Plot

In ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by the demigod Maui reaches Moana's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out Maui to set things right.

Moana Waialiki is a sea voyaging enthusiast and the only daughter of a chief in a long line of navigators. When her island's fishermen can't catch any fish and the crops fail, she learns that the demigod Maui caused the blight by stealing the heart of the goddess, Te Fiti. The only way to heal the island is to persuade Maui to return Te Fiti's heart, so Moana sets off on an epic journey across the Pacific. The film is based on stories from Polynesian mythology.—Anonymous

Moana is a daughter of the chief of her tribe. Coming from a long line of navigators she sets off for a fabled island with the demigod Maui. Along the voyage they battle all which the ocean hides, while learning what the power of persistence and faith can accomplish.

An adventurous teenager sails out on a daring mission to save her people. During her journey, Moana meets the once-mighty demigod Maui, who guides her in her quest to become a master wayfinder. Together, they sail across the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds. Along the way, Moana fulfills the ancient quest of her ancestors and discovers the one thing she always sought: her own identity.—Jwelch5742

On the Polynesian island of Motunui, the inhabitants worship the goddess Te Fiti, who brought life to the ocean, using a stone as her heart and the source of her power. Maui, the shape-shifting demigod and master of sailing, steals the heart to give humanity the power of creation. However, Te Fiti disintegrates, and Maui is attacked by Te Ka, a volcanic demon, losing both his magical giant fishhook and the heart to the depths. A millennium later, Moana, daughter of Motunui's chief Tui, is chosen by the ocean to return the heart to Te Fiti. However, Tui arrives and takes Moana away, causing her to lose the heart. Tui and Moana's mother, Sina, try to keep her away from the ocean to prepare her for ascension as the island's chief.

Grandma Tala (Rachel House) tells a group of young children the story of the mother island Te Fiti. With her heart, Te Fiti possesses the power to create life and brings other islands into existence. However, other beings desired the power of her heart but only one was daring enough to take it.

In the beginning, there was only ocean. Then Te Fiti, an island goddess, emerged. Te Fiti's heart, a small Pounamu stone (a small, green gemstone engraved with a spiral), possessed the power to create life. It was stolen by Maui (Dwayne Johnson) the shape-shifting demigod of the wind and sea and master of way-finding. Maui used his magical fishhook to shape shift into various creatures, to travel to the mother island. Maui was planning to give the heart to humanity as a gift to give humanity the power of creation. But the lava demon Te Ka confronted him and striking him with a thunderbolt from above, causing the heart to become lost in the ocean along with Maui's magical fishhook. The stealth of the heart also unleashes a darkness that gradually begins to spread and robs all the islands created by Te Fiti to be robbed of life.

Grandma Tala finishes her story saying that, a thousand years later, Te Ka and other monsters still hunt for the heart while the darkness continues to spread until, one day, it will consume their island. At this, most of the children either cry or faint, but one girl is spellbound. Tala then says that one day, someone will find the heart, journey beyond the island's reef, find Maui, and take him to restore the heart and save everyone.

Moana Waialiki (Auli'I Cravalho), the daughter and heir of a chief on the small Polynesian island of Motunui, is chosen by the ocean to receive the heart as she is collecting shells on the shore. Within the canyon of water and surrounded by sea life and coral, a wave forms over Moana's head and looks curiously down at her. It plays with her, splashing her and tying her hair in a topknot. Then, in the water, Moana sees a shiny object drifting toward her. She plucks the glowing green stone from the water and trails her finger over the spiral design. Just then, her father calls for her and the ocean returns her to shore on a piece of driftwood, but Moana drops the stone. Tui and Sina, Moana's parents, try to keep her away from the ocean to prepare her to become the island's chief.

Sixteen years later, Moana is now a grown girl. Her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), insists the island provides everything the villagers might need. Every time she goes near the sea, her parents bring her back and remind her that to her duties and her people are where she belongs and not the sea. Chief Tui then takes Moana, now grown, to the sacred peak of their island and shows her a tall pile of flattened stones which he and his forefathers placed to raise the island higher. One day, he says, Moana will place her own stone on the peak.

Moana grows into her role as chief in training despite her inner wish to go to the sea and makes her rounds on the island: she fixes a leaking roof, provides support to a man getting a tattoo, and teaches children hula dancing.

But when fish become scarce, coconuts begin to spoil, and the island's vegetation begins to die, Moana proposes going beyond the reef to find more fish. Tui angrily rejects her request, as sailing beyond the reef is forbidden. Moana's mother Sina (Nicole Scherzinger) confesses Tui fears the ocean because he lost his best friend when he attempted to sail beyond the reef.

Conflicted over her duties to her village and her dream to sail the sea, Moana ultimately decides to finally take a canoe out to see if she can find any fish beyond the reef and takes her pet pig, Pua, with her. At first it seems she can sail with ease, but a wave knocks her canoe sideways and sends Pua overboard. Distracted, Moana fails to see another wave rise above her and flip her canoe over. Moana is submerged and gets her foot trapped within some coral but manages to free herself by smashing it with a rock. She makes it to shore, exhausted, and find Pua scared, but alive.

Moana's grandmother Tala (Rachel House) finds Moana on the beach after a failed attempt to sail past the reef and shows Moana a secret cave hidden behind a waterfall. Inside is a fleet of outrigger sailing canoes, revealing that the island's ancestors were seafaring voyagers until Maui stole Te Fiti's heart; the ocean was no longer safe without it. Tala goes to the water to dance with a school of manta rays, saying that when she dies, she'll come back as one, or else she chose the wrong tattoo.

To save themselves, Moana's ancestors hid away their boats and decided to remain on Motonui. Tala then shows Moana a portion of their island which appears to have the very life from it being drained to sea. Tala shows Moana that the darkness unleashed by Maui's theft is now consuming the island, which is leading to scarce fish and black, rotten coconuts, but this can be cured if Moana finds Maui and has him restore the heart of Te Fiti. Tala gives Moana the heart of Te Fiti, which she has kept safe for her granddaughter ever since she was chosen by the ocean. The ocean then rises up and playfully splashes Moana who was stunned to find out that the memory wasn't just a dream as she thought. Tala shows Moana a constellation of an enormous hook, saying that Maui will be beneath it.

Tala suddenly falls ill and with her dying breaths tells Moana to set sail. Moana sets sail on a Camakau from the cavern. Moana departs to find Maui with her pet rooster Heihei (Alan Tudyk), who has accidentally stowed away on the sailboat. A manta ray, implied to be Tala's reincarnation, follows Moana showing her the passage. Moana follows a constellation that looks like Maui's fishhook, but a huge wave caused by a typhoon flips her sailboat and knocks her unconscious. She wakes up the next morning on a small island inhabited by Maui, who distracts Moana by boasting of his exploits, using his Mini-Maui tattoo to show off his accomplishments displayed as numerous tattoos all over his body.

Maui traps her in a cave and steals her sailboat. After escaping the cave, Moana tries to catch up and is assisted by the ocean which deposits her quickly onto her canoe. Despite repeatedly throwing her overboard, Moana is returned to the boat by the ocean, and she demands of Maui that he help her restore the heart. Maui refuses, fearing other dark creatures will be attracted to its power. Maui tries to throw the heart away, but the ocean throws it back at him. Then he tries to swim away, but the ocean puts him back. He claims that the stone is not a 'heart' but rather a curse that lost him his hook and that bad things are always trying to find it.

Pygmy pirates called Kakamora surround the boat and manage to steal the heart, but Maui is able to get their massive sailboats to collide just as Moana retrieves the heart. Moana realizes Maui is no longer a hero since he stole the heart and cursed the world and convinces him to redeem himself by returning the heart. Maui is still hesitant to return the heart, but Moana convinces him by saying that he would be restored to the hero he once was. Maui agrees to help bring the heart back to Te Fiti, but in order to do so, he needs his hook, which is hidden in Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters and held by a giant coconut crab named Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement). She agrees to help him retrieve his hook before setting a course for Te Fiti and then asks him to teach her to sail. At first Maui refuses, but the ocean uses a leftover blow dart to paralyze Maui, forcing him to tell Moana what to do.

The two journey to Lalotai, where they manage to retrieve the hook by tricking Tamatoa into singing of his glamour. While Moana distracts Tamatoa, Maui retrieves his hook, only to find himself unable to control his shape-shifting. Tamatoa places Moana in a cage and focuses on Maui as he finishes his song. Then, Moana uses some bio-luminescent algae to create a false heart of Te Fiti and distracts Tamatoa with it while she and Maui escape. Using a geyser, Maui and Moana are shot back to the surface.

Maui reveals his first tattoo was earned when his human parents abandoned him as an infant, and the gods, taking pity on him, granted him his powers. Moana tells him that it's not the gods who make him Maui - it's him. With this renewed confidence, Maui tries shape-shifting again, starting small, and this time is able to control his powers. Back on the sailboat, Maui teaches Moana how to sail and to navigate by the stars and, with Moana's encouragement, reacquaints himself with the Transformational powers of his magical hook.

They arrive at Te Fiti, where Te Ka appears and tries to destroy them. Maui tries to fight back, but Te Ka is too strong, and he tells Moana to turn back. She ignores him, believing that they can use Te Ka's aversion to water to their advantage, and Te Ka severely damages Maui's hook and repels their boat out to sea. Maui leaves Moana stranded, fearing that going back to fight Te Ka will permanently destroy his hook. He tells her that the ocean chose the wrong person to save her people.

Moana, distraught at her failure, begs the ocean to take the heart and choose another person to return it to Te Fiti. The spirit of Tala appears and encourages Moana to find her true calling within herself. Moana swims down to retrieve the heart and returns to Te Fiti to return the heart. She is nearly killed by Te Ka, but Maui, having had a change of heart, returns to distract the lava demon, though his hook is destroyed in the battle.

Moana, reaching the top of the mountain, realizes that the island is gone, the shape of the goddess gouged beneath the water all that remains. Moana realizes that Te Ka is actually Te Fiti without her heart. Holding the heart above her, she grabs the attention of Te Ka before it's able to deal a blow to Maui, who has by now completely lost his hook. Moana asks the ocean to clear a path so Te Ka can approach her. Moana sing a song to Te Ka to calm her and remembering what she truly was, and she's been able to restores her heart, and Te Fiti returns. In gratitude, Te Fiti gifts Moana a new canoe and Maui (who apologizes to her for stealing her heart a long ago) a new hook before slumbering at peace. Maui and Moana bid each other a fond farewell.

Moana returns to her island and later sets sail with the rest of the villagers in search of new islands as Maui accompanies them in his hawk form. Tamatoa, who has been stranded on his back during Moana and Maui's escape, wonders if people would care more for him if he was a Jamaican crab named Sebastian.