Moana learning resource

1. What stood out in the film? Which scene was the most memorable?
2. Make a list of adjectives that describe the film.
3. How did the film make you feel?
4. What was the message of the story?

1. Imagine you are explaining the story to someone who has not seen the film. Write a couple of sentences explaining Moana’s journey and what she achieves.
2. Moana's grandmother Tala tells Moana, “You’ve been told all our people’s stories, but one.” Choose a section of the film Moana or a traditional story, myth or legend and create a series of illustrations that represent the story. Film yourself (or someone else) telling the story with the images placed in the background.
3. You could also retell the story of Moana (or a section of the story) using emojis. For some inspiration, here is Disney’s version of Moana in emojis

In animated films, what you see is just as important to telling the story as the words spoken.

1. This beautiful concept artwork (above) represents an important moment at the beginning of Moana and looks forward to the film's climax.
2. How do the colours of Moana's world help tell her and her people's story?
3. Download the Artwork Response worksheet to guide your response to this remarkable artwork.

Moana is the hero of the film: she takes bold, daring action to save her people and the environment they live in, despite many difficulties and setbacks. The story of Moana is also a classic story structure called the Hero’s Journey. This story structure contains three main stages: Departure, Initiation and Return.

1. Research the Hero’s Journey and find out how Moana fits into this type of story structure: what happens in the film to signal Moana’s departure, initiation and return?
2. A Hero’s Journey story does not have to be an epic tale. It can also be used to structure a short story too. Screenwriter and teacher, Scott Meyers argues that the short Pixar film Piper (just over 4mins long) is an example of a story that uses the structure of the Hero’s Journey. Create a short story, like Piper, that uses the structure of the Hero’s Journey. It could be a story about an animal, a person or even an object.
3. Make a stop-motion animation to illustrate your story and narrate what you have written for the soundtrack. Never made a stopmotion animation before? Find out how here

Moana is set about 2,000 years ago in ancient Polynesia. “This is a real place, a real period in time based on real stories, legends, and facts,” says Moana’s art director of characters Bill Schwab.

1. What are some of the main countries in Polynesia?
2. What do you know about the cultures of these countries?
3. Have you read any books, seen any other films, TV shows or played videogames set in these places?

During the pre-production of Moana, Disney consulted with Polynesian academics, archeologists, anthropologists, linguists, historians, tattoo masters, navigators, fishermen, elders and artists to guide their representation of Polynesian culture in the film.

1. Research some of the cultural artifacts, traditional costumes, tattoos and cultural references made in Moana and create a glossary for what you discover.
2. If you were making a film with characters or stories from your cultural heritage, what aspects of culture would you include? You could consider traditional clothing, songs, language and maybe mythical characters like Maui.

The story of Moana explains “The Long Pause”.

1. Find out about the Long Pause. What happened?
2. What does the film Moana say happened?
3. What are some of the other theories as to what happened? What is your theory?
4. Create a pitch for a film, TV series or videogame that explores your theory (or one of the other theories about the Long Pause). Here’s a short video that explains how to pitch a videogame.

Watch the video (below) to find out more about the incredible seafaring skills of ancient Polynesian seafarers.

1. What seafaring skills described in this video are depicted in Moana?
2. What are three other things you learn about the Polynesian seafarers of the past from this video?

Music is very important in Moana; it advances the story, gives information about the characters, helps to create atmosphere, and communicates mood and feeling.

Choose a scene from the film where there is a song. 

1. What is happening in this scene?
2. Describe the mood of the song.
3. What does the song tell you about the characters or the story?

Opetaia Foa’i, a traditional Samoan musician from the group Te Vaka, collaborated on Moana’s soundtrack with Lin-Manuel Miranda, an American composer, lyricist, singer, rapper, actor, producer, and playwright with a Puerto Rican and Mexican cultural background.

1. You can find out more about this collaboration here
2. Why do you think Disney got these two artists to work together on the soundtrack? What do you think these artists would have learned from one another?
3. Foa’i says, “In my culture, music is like breathing air.” Choose a song that is culturally important to you and write about what it means to you. You could talk about when you usually sing this song, the meaning of the song and how the song makes you feel.
4. Use what you have written to make a short documentary about your song. You could include interviews with family members.

In the film, Maui calls Moana a princess but Moana disagrees with this label, declaring, “I’m not a princess. I am the daughter of the chief.”

1. In what ways is Moana different from many of the princess characters in other Disney films?
2. What does Moana learn as a result of her adventure?
3. Are there moments in the story when she surprises you?
4. Moana is a toddler in the scene where she meets the ocean. Watch this scene (below) and explain what elements of Moana's character are introduced.
5. Use the character mapping worksheet to understand more about Moana's character and how she has been designed to connect with the story.

The character Maui is based on a Polynesian mythical character. Controversially, Disney’s depiction of Maui is quite different to other representations of this character.

Watch the short animation (below), about one of Maui’s feats, from Aotearoa New Zealand, directed by Preston McNeil.

1. In what ways is Maui represented differently in this animation to Disney’s representation of the character?
2. Why do you think Disney chose to represent Maui in the way that they did?
3. Why might some people have been upset with Disney’s representation?
4. Do some research to find out more about the response to Disney's depiction of Maui and present your findings as a news report.

Moana's grandmother Tala is an important character in the film. When Moana was released, Tala proved popular with many Polynesian audience members who said she reminded them of their grandmother or auntie.

One of the reasons Tala is important in the film is that she acts as a mentor for Moana. Stories like Moana, depicting a hero on a journey, commonly include a mentor figure who encourages and supports the hero to take up their quest.

Watch the clip (below) and answer the following questions about Tala:

1. How does Tala’s spirit encourage Moana?
2. When else in the film does Tala support Moana?
3. What other films have you seen that have a mentor figure who guides the hero?

Tala’s spirit takes the form of a stingray.

In traditional Hawaiian culture, Aumakua are deceased family members who have become spirit guides.

Watch the clip (below) to learn about Aumakua and then respond to these prompts:

1. What information from this video was represented in the film Moana?
2. What else can you learn about Polynesian spirituality from the film Moana?
3. Imagine your friend has received funding to make a film that represents Maori culture. Your friend has hired you to ensure the film represents the spiritual beliefs of Maori people appropriately. Research what needs to be considered when it comes to representing Maori spiritual beliefs and write a list of recommendations to send to your friend.

Moana means “ocean” in Maori, Hawaiian, and most other Polynesian languages. Moana is a hero in the film not only because she saves her people but also because she saves the natural world.

1. What force threatens the natural world in the film?
2. The film is set 2000 years ago in ancient Polynesia, however, there are terrible threats to the environment now. What are some environmental threats to the ocean that you know about?
3. Test your ocean and environmental knowledge with this online quiz.
4. Create a television game show that tests your family on their ocean and environmental knowledge.
5. Watch this video by Conservation International to see how the film, Moana, has inspired young people in Samoa to do what they can to protect the ocean:

1. What are some things you and your family could do to help conserve the ocean?
2. Answer these ‘traffic light’ questions to generate ideas:

• RED: What is one thing you need to change? We need to stop … (eg: using plastic straws)
• ORANGE: What is something you already do that you could keep doing? We need to keep on … (eg: taking our reusable bags to the supermarket)
• GREEN: What is one good habit you need to begin? We need to start … (picking up rubbish in our street so that it does not get washed into the ocean)