Moana

Disney assembled what they called the Oceanic Story Trust — a group of approximately twenty scholars, cultural practitioners, navigators, visual artists, and language experts from across the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. The group met with the filmmakers multiple times over the course of production, reviewing story materials, character designs, and cultural details for accuracy and sensitivity. The trust advised on everything from the design of the tattoos on Maui's body (which tell the story of his deeds, consistent with actual Pacific tattoo traditions) to the design of the voyaging canoes (which were modeled on actual traditional Polynesian double-hulled waʻa kaulua), to the navigation techniques Moana uses (which are based on real traditional Polynesian wayfinding methods using stars, ocean swells, and bird behavior). Opetaia Foa'i, the founder of the pan-Pacific music group Te Vaka, who co-wrote the film's songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda, was also an important cultural consultant and his Te Vaka compositions form the foundation of the film's distinctive musical sound.

Maui is one of the most significant and widely revered figures in Polynesian mythology, appearing in various forms across the mythological traditions of Hawaii, New Zealand (Māori), Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and many other Pacific Island cultures. He is generally depicted as a demigod of remarkable power who performs a series of epic feats for the benefit of humanity — in different traditions, he fishes up islands from the ocean floor using a magical fishhook, snares the sun to slow its movement and give people more daylight, steals fire for humanity, and in some traditions attempts to grant immortality by entering the body of the goddess of death. The film's Maui is recognizably derived from this mythological tradition — his fishhook, his ability to transform into various animals, his ego, and his fundamental commitment to humanity's welfare are all consistent with various Pacific Maui traditions — though the specific details of the story are original to the film. Dwayne Johnson's casting was widely celebrated, as he is of Samoan descent and the role represents one of the most prominent mainstream cinematic representations of Pacific Islander culture and mythology.

Moana 2 was released in November 2024, with Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson returning to voice Moana and Maui. The sequel follows Moana as she receives a call from her wayfinding ancestors to journey to a far-off Polynesian region that has been separated from her people for centuries, embarking on an even greater and more dangerous ocean voyage than in the original. The film was initially developed as a Disney+ television series before being expanded into a theatrical feature film. It was directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller — notably the first Pacific Islander to co-direct a Disney feature. The film grossed over $220 million in its opening weekend in North America alone, becoming the highest-grossing animated opening weekend of all time at that point, and went on to earn over $700 million globally in its first weeks of release.