Film
Moana
Disney reboots its own 2016 hit in live action, swapping hand-drawn ocean for photoreal CGI water and animatronic chickens. The songs, the wayfinding, the demigod tattoos, the giant crab — all present, all slightly heavier now that real light hits real (ish) faces. Dwayne Johnson returns as Maui; a new young lead carries Moana. Pleasant, familiar, aimed squarely at kids who loved the original and parents who'll happily watch it again.
If you liked this
Encanto2021
Same Disney engine — a girl, a magical inheritance, a family duty she didn't ask for — but sharper songs and a more interesting emotional knot at its centre. Lin-Manuel Miranda on excellent form.
But If you're Moana'd out on 'chosen girl saves her family's legacy' plots, this one runs the same shape again.

The Little Mermaid2023no page yet
The exact same experiment — beloved animated Disney musical rebuilt in live action, water and all — so you can compare notes on whether the trick works twice.
But If the live-action Moana didn't fully land for you, this has the identical strengths and identical wobble.
Life of Pi2012
A genuinely awe-inducing ocean voyage, gorgeous and strange, about a young person alone with the sea and something enormous and dangerous for company. Ang Lee's visuals still hold up.
But It's meditative and often quiet where Moana is loud; younger kids may drift.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Kon-Tiki1950
Moana's whole plot rests on the idea that Polynesian wayfinding across the open ocean was real and astonishing. This is that claim, tested for real, decades before anyone animated a crab.
The Oscar-winning documentary of six men crossing 4,300 miles of open Pacific on a hand-built balsa raft to prove ancient Polynesians could have sailed it. Real ocean, real terror, real footage.
But Grainy 1950s film stock and voiceover narration — it asks for patience a Disney film never does.

More like this (8)
Hercules1997
A cocky, self-mythologising demigod hero, gospel-choir musical numbers, and a genuinely funny script — basically Maui's spiritual older brother, if Maui had a Broadway agent.
But Looser and jokier than Moana, with less interest in the culture it's borrowing from.

Aladdin1992
Another Disney animated-to-live-action remake with a charismatic non-human sidekick stealing scenes, for anyone curious how the studio's remake formula plays out elsewhere.
But Will Smith's Genie is a big, divisive swing — you'll know within ten minutes whether it's for you.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl2003
Swashbuckling, cursed treasure, a sea that holds real menace, and a hero who's funnier than he has any right to be. The ocean-adventure template Moana borrows from freely.
But Longer, scarier, and aimed at teenagers rather than families with young kids.

Brave2012
A headstrong girl defies her culture's expectations, gets tangled up with old magic, and has to fix what she's broken to save her mother. Same emotional spine, Scottish highlands instead of Pacific islands.
But The mother-daughter plot is the whole film — there's no big ocean spectacle to fall back on.

The Jungle Book2016no page yet
Disney's earlier live-action-plus-CGI remake experiment, and arguably the best of the bunch — a kid navigating a hostile, beautiful natural world guided by an unreliable companion.
But Genuinely tense in places for very young viewers; the tiger is not cuddly.
Kubo and the Two Strings2016
A mythic quest across a strange sea, ancestors who won't stay dead, and stop-motion animation so tactile you want to touch the screen. Quieter magic, same bones.
But Darker and sadder than Moana, with imagery that can properly spook younger children.

The Red Turtle2016
Same core image as Moana — the ocean as a character with will and memory, not just scenery — pushed to its quietest, most serious extreme, with animation as painterly as Moana's is polished.
A nearly wordless, hand-painted Studio Ghibli co-production about a man shipwrecked on an island where the sea itself seems to have intentions. Hypnotic, sparse, unlike anything Disney would risk making.
But No dialogue, no songs, no jokes — it's a mood piece, and a slow one at that.

Whale Rider2003
Moana softens its girl-chosen-by-the-sea story for a broad family audience; this tells essentially the same story from inside an actual Indigenous community, with all the friction Disney sands away.
A Maori girl believed by tradition to be unfit to lead her people insists otherwise, and the film backs her without a single musical number or CGI wave. Raw, unsentimental, quietly devastating.
But No spectacle, no comic sidekick — just a small community's real argument about gender, leadership and inheritance.

People
Cast
Catherine LagaʻaiaMoana
Dwayne JohnsonMaui
Rena OwenGramma Tala
John TuiChief Tui
Frankie AdamsSina
Jemaine ClementTamatoa (voice)- Emma Puahi-ShapazianMoana (4 years old)
- Amaya MasoliMoana (8 years old)
Sam PuefuaVillage Fisherman- Sione MilfordCoconut Farmer
Kapeneta Te'o-TafitiCoconut Farmer
Eric ScanlanTulafale
Directing
- Thomas KailDirector
- John WildermuthFirst Assistant Director
- Joann ConnollySecond Assistant Director
- Bill WestenhoferSecond Unit Director
- Jeff OkabayashiSecond Unit First Assistant Director
Writing
- Jared BushOriginal Film Writer
- John MuskerOriginal Film Writer
- Ron ClementsOriginal Film Writer
- Dana Ledoux MillerScreenplay
- Jared BushScreenplay
Production
- Dann FinkADR Voice Casting
- Jennifer LaneAssociate Producer
- Page Rosenberg-MarvinAssociate Producer
- Tiana Nonosina LiufauAssociate Producer
- Bernard TelseyCasting
- Katie DoyleCasting
- John WildermuthCo-Producer
- Auliʻi CravalhoExecutive Producer
- Charles NewirthExecutive Producer
- Scott SheldonExecutive Producer
- Thomas KailExecutive Producer
- Beau FlynnProducer
- Dany GarciaProducer
- Dwayne JohnsonProducer
- Hiram GarciaProducer
- Lin-Manuel MirandaProducer
- Page Rosenberg-MarvinProduction Supervisor
- Charles NewirthUnit Production Manager