Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Disney: 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Moana is one of the better movies to come out of Disney in recent years, but that doesn’t mean that it’s without its faults.



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Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Moana was a special delight when it came out in theaters. Is it just me, or has Disney been on a movie-making roll lately? We have been treated to successive hits for years now, and each time a new Disney movie comes out, I’m always a tad fearful that it will finally be the one that sucks eggs. Thankfully, that has yet to happen. And Moana went above and beyond what a great Disney movie should be. The story was heartfelt, the animation was gorgeous, and the music was fan-freaking-tastic.

However, as I have always said, every movie is not without its flaws. Despite being a phenomenal kid movie (a phenomenal adult move too, if we’re being honest with each other), Moana is no exception to this rule. Upon first watching the movie, I never really notice mistakes and plot holes. But after the second or third time watching the movie, these unresolved issues really begin to glare out. As per usual with movies about evil coconuts, sentient ocean waves, and monstrous lava islands, some things just don’t make sense.

Don’t get me wrong. I adore Moana. I can’t help bursting into song whenever one of the musical numbers appears on one of my writing playlists. (You try keeping your mouth shut to “You’re Welcome.”) But just because I love the animated film, does not mean I will refuse to recognize its flaws. Read on if you want to find out some of Moana’s more egregious plot holes and unresolved mysteries.

25 She Was Just A Baby!

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Moana is first approached by the ocean when she is just a little girl, a toddler who can barely speak. At this very young age, Moana is given the Heart of Te Fiti by the ocean. Is it just me, or is this a huge responsibility to lay at the feet of a child who is just learning to walk and talk?

In fact, Moana drops the Heart back into the ocean after it was given to her. It’s only because Moana’s Gramma Tala was watching this scene that the Heart was recovered.

24 How Could She Have Planned So Far Ahead?

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

I loved the character of Gramma Tala in Moana. (Who doesn’t like the grandma character in these kinds of movies?) When Tala passed away, it was a truly sad moment, but it was reassuring to know that she would kind of hang around Moana during her quest in the form of her spirit animal, a ray.



Tala always told Moana that when she passed, she would come back as one of them. She was positive about it. Sadly, the movie never explains just how she figured this out. Was it just a gut feeling? Or did she just really like manta rays?

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23 Survival Of The Fittest

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Hei Hei is definitely one of the best animal sidekicks ever created. He doesn’t speak much aside from making a few clucking noises, but he just oozes personality. He also seems to have no sense of self-preservation. That makes for some good laughs, but honestly, Hei Hei should have cock-a-doodle-doo-ed his way to an early grave.

Either Moana’s tribe should have eaten him long ago, or he should have perished at some point during Moana’s ocean adventure.

22 Missed The Giant Lava Monster

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Just as Maui was making his getaway with the Heart of Te Fiti in the beginning of the movie, we see a giant lava monster appear from out of nowhere and attack him. We find out later that this lava monster, Te Ka, is actually a supremely ticked off Te Fiti.

How could Maui have missed Te Fiti’s transformation?


He had just left her island when Te Ka. He definitely should have noticed the formerly calm, green island turning into a raging, lava-spewing behemoth.

21 Righteous Feelings

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

If my Heart had been stolen from me and I had turned into a giant lava monster as a consequence of that, I would be pretty ticked off at whoever had done that. When Te Fiti and Maui meet each other face-to-face, years after he had stolen her heart, she gives him a grumpy glance, but that’s it.

There is no real retribution occurring here.

By stealing Te Fiti’s Heart, Maui endangered the whole ocean and the system of islands populating it. And all he got was a glare?

20 The Hook-less Wonder

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Upon first meeting Maui, all he seems to want is to escape the island he has been marooned on and find his hook again. Once he has his hook, he knows he will have access to his ability to shape-shift again. However, once he takes his hook from Tamatoa, Maui can’t seem to shape-shift properly anymore.

No reason except it having been a long time since Maui last held his hook is given for his being unable to use it anymore. Plus, I guess it’s a convenient excuse for him and Moana to bond while he practices with it again.

19 Pigs, Pigs, Pigs

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

One of the biggest surprises for me when I first saw Moana was that Pua the pig was not the animal who went with her on her ocean adventure. Instead, she took Hei Hei, and Pua was left behind on Motunui.

A mystery that is never answered is why Moana’s people never ate Pua while she was gone. We knew that fish were scarce and that coconuts were becoming rotten on the island. Moana’s people would have been hard-pressed to find good sources of food. Pua would have been a tasty meal for a starving people.

18 How Did Te Ka Spoil The Island?

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Since Moana wanted to go for the big reveal at the end that the monster Te Ka was actually Te Fiti, we did not actually learn that much about Te Ka and how she works. A mystery that is never really answered is how Te Ka manages to destroy islands.

Without her heart, apparently, Te Fiti is able to spread darkness to the many islands populating the wide ocean. How does this work? Is Te Ka/Te Fiti aware that she is doing this? Or is it an unintentional side effect of existing without a Heart?

17 Tamatoa’s Failing Senses

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

For being a relatively cunning monster of the deep, Tamatoa totally fell for the oldest trick in the book. In order to escape Tamatoa’s lair, Moana pretends to offer Tamatoa the Heart of Te Fiti.

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In reality, she just painted a little barnacle green. If the Heart is magical and monsters can sense its power from far away, why couldn’t Tamatoa sense that it was a fake? Shouldn’t he have been able to sense that Moana was carrying the real heart away?

16 How Could He Have Carried The Heart?

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

One of Maui the demigod’s powers is the ability to turn into different animals when he has his magic hook with him. When Moana demanded that he take the Heart of Te Fiti back to her and he turned into a giant bird in order to do so, I could only wonder one thing: How can he carry anything as an animal?

As a bird, sure, he could carry the Heart in his talons, but what about when he was a shark? And if he was carrying the Heart in his hand when he transformed into a bird, wouldn’t the Heart have ended up in his wing instead of his bird-feet?

15 Surviving That Fall

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Despite being a strong young woman, Moana is just a human being, a regular mortal and all that jazz. She just so happens to have been gifted with the ocean’s blessing. So when she jumps into the Realm of Monsters with Maui, it is completely nonsensical that she survived the humongous fall down.

The entrance to the Realm of Monsters was basically a giant pit! Moana should not have been able to handle that plummet. And I’m saying she should not have been able to handle it physically.

14 Lending A Helping Wave

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

The ocean selected Moana for the task of getting Maui to return the Heart of Te Fiti to its rightful place. They couldn’t have chosen a better candidate. Moana is a determined young woman, and she saw her task through to the end. But it makes you wonder why the ocean was so selective about when it would help her.

The ocean did nothing to help Moana out the first time she went sailing past the reef. In fact, the experience gave her a near-drowning moment. What was the ocean thinking?!

13 Signs From The Past

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Moana delightedly finds out that her people used to be a sailing people. Now, however, her people have become landlocked on the island of Motunui. They appear to have forgotten their past.

That makes absolutely no sense for several reasons.

One, the boats that Moana’s people used to sail on are still on the island, meaning anyone could have seen them and questioned their existence. Two, elders like Gramma Tala should have been maintaining an oral history of their culture. Are you telling me they just omitted sailing?

12 I’m Your Conscience

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Disney movies include some outlandish things that rarely make sense, like talking animals and magic. Moana includes its own unique bit of strangeness that we have never seen before.

Maui has numerous tattoos gracing his body, but the ones that depict himself frequently give Maui good advice, telling him to help Moana in her quest and return the Heart of Te Fiti. The tattoo functions as Maui’s good nature. How did an inked little man become Maui’s conscience?

11 Did Maui Need To Take Responsibility?

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Moana’s big adventure starts when her Gramma Tala tells her that she must find Maui and get him to restore the Heart of Te Fiti to its rightful place. Moana does eventually meet Maui and learn a lot about sailing from him, but did she really need him to return the Heart?

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At the end of the movie, Moana herself is the one who hands Te Fiti her heart back. Maui was helpful, but he did not seem necessary to the process of giving the Heart back. So why did Moana need Maui in the first place?

10 There’s Something Wrong With Those Coconuts

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Moana learns that she must journey off the island of Motunui in order to restore health to the land where her people live. However, her father, Chief Tui, is adamant that no one should leave the island, and that the idea of restoring the Heart of Te Fiti is a myth.

Umm, did he not see those wasted, ashen coconuts earlier? Even if he doesn’t believe in the magical tale of Te Fiti and Maui, he should recognize that the Island is no longer a viable place to live. Leaving it and exploring options beyond the reef is a logical thing to do.

9 Ocean Delivery Service

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Maui himself points out this little plot hole when he and Moana are climbing up to the entrance to the Realm of Monsters. Why would the ocean choose Moana to deliver the Heart back to Te Fiti? The ocean has shown itself to be fairly sentient.

Why couldn’t it deliver the Heart of Te Fiti back to her itself?

It clearly carried the Heart over to Moana’s island of Motunui at the beginning of the movie. Is there any reason why it couldn’t have used ocean currents to push the heart back to where it belonged?

8 The Mystery Of Maui’s Childhood

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

We do not hear much about Maui’s background except that he was cast away as a child into the ocean, and from there he was given special powers by the gods. An unanswered question is why Maui’s parents would have abandoned him so callously.

No reason is ever given, not just to the audience, but also to poor Maui. He spends the rest of his life as a demigod trying to please people by giving them great gifts and becoming a hero to them. That ends up being the reason why he stole Te Fiti’s Heart in the first place.

7 Burning Your Problems Down

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

Moana’s father, Chief Tui, is decidedly anti-ocean. After a horrific ocean voyage that ended tragically for him and his friend, Tui made the decision to never leave Motunui. For a guy so against the ocean, you would think he would have burned down his ancestors’ boats that were hidden in a cave on Motunui.

He knew of their existence, so why didn’t he just destroy them? True, it would have sucked for Moana’s quest if he had done that. If Tui had burned the boats, he might have committed his island to ruin.

6 The Return Of The Hero

Disney 25 Unresolved Mysteries And Plot Holes Moana Left Hanging

After Moana and Maui’s first encounter with Te Ka, Maui’s hook is broken. He is so dismayed by this that he leaves Moana by herself, even though she begs him to try and get past Te Ka one more time. Maui flies away from her, and Moana is left to face Te Ka a second time alone.

Inexplicably, Maui returns to help her out even though he had said he wouldn’t.

What, are we going to get no explanation for why he returned? Last we had seen him of him, he had been pretty miffed about his hook. Guess that didn’t last long.

Amanda Hurych loves to read, write, and play video games…and that’s about all there is to her.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/disney-moana-mysteries-plot-holes/

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