The internet blew up after the new trailer for the live action Moana dropped and people were quick to say it felt racist. The whole thing comes almost ten years after the animated movie came out, and it stars the same well-known actor who played Maui before, while a newcomer plays Moana.
The movie follows the same basic story where Moana heads out across the ocean to return the heart of Te Fiti. She leaves her island for the first time and goes past the barrier reef while Maui joins her on this mission that is supposed to help her people.
The teaser is only a minute long and it uses the song ‘How Far I Will Go’ which everyone recognized right away. People who watched it said the music hit them, but the look of Moana did not land the same way and it bothered a lot of viewers.
One person said: “I hate Disney so much.” Another person added: “This is why we can’t have nice things,” and that kind of summed up how annoyed people were about what they saw.
A big part of the criticism is the change to Moana’s hair since the animated version has really thick curly hair that moves with the wind and water. In the trailer, her hair looks straighter and flatter, and people feel like it removes something important from how the character was originally made.
Fans also said it feels like whitewashing because the actress has naturally curly hair that looks more like the animated Moana outside the role. On social media, one person said: “Making her have straight hair even though the OG hair of the actor is just like Moana’s is incredibly f***ing racist.”
Another viewer said: “This looks awful and they whitewashed Moana.” A third complaint was that the actress seemed lighter skinned than the animated version and they said Disney changed the hair to make it even worse.
People also brought up how Disney talked years ago about creating new technology to get Moanas curly hair right in the original movie. They explained on their site that it took a lot of technical work to show long curly hair moving around with the characters and the ocean which made viewers wonder why the live action did not try something similar.
Not everyone was mad though and a few people spoke up to say straight hair exists in Polynesian families too. One person said: “Polynesians have straight hair too.” Another person added that people were complaining just to complain and they said: “You can’t make this stuff up.”
Disney has faced whitewashing accusations before and an example people mentioned was when Princess Tiana looked lighter in a Wreck It Ralph 2 preview which made them change her design after fans complained. Even with these issues the Moana franchise is still huge and the most recent sequel made over a billion dollars.
The new live action version is scheduled to hit theaters in July 2026 and people will be watching closely to see if the full movie changes anyone’s mind. This trailer already set off a huge debate and it probably will not quiet down anytime soon.
