INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Moana’ Hidden Easter Eggs Revealed

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 03:35 PST, Dec 26, 2016

Moana has been a big hit at the box office, but not nearly as big of a hit as Frozen, according to Entertainment Weekly. The latest animated feature by Disney may have failed to challenge the all-time animated champ Frozen, but at least it has fun Easter eggs and hidden cameos all over it.

Moana is centered around a girl in the South Pacific who goes on an adventurous trip across the ocean with a demigod. Only the most attentive die-hard fans of Disney have probably noticed that there were a few hidden Easter eggs in the new Disney film.

While it’s understandably easy to miss those hidden Easter eggs, Moana viewers have found references to at least four classic animated features: The Little Mermaid, Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6, and, of course, Frozen.

Flounder from The Little Mermaid popped up at least several times in Moana. And it doesn’t come as a surprise considering that the two animated features were helmed by the same directors.

In particular, Flounder from the 1989 Disney classic can be seen a few times throughout Moana. In the post-credits scene, die-hard Disney fans noticed Flounder pop up when giant crustacean Tamatoa references Sebastian the crab.

But Disney fans can get a better look at Flounder during a montage when Maui, a character voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, sings the anthem “You’re Welcome.”

Disney wouldn’t be Disney if it didn’t have a Frozen reference in Moana. The reindeer Sven from Frozen made a pretty noticeable appearance in a scene when Maui fails to transform into different animals. It’s also tough to miss a reference to Frozen’s Marshmallow, the personal bodyguard of Elsa when baby Moana and Chief Tui look at a tapa featuring a monster etching.

Those who had watched Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph probably also noticed Wreck-It Ralph himself appear on those same tapa cloths that can be seen in the Motunui village. On the tapa, Wreck-It Ralph can be seen centuries before he begins his adventures in the internet data space described in the announced 2018 sequel.

But what was probably the coolest cameo in Moana was the appearance of Baymax from Big Hero 6. The inflatable robotic synthformer inspired an outfit of one of those coco creatures who chases Moana and Maui across the ocean.

Those who haven’t seen Moana yet have an exclusive chance to get a glimpse of the new Disney animated feature on YouTube, according to the Verge. Pretty much all of the Moana reviews on the internet praise the animated film starring The Rock for its remarkable soundtrack.

Apparently, Disney decided to repeat the same marketing strategy it did with Frozen three years ago. Disney made the 2013 classic’s hit song “Let It Go” fully and legally available on YouTube about a week after the animated feature hit theaters.

With Moana, Disney has done basically the same thing. However, this time the company decided to leak more than just one soundtrack from its latest animated film. In fact, Disney has uploaded almost all major musical numbers from Moana to YouTube.

The most recent musical number uploaded by Disney is the overly catchy “You’re Welcome” anthem sung by The Rock’s character Maui. The video has so far been watched nearly a million times, which is a far cry from “Let It Go,” which already has almost a billion hits on YouTube.

The list of musical numbers from Moana available on YouTube also includes “How Far I’ll Go” by Auli’i Cravalho, “We Know the Way” by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foa’I, and “Shiny” by Jemaine Clement.

[Featured Image by Jesse Grant/Getty Images]

Share this article: ‘Moana’ Hidden Easter Eggs Revealed
wreck it ralph the little mermaid Frozen
More from Inquisitr