Goofs

In the beginning, Gramma Tala is telling the story in the gazebo. When Chief Tui knocks down the banners, the one to the left of the picture of Maui and to the right of Te Ka is a large monster but switches to a mountain and sea scene as baby Moana sneaks out of the tent.

When Maui's hook first appears on the back of Tamatoa's shell, the wrapping on the handle disappears briefly.

Before the song "How Far I'll Go," Sina finds Moana sitting on a tree throwing sticks into the ground. However, when Moana begins to sing, the sticks are no longer there.

When Moana and Maui have escaped the pirates and Maui starts clearing away the darts, one shot in profile shows several darts behind Maui. However, these are suddenly gone in the next shot in profile even though Maui never turned around to grab them.

Near the end of the song "Where You Are", when Moana and her parents are walking to the temple, Moana looks to the right, and sees her grandmother dancing in the beach. (The shore runs parallel to the path). But when the song ends, the camera zoom out and the shore is clearly perpendicular to the path.

The movie features several frigate birds, particularly when baby Moana helps the baby turtle get to the sea. Polynesians sometimes used frigate birds to help navigate toward new islands. However, they spend very little time on land, and never eat there. They hunt while in flight in the open sea, and only land when they need to roost.

The first time Moana ventures out into the ocean, large waves sink the boat and throw her into the sea, where her foot gets trapped in the coral reef. She escapes with just a scraped foot and is fully recovered by the next scene. In reality, being pummeled by waves on a coral reef formation should have resulted in severe cuts and bruising as well as a high risk of infection.

Moana incorrectly refers to her paddle as an oar, which are used with an oar lock, propelling the boat backwards (rower's back is to the direction of travel). A paddle is held in your hands, pushing through the water, propelling the boat forward.

The Motunui ancestors' wooden boats were stored in a cave behind a waterfall for a thousand years in a wet environment. Yet, they weren't rotted and disintegrated when Moana discovered them, and are still seaworthy when the villagers rediscovering their voyaging heritage take them into open waters.

On the other hand, banging on drums wouldn't typically call forth detailed visions of the past, either. The cave clearly has magical properties which help preserve both the boats and the ancestral memories tied to them.

Te Ka has no spiral on her chest until the end when it is needed to finish Moana's quest. However, on Maui's final attack, it appears that he strikes her chest which could have been the impact needed to reveal the spiral underneath layers of Te Ka's magma "skin."

Maui says they must head east to reach Tamatoa's lair. But he spent the last 1000 years stranded on an island. How would he know which direction would take them to Tamatoa? As a master wayfinder Maui can navigate and determine location using stars, Sun, Moon, currents, and other methods. Indeed, he measured the stars just before determining that they had to go east.

When Moana meets the ocean with her grandmother, the ocean splashes her. Afterwards, she is immediately dry.

She is also immediately dry after a wave deposits her on Te Fiti's island. The ocean, for its own reasons, seems to be electing whether or not to leave a person waterlogged, wet but quick-drying, completely dry, or in between.

During "You're Welcome", Maui says "I'm gonna need that boat... 'Cause Maui can do anything but float", implying Maui can not swim. Yet between the 40-42 minute mark Maui jumps off the canoe and swims away before the ocean puts him back.

This could more likely mean the ocean has made a point of withholding its bouyancy every other time he tried swimming away from his island prison. It is only now allowing him to swim and sail in order to help Moana.

After Maui and Moana battle the Kakamora, he agrees to help Moana, and says they have to sail east. The sun is setting to his left, which would be west, so he is actually sailing north.