Moana suggests going beyond the island's reef to find more fish and find out what is happening, but Tui forbids it. Sixteen years later, a blight strikes the island, killing vegetation and shrinking the fish catch. Tui and Sina, Moana's mother, try to keep her away from the ocean to prepare her to become the island's chief. He loses both his magical giant fishhook and the heart to the depths of the sea.Ī thousand years later, the ocean chooses Moana, daughter of Motunui's chief Tui, to return the heart to Te Fiti. However, Te Fiti disintegrates, and Maui is attacked offshore by Te Kā, a volcanic demon. Maui, the shape-shifting demigod of the wind and sea and master of sailing, steals the heart to give humanity the power of creation. On the Polynesian island of Motunui, the inhabitants worship the goddess of nature Te Fiti, who brought life to the ocean long ago using a pounamu stone as her heart and the source of her power. At the 89th Academy Awards, the film received two nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (" How Far I'll Go"). Along with Zootopia, it marked the first time since 2002 that Walt Disney Animation Studios released two feature films in the same year, since Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. The film went on to gross over $645 million worldwide. Moana was released theatrically in the United States on November 23, 2016, to positive reviews from critics, with particular praise going towards its animation, music, and vocal performances. The plot is original, but takes inspiration from Polynesian myths. When a blight strikes her island, Moana sets sail in search of Maui, a legendary demigod, in the hope of returning the relic to Te Fiti and saving her people. The film tells the story of Moana, 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. The film features original songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina, and an orchestral score also composed by Mancina. The film introduces Auliʻi Cravalho as Moana and also features the voices of Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, and Alan Tudyk. The 56th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, co-directed by Chris Williams and Don Hall, and produced by Osnat Shurer. Moana (also known as Vaiana or Oceania in some markets) is a 2016 American 3D computer-animated musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.