Maui's character, played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, has tattoos based on traditional Polynesian designs all over his body. The animators for the film drew his tattoos on by hand, and consulted with a Samoan tattoo artist to ensure cultural accuracy.
Lin-Manuel Miranda signed on to write the music for "Moana" before the musical "Hamilton" became a smash hit on Broadway. Once the musical took off, he would often work with his collaborators over Skype from backstage, sometimes while still in costume.
Many of the characters in the film are named after Polynesian words.
Moana means "ocean" in both Hawaiian and Māori.
Hei Hei, Moana's pet rooster, means "chicken" in Māori. Pua, Moana's pet pig, means "flower" in Hawaiian. Maui is the name of a Polynesian demigod and the second largest Hawaiian island. Tui, Moana's father, is the name of a bird native to New Zealand.
Tala, Moana's grandmother, who tells the legend of Maui, Te Fiti and Te Kā at the beginning of the movie, means "story" in Samoan, and is the name of the goddess of the stars in Tagalog mythology.