Film
Moana
A shipwrecked-chief's-daughter epic dressed up as a Disney musical, Moana is gorgeous, funny, and unexpectedly moving about identity and inheritance. Auliʻi Cravalho's voice carries real steel, Dwayne Johnson's Maui is a comic highlight, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs actually earn their emotional beats. Great for families, but the ocean-as-character stuff and 'know who you are' theme land for adults too.
If you liked this
Encanto2021
Same Disney songwriting DNA (Lin-Manuel Miranda again), same theme of a young woman carrying family legacy and expectation, wrapped in vivid, specific culture rather than generic fairy-tale Europe.
But More interior and melancholic than Moana — less swashbuckling adventure, more family therapy set to music.

Lilo & Stitch2002
Another Pacific-set Disney film that treats island culture, family, and ohana with genuine affection rather than tourist-brochure gloss, plus real emotional weight under the jokes.
But Tonally scrappier and weirder — alien-invasion slapstick sits oddly against its sadder foster-family core.

Raya and the Last Dragon2021no page yet
A near-identical structure — a determined young woman on a mythic quest across water, guided by an unlikely companion, to heal a broken world — with Southeast Asian mythology instead of Polynesian.
But The world-building is denser and the trust-your-enemies message gets a bit heavy-handed by the end.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Whale Rider2003
Both are 'chieftain's daughter answers an oceanic destiny denied to her by tradition' stories — one Disney's composite Polynesian fantasy, the other an unvarnished Maori drama from the culture Moana borrowed from.
A live-action New Zealand drama about a Maori girl believed destined to lead her people, defying a chief who insists only boys can inherit — Moana's exact myth-structure, played for real.
But No songs, no jokes, no CGI spectacle — it's quiet, grounded, and asks you to sit with real cultural weight rather than adventure thrills.

More like this (8)
How to Train Your Dragon2010
Same coming-of-age engine — an outsider kid who bonds with a mythic creature and defies their people's fear-based traditions — with equally spectacular flight/ocean sequences.
But Boy-and-his-dragon framing rather than Moana's female-led destiny arc, if that's what drew you in.

The Little Mermaid1989
The Disney ocean musical that started this whole lineage — a headstrong girl, the sea as both threat and home, and songs that still hold up thirty-plus years later.
But Ariel's arc is about romance rather than leadership or self-discovery, which changes the emotional centre of gravity.

Brave2012
Pixar's take on a headstrong chief's daughter clashing with tradition and her parents, with gorgeous Scottish highlands standing in for Moana's ocean as the untamed force she must reckon with.
But Darker, quieter, and less musical — closer to a fable than a big adventure spectacle.

Kubo and the Two Strings2016
A mythic quest across a stunning natural world, stop-motion instead of CGI, with the same sense that ancestry and storytelling are forces you can literally call on for help.
But Considerably darker and stranger — grief and death are front and centre, not softened for younger kids.

Mulan1998
Another Disney heroine who defies her role and her father's expectations to answer a call others think is beyond her, with a similarly stirring, adventure-forward musical backbone.
But War-movie stakes replace ocean-voyage wonder — it's a harder-edged, more militaristic story.

Coco2017
Pixar's most culturally specific film, built around ancestry, music, and a headstrong kid defying family tradition to find their true calling — Moana's emotional cousin in a different mythology.
But Leans harder into grief and mortality than Moana ever does; bring tissues, not just popcorn.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea1954
Same studio, same instinct to make the ocean itself a mythic force and antagonist — just decades earlier, with practical effects and none of the songs.
Disney's own earlier ocean epic — live-action, Oscar-winning effects, a giant squid instead of a lava monster — proving the studio's fascination with the sea as a character long predates CGI.
But Slower, talkier, and aimed at adults of its era — Captain Nemo broods rather than sings, and it shows its 1950s age.

Song of the Sea2014
Both hinge on a child hearing the ocean's literal call against a grieving parent's wishes — Cartoon Saloon's quieter, sadder answer to Disney's spectacle.
An Irish hand-drawn animated film about a child selkie whose call to the sea threatens to unravel her family, told through folk mythology as gorgeous and specific as Moana's Polynesian one.
But Slower and more melancholic, with hand-painted 2D visuals instead of Disney's polished CGI — a folk tale, not a blockbuster.

People
Cast
Auliʻi CravalhoMoana (voice)
Dwayne JohnsonMaui (voice)
Rachel HouseGramma Tala (voice)
Temuera MorrisonChief Tui (voice)
Jemaine ClementTamatoa (voice)
Nicole ScherzingerSina (voice)
Alan TudykHeihei / Villager #3 (voice)- Louise BushToddler Moana (voice)
Oscar KightleyFisherman (voice)
Troy PolamaluVillager #1 (voice)- Puanani CravalhoVillager #2 (voice)
Lin-Manuel MirandaAdditional Voices (voice)
Directing
- Chris WilliamsCo-Director
- Don HallCo-Director
- John MuskerDirector
- Ron ClementsDirector
- Rob DresselLayout
Writing
- Jared BushScreenplay
- Aaron KandellStory
- Chris WilliamsStory
- Don HallStory
- John MuskerStory
- Jordan KandellStory
- Pamela RibonStory
- Ron ClementsStory
- David G. Derrick Jr.Story Artist
Production
- Terri DouglasADR Voice Casting
- Nicole P. HearonAssociate Producer
- Jamie Sparer RobertsCasting
- Simon WardCasting Assistant
- Sarah RaoufpurCasting Associate
- Bérénice RobinsonExecutive In Charge Of Post Production
- John LasseterExecutive Producer
- Frank William KnittelFinance
- Linda Y. MatsuokaFinance
- Louis ChiengFinance
- Tom BodyFinance
- Asolelei To'alepaiLocation Casting
- Christina AsherLocation Casting
- Fiona CollinsLocation Casting
- Rachel WhitleyLocation Casting
- Osnat ShurerProducer
- Caitlin CoonsProduction Coordinator
- Danielle BeversonProduction Coordinator
- Derek ManzellaProduction Coordinator
- Jasmine GonzalezProduction Coordinator
- Kit TurleyProduction Coordinator
- Laura M. MeredithProduction Coordinator
- Melissa GenosheProduction Coordinator
- Nicholas EllingsworthProduction Coordinator
- Nicole P. HearonProduction Manager
- Ryan GillelandProduction Manager
- Yvett MerinoProduction Manager
- Brandon HolmesProduction Supervisor
- Charlyn Go-GiampaProduction Supervisor
- Christopher KrackerProduction Supervisor
- James E. HasmanProduction Supervisor
- Julie BanerProduction Supervisor
- Kelly EisertProduction Supervisor
- Kristin Leigh YadamecProduction Supervisor
- Leah LathamProduction Supervisor
- Marisa X. CastroProduction Supervisor
- Mayka MeiProduction Supervisor
- Nicholas RussellProduction Supervisor
- Ruth StrotherProduction Supervisor
- Scott SakamotoProduction Supervisor
- Steph GortzProduction Supervisor
- Stephanie HachemProduction Supervisor
Recommended by
Encanto, Coco, The Little Mermaid, Hercules, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Brave, Kon-Tiki, Lilo & Stitch, Mulan, The Book of Life, Pocahontas, Tangled, Frozen, Finding Dory