<Li> Puanani Cravalho (Auliʻi's mother) as Villager No. 2 </Li> <P> After directing The Princess and the Frog (2009), Clements and Musker started working on an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Mort, but problems with acquiring the necessary film rights prevented them from continuing with that project . To avoid a recurrence of that issue, they pitched three original ideas . The genesis of one of those ideas (the one that was ultimately green - lighted) occurred in 2011, when Musker began reading up on Polynesian mythology, and learned of the heroic exploits of the demigod Māui . Intrigued with the rich culture of Polynesia, he felt it would be a suitable subject for an animated film . Shortly thereafter, Musker and Clements wrote a treatment and pitched it to John Lasseter, who recommended that both of them should go on research trips . Accordingly, in 2012, Clements and Musker went on research trips to Fiji, Samoa, and Tahiti to meet the people of the South Pacific Ocean and learn about their culture . At first, they had planned to make the film entirely about Maui, but their initial research trips inspired Clements to pitch a new idea focused on the young daughter of a chief . </P> <P> Clements and Musker were fascinated to learn during their research that the people of Polynesia abruptly stopped making long - distance voyages about three thousand years ago . Their navigational traditions predated those of European explorers, beginning around 300 CE . Native people of the Pacific possessed knowledge of the world and their place in it prior to the incursion of foreigners . For example, Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) were well aware of the existence of far away islands, had names for these places, and were interested in exploring them to benefit their societies . This voyaging heritage was made possible by a geographical knowledge system based on individual perspective rather than the European cardinal direction system . The reasons for the halt of this voyaging tradition remain unknown, but scholars have offered climate change and resulting shifts in ocean currents and wind patterns as one possible explanation . Native peoples of the Pacific resumed voyaging again a thousand years later . Clements and Musker set the film at the end of that era, about two thousand years ago, on a fictional island in the central Pacific Ocean, which drew inspiration from elements of the real - life island nations of Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga . </P> <P> Over the five years it took to develop and produce the film, Clements and Musker recruited experts from across the South Pacific to form an Oceanic Story Trust, who consulted on the film's cultural accuracy and sensitivity as the story evolved through nine versions . The Trust responded negatively, for example, to a depiction of Maui as bald, and to a proposed scene in which Moana threw a tantrum by throwing coconuts . In response, Maui was reworked with long hair and the coconut scene was scrapped . </P>

What island is the moana movie based on