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Moana suggests going beyond the island's reef with her pet pig, Pua, 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 father and mother, try to keep her away from the ocean to prepare her to become the island's chief. He lost both the heart and his magical giant fishhook 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. This caused Te Fiti to disintegrate, and Maui was attacked offshore by Te Kā, a volcanic demon. Maui, the trickster, shape-shifting demigod of the wind and sea and master of sailing, stole the heart to give humanity the power of creation. On the Polynesian island of Motunui, the inhabitants worshiped 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, after Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. The film went on to gross over $645 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised its animation, music, and vocal performances. Moana premiered during the AFI Fest at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on November 14, 2016, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 23. The plot is original, but takes inspiration from Polynesian myths.
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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. Set in ancient Polynesia, the film tells the story of Moana, the strong-willed daughter of a chief of a coastal village, who is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with the goddess Te Fiti. It features original songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, and Mark Mancina, and an orchestral score also composed by Mancina.
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The film introduces Auliʻi Cravalho as the voice of Moana and also features the ensemble 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, from a screenplay written by Jared Bush, and a story by Clements, Musker, Williams, Hall, Pamela Ribon, and the writing team of Aaron and Jordan Kandell. Moana (also known as Vaiana or Oceania in some markets) is a 2016 American computer-animated musical action-adventure fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.
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