History Trivia / Moana

* ReferencedBy: In ''Literature/BothCanBeTrue'', Daniel's mom obsessively watches Disney movies after separating from her husband. When she puts on ''Moana'', Daniel leaves the room before Moana's grandmother dies so he won't cry over it again.

* NonSingingVoice: Moana's father's voice is spoken by Temuera Morrison but sung by Christopher Jackson, making this the first Disney film since ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' to use this trope. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRYPYStuEvI Mind you, Temuera can actually sing.]]

* CashCowFranchise: More ''Moana'' merchandise is sold than that of ''Franchise/{{Frozen}}''. It helps that, unlike ''Frozen'', it appeals to both young boys[[note]]Not just older male viewers aware of the GirlShowGhetto phenomenon, who were a PeripheryDemographic for ''Frozen''.[[/note]] and young girls, since it has one female lead and one male lead.

** The directors originally wanted to make a film based on Terry Pratchet's ''Literature/{{Mort}}'', but a litany of problems meant that they had to abandon the idea and focus on a diffrent film, the end result being ''Moana''.

** With the exception of Heihei (who is, mind you, a chicken with no dialogue) and the elderly villager who wants to ''eat'' Heihei (both played by Alan Tudyk), all of the film's speaking roles are performed by actors with Hawaiian, Samoan, or Māori ancestry, and the only singing done by non-Islander performers are Christopher Jackson, who sings Chief Tui's parts, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who sings the English portions of "We Know The Way".
** Wrestling/DwayneJohnson (Maui) is Samoan, on his mother's side; Oscar Kightley (who plays a fisherman) is Samoan, and former Pittsburgh Steelers player Troy Polamalu (the villager with the leaking roof) is also Samoan.

** Rachel House (Grandma Tala), Creator/TemueraMorrison (Tui), and Jemaine Clement (Tamatoa) have Maori ancestry.

** Auli'i Cravalho voices the title character in the original English as well as in the Hawaiian dub. Same for Nicole Scherzinger (Sina).

** ''Moana'' marks Christopher Jackson's third time working with Lin-Manuel Miranda, since both previously appeared in the original Broadway productions of Miranda's ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' and ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}''. Phillipa Soo who was also in the original Broadway Cast of Hamilton is credited as an "additional voice".

** There are a few songs that never made it into the final product. For example, Lin-Manuel Miranda's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os4SoXATqLA Unstoppable]]. (WARNING! The song includes spoilers for the movie.) Although some parts of those songs did end up being used; the instrumentals in the beginning of "You're Welcome" are very similar to "Unstoppable", and part of the lyrics of "More" ended up in "How Far I'll Go" (the "Every turn I take..." bit).

* CashCowFranchise: More ''Moana'' merchandise is sold than that of ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}''. It helps that, unlike ''Frozen'', it appeals to both young boys[[note]]Not just older male viewers aware of the GirlShowGhetto phenomenon, who were a PeripheryDemographic for ''Frozen''.[[/note]] and young girls, since it has one female lead and one male lead.

* NamesTheSame: Crosses over with GeniusBonus and MeaningfulName. Motonui has a RealLife counterpart [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motu_Nui which is owned by Chile]], which means "Big Island". It's part of none other than Rapa Nui ("Easter Island," to Westerners), which perhaps is another example of ShownTheirWork, as Rapa Nui ''is'' Polynesian.

* PlayingGertrude: Rachel House (Gramma Tala) is actually ''11 years younger'' than Temuera Morrison (Chief Tui).

* ImageSource:
** AllAnimationIsDisney (bottom-right: poster)
** BornUnderTheSail
** CluckingFunny
** DisneyAcidSequence
** LivingLava
** MotherGoddess
** OceanAwe

* QuoteSource:
** FakinMacGuffin
** SemiDivine
** StoryboardBody

** In Taika Waititi's first draft of the script, Moana had nine older brothers who were the ones who taught her how to sail (making her the youngest child and [[OutnumberedSibling only girl]]) and who she had to go and rescue.

* HeReallyCanAct: Some people were apprehensive of Creator/DwayneJohnson cast as Maui. Turns out his heart was ''really'' in it, and he did listen to all the coaches and other people to show that yes, he ''can'' act.

* RenamedToAvoidAssociation: Both the movie and the character were renamed to ''Vaiana'' in most of Europe and parts of Asia to avoid a trademark conflict with a cosmetics brand.

* CelebrityVoiceActor: In the Norwegian dub, Tamatoa is voiced by famous and seasoned singer Bjørn Eidsvåg, making it his first time ever voicing in an animated film.

** The film reunites John Musker and Ron Clements, the legendary directing team behind ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog''.

** With the exception of Heihei (who is, mind you, a chicken with no dialogue) and the elderly villager who wants to ''eat'' Heihei (both played by Alan Tudyk), all of the film's speaking roles are performed by actors with Hawaiian, Samoan, or Māori ancestry, and the only singing done by non-Polynesian performers are Christopher Jackson, who sings Chief Tui's parts, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who sings the English portions of "We Know The Way".
** Wrestling/DwayneJohnson (Maui) is half Samoan; Oscar Kightley (who plays a fisherman) is Samoan, and former Pittsburgh Steelers player Troy Polamalu (the villager with the leaking roof) is also Samoan.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Part of why Creator/DwayneJohnson agreed to the role was the thrill of seeing his Polynesian ancestry so beautifully depicted in a major motion picture, and he admitted to crying TearsOfJoy over it many, many times during production.
* CashCowFranchise: More ''Moana'' merchandise is sold than that of ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}''. It helps that unlike ''Frozen'', it appeals to both young boys[[note]]Not just older male viewers aware of the GirlShowGhetto phenomenon, who were a PeripheryDemographic for ''Frozen''.[[/note]] and young girls, since it has one female lead and one male lead.

* NamesTheSame: Crosses over with GeniusBonus and MeaningfulName. Motonui has a RealLife counterpart [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motu_Nui which is owned by Chile]], which means "Big Island". It's part of none other than Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, which perhaps is another example of ShownTheirWork, as Rapa Nui ''is'' Polynesian.

** This is John Musker and Ron Clements' first time directing a computer-animated movie, albeit one with a lot of hand-drawn 2D effects, after having directed several hand-drawn ones for two decades.

* RenamedToAvoidAssociation: Both the movie and the character were renamed to Vaiana in most of Europe and parts of Asia to avoid a trademark conflict with a cosmetics brand.

** The original idea was for the film to branch away from the Disney Princess template and focus entirely on Maui, with the story being a loose conglomeration of a few of the legends about him. Then the crew actually traveled to Polynesia and became so fascinated with the culture that Moana was created as the new focus character.

** The directors originally wanted to make a film based on Terry Pratchet's ''Literature/{{Mort}}'', but a litany of problems meant that they had to abandon the idea and focus on a diffrent film, the end result being Moana.

** Rachel House (Grandma Tala), Temuera Morrison (Tui), and Jemaine Clement (Tamatoa) have Maori ancestry.

** In early designs, Maui had a shaven head. However, as the team did research, they gave him a thick mane of hair to represent his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana mana]]

** One scene originally had Moana taking out her anger on some coconuts by batting them out into the sea with a stick like baseballs. This was changed to her throwing sticks when the film's oceanic consultants pointed out that wasting her island's most valuable resource on a temper tantrum made her less sympathetic.
** In early drafts, Moana was going to be the biggest Maui fan and would've been slightly disappointed in seeing where her idol ended up.