Maui () is a fictional character that appears in the 2016 Walt Disney Animation Studios animated film Moana. He was created by directors Ron Clements and John Musker and is voiced by American actor Dwayne Johnson. Maui is loosely based on the mythological figure Māui in Polynesian mythology. He is characterized as a demigod, trickster and shapeshifter and is distinguishable by his bulky tattooed body, thick, flowing hair and magical fish hook that allows him to shapeshift into various creatures. Maui's tattoos recount his deeds and feature an animated miniature version of himself that pokes fun at his overinflated ego. The character returns in the sequel film Moana 2, which premiered in November of 2024. Johnson also portrays Maui in the 2026 live-action remake of Moana.
In Moana, the title character Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) sets sail to seek Maui in order to save her island from ecological disaster. She convinces him to accompany her on her voyage to recover his magical fish hook and restore the heart stone that he stole from the goddess Te Fiti. The story concept was inspired by various myths about Māui from across Polynesia, which Clements and Musker incorporated to create an original character.
Disney's version of the mythological figure has faced criticism from prominent Polynesians for cultural insensitivities, but has been positively received by critics who praised the charm and charisma of Johnson's performance, including for his vocals in the song "You're Welcome", which was written by American songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda. Johnson has also received several award nominations and won a Teen Choice Award for voicing the character.
Concept and creation Story concept and writing
In 2011, director John Musker started reading about Polynesian mythology and decided that Māui was an ideal focus for an animated story. Ron Clements said that Māui was the inspiration for the film, being a mythic demigod and larger than life figure who is found in many cultures of the South Pacific in different variations and therefore seemed like the perfect focal character. Their early story concept was based on a myth and involved a supporting female character enlisting the help of Maui to help her save her kidnapped lover. Musker and Clements wrote and pitched the story concept to Disney animation chief John Lasseter, who asked them to conduct research in Polynesia for the project to progress.
Although Musker and Clements originally intended Maui to be the film's protagonist, they were inspired by the "beautiful, powerful women in Polynesia" and decided to instead focus the story on the daughter of a chief. Influenced by their research trips to Fiji, Tahiti, and Samoa, they devised a new story concept that focused on the Polynesian tradition of navigation, particularly a 1,000-year period when the people did not sail, and made it a teenage girl's coming-of-age story. They imagined the story to be similar to True Grit involving "a determined young girl who teamed with a down-on-his-luck trickster". During development of the character, Musker and Clements read myths about Maui and his various depictions, which sometimes portray him as a heroic character and sometimes as a trickster. They wanted to create a character that is flawed but likeable. The story evolved during the development process, abandoning some ideas such as Moana being a fan of Maui. The initial draft of the script was written by Taika Waititi, who had been brought in because Musker and Clements wanted someone from Polynesian culture to write it. The draft was written over several months, after which Waititi returned to New Zealand to direct What We Do in the Shadows. He later joked that little of his original script remained in the final film. Aaron and Jordan Kandell were two of the five screenwriters on the project and developed various aspects of the story, including the relationship between Maui and Moana. Jared Bush and Pamela Ribon also worked on producing the script. Bush said that during the process the writing team did their best to work around cliches but had to tear apart the script several times and start again.
Maui's song "You're Welcome" was originally intended to be sung by Moana upon first meeting Maui. Musker explained that in an early draft Moana idolized Maui, so she sang a song to motivate him into action by reminding him of his many great feats. The song was later transferred to Maui once his egotistical personality had been conceived. The ending of Moana went through many revisions before reaching the final version. In a previous ending, Moana and Maui teamed up to fight the lava monster Te Ka, with Maui mainly being the character who defeated her. Bush said this was changed because Moana needed to be the star of the final act: "We really wanted to get Maui out of the way for that moment".
Character design Musker and Clements began making trips to Polynesia in 2011. This led to the establishment of a group named the Oceanic Trust that was formed of cultural advisors from various islands such as Samoa, Tahiti, Mo'orea, and Fiji. The trust provided detailed feedback at all levels of the film's development and shaped Maui's final design. Early character art depicted Maui with a shorter stature and a bald head but this was abandoned following feedback from the trust, which resulted in a broader frame and thick, flowing hair. Upon seeing the original sketch, Tahitian cultural practitioner Hinano Murphy advised that it was important for Maui to have hair because this was his mana, his power as a demigod. Maui's full head of hair was initially considered to be a technical challenge, but the bald design was abandoned. Character art director Bill Schwab wanted to push his design creatively to make him "both funny and powerful simultaneously", while also balancing the contrasting proportions of Maui's and Moana's sizes. To ensure authenticity in Maui's design, the designers conducted research into Polynesian designs, including materials, patterns, and dyes used in clothing and tattoo designs. Maui's tattoos were created following a careful study of the tattoos of Samoan chiefs. Clements said that the tattoos recount Maui's life by depicting his great deeds and victories. When development artist Sue Nichols created drawings of Maui's tattoos coming to life, Musker and Clements thought it was a great idea to exploit the animation by giving Maui animated tattoos. They visualized Maui as a demigod with matching superhero proportions who would be capable of pulling islands from the sea and battling monsters so they designed him as a strong, larger than life caricature: "a big, solid man-mountain kind of a guy". His magical fish hook was inscribed with intricate detail to give the impression of recounting his exploits going back thousands of years.
Animation Animator Eric Goldberg, who previously worked on Aladdin and Hercules, led the animation for Moana. Two dimensional hand-drawn animation was integrated into the 3D animation to depict Maui's past achievements in the tattoos that cover his body. An animated miniature tattoo version of Maui brought the character's conscience to life. The Mini Maui tattoo figure was created by Goldberg making hand-drawn sketches on paper in the traditional Polynesian tattoo style. The 2D animation and 3D animation were then created separately before being integrated. Musker explained that Mini Maui's sentience emerged during the creative process as a figure that could poke fun at Maui's egotistical personality. He felt it was important that the character's emotions were expressed despite being a graphic character. The process of combining the hand animated Mini Maui and the 3D animated Maui proved difficult but was solved by superimposing the drawings of Mini Maui onto the computer generated Maui to ensure they interacted correctly.
Voice
On December 2, 2014, it was announced that Dwayne Johnson was in talks to voice Maui, and was excited to be cast. Musker said that although the character of Maui was conceived before considering Johnson in the role, he was suggested early on in the process by a contact on their first research trip. He and Clements were aware of Johnson's connection to Polynesia and felt that he physically resembled a demigod, therefore no other actors were auditioned for the role. Jared Bush began to write Johnson's personality into the character, transforming Maui into a more likeable character than earlier more negative versions. Lin-Manuel Miranda felt that it would be difficult to make Maui's song "You're Welcome" a success without Johnson's "instant likeability". When preparing to write Maui's song, Miranda said that he watched YouTube videos of Johnson's past career in WWE to write for his vocal range. Performing Maui's song pushed Johnson out of his comfort zone. He relied on Miranda for voice coaching through 20-minute sessions on Skype until he was comfortable with his vocal abilities. Miranda sent him a recording of the track so that Johnson could play the song repeatedly and encouraged him to add his own personality into the performance. According to Johnson, Maui was based on his grandfather, Peter Maivia, a wrestler and Samoan high chief who had tattoos covering his body. Being of Polynesian descent, Johnson said that the film was an opportunity to showcase Polynesian culture in film. His personality was infused into Maui's animation by shooting his facial expressions on camera as he was voicing the character.
Depiction of Maui Disney's character is based on the Polynesian demigod Māui, a mythical character whose story varies across the Pacific Islands. While Disney's Maui is presented as an orphan, this diverges from traditional Polynesian stories in which Māui has four brothers. "The Māui Myths", which recount his stories by Māori natives of Tolaga Bay in the North Island of New Zealand, describe the accomplishments of Māui, such as crediting him with using his magical fish hook to pull up islands from the Pacific Ocean and snaring the sun to slow it down. These accomplishments are highlighted in the lyrics of Maui's song "You're Welcome", which was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Musker admitted that he had never heard of Māui until he stumbled upon him in Polynesian mythology, but thought that made him more appealing because he realized that nobody had done anything with him in film. He was struck by his potential as a character due to his larger-than-life traits and his "superpowers" as a shape-shifter and trickster. He was drawn to the tales of Māui's deeds in Polynesian mythology, noting that he is pan-Pacific rather than being from one specific culture. He and Clements were advised to not base Maui on one particular culture as there were varying myths that evolved on different islands. They therefore decided to use parts from different myths and marry them together in the story. Clements said that while in some myths he is a straight character, in others he is a trickster, but they chose the mischievous version for the film because he appeared to be a more entertaining character.
Clements explained that in Moana, Maui is a fallen hero that Moana must restore to his former greatness, although initially she does not trust him. Musker described Maui's tattoos as a "a walking billboard of all his exploits" allowing him to recount his deeds simply by turning his body and showing his back. The Mini Maui tattoo figure acts as his conscience and sidekick. Clements explained that he has a relationship with Maui and, although he does not speak, provides storytelling and humour.
Appearances Film Moana (2016)