he was pan-Pacific; he wasn't any one 🎐culture.
“As we developed it, we knew that Dwayne Johnson was part-Samoan, and it just seemed (to fit) his charisma, and the fact that he's bigger than life too. Why not hire a real demi-god?”
Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton and Moana composer) apparently wrote “You’re Welcome🌟,” specially with Dwayne in mind too!
18 Flounder in “Yꦍou’re Welcom🧸e”
During the colorful and different style montage in Maui’s song, “You’re Welcome.” The directors couldn’t help themselves of course, since they also worked on The Little Mermaid. I guess these directors real𝔉ly love the ocean huh?
Easter Eggs are innocent little cameo appearances and are only taken with a grain of salt. They aren’t serious or essential at all. In fact, isn’t The Little Mermaid onܫ the o✃ther side of the ocean in the Atlantic? I guess Flounder is far from home.
Flounder does fit in with the rest of the fish though, doesn’t he? Someone who hasn’t seen The Little Mermaid wouldn't have known any better!
17 💖 Weird Place for a Reinde෴er
Maui struggles with his shapeshifting once he gets his fishhook back, which leads to a lot of comedic transformation accidents. One such transformation is to the animal sidekick from Frozen, Sven. I’d be surprised if Maui even knew what a reindeer is! Being a demigod gives him a lot of excuses for this little hiccup though. We heard ru𓆉mors that there's also an 🌟Olaf cameo, but no one can find him. Maybe he melted?
Unlike The Little Mermaid, Frozen has no commonality with Moana’s setting. Excep,t like Moana, it follows the current trend of less romance-centered Disney movies and focuses a little more on identity and clever twists. Other than that though, they are pretty much on the other side of th𒆙e wo💙rld.
16 Odd Tapa Cloth ღ
𓆏Mostly recognized as a Polynesian craft, tapa cloth is a softened bark that are dyed with different designs. Disney’s cultural team worked hard to show Polynesians as historically accurate as possible, so seeing tapa cloths around Moana’s village was very cool to see.
In the credits of Moana, we get to see a tapa cloth that isn’t historically accurate, as it’s Wreck-it-Ralph! Tha꧑t’s him 2,000 years before his time! Did someone in the vision just have a vision of the future and dye his figu🌌re onto the cloth?
Another odd Easter Egg happened in the Wreck-it-Ralph 2 trailer, where you see a kid who looks exactly like baby Moana. It’s interesting because Moana and Wreck-it-Ralph cannot be further ap෴art in terms of themes. There's a video game world on one end and the culture of the Pacific Islands on the other.