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15 Movies to Watch If You Love Moana
- Joao Nsita
- 7 hours ago
- 12 min read
If Moana left you breathless, inspired, and ready to sail into the unknown — you are not alone, and you are absolutely not done finding films that give you that same feeling.
The magic of Moana is specific: it combines breathtaking animation, ocean mythology, female courage, a soundtrack that lives in your head forever, and a story about finding your purpose that works for every age simultaneously. But finding other films that check even half those boxes can feel overwhelming when you are standing in front of an endless streaming menu.
This list does the work for you. It ranks the 15 best movies to watch if you love Moana — covering Disney and Pixar, DreamWorks, Studio Ghibli, and international animation — from the good to the absolutely unmissable. Every film on this list shares something essential with Moana: a journey, a heroine with something to prove, a world built with visual love, or a story about belonging that hits harder than you expected from an animated film.
Whether you are looking for your next family movie night, a solo watch with the volume up, or the exact feeling of How Far I'll Go but in a new universe — this is your guide.
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15. Brave (2012) — Pixar's Most Underrated Princess Story 🏹
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Pixar
Why It Feels Like Moana: A fiercely independent young woman who refuses the path chosen for her, set in a world of ancient myth, with breathtaking natural landscape animation and a story about who you choose to be vs. who you are told to be.
Merida is a Scottish princess who wants to change her fate and accidentally transforms her mother into a bear — which is not, by any reasonable standard, how you planned your day to go. But beneath the comedy, Brave is one of Pixar's most emotionally specific films: a story about the relationship between mothers and daughters, about the cost of not listening, and about what happens when love and stubbornness collide in a family.
Like Moana, Brave is set in a world of ancient Celtic mythology rendered with extraordinary visual care, and its heroine is driven by the same quality of fierce, ungovernable heart that makes Moana irresistible.
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14. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) — Disney's Most Underrated Adventure 🔵
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: An ocean world, ancient mythology, a young hero following a calling that others dismiss, and stunning world-building that rewards attention.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire follows linguist Milo Thatch on an expedition to find the lost city, and it is one of Disney's most visually ambitious and most consistently underrated films. The underwater world-building is extraordinary, and the story's engagement with colonialism, cultural preservation, and what we owe to ancient knowledge gives it a thematic depth that rewards adult viewers alongside the adventure pleasures it delivers for children.
For Moana fans who responded to the ocean mythology and the visual scale, Atlantis is essential viewing.
13. Encanto (2021) — The Colombian Disney Magic That Swept the World 🌺
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: Both are Disney films celebrating non-European culture with genuine love and specificity, both have Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical fingerprints, and both centre on a young woman carrying the weight of her family's expectations.
Encanto follows Mirabel, the one member of the Madrigal family who did not receive a magical gift, navigating the weight of being the only ordinary person in an extraordinary family. The music — "We Don't Talk About Bruno" became one of Disney's biggest chart hits in history — is both the film's greatest achievement and its most immediate pleasure. But what stays after the songs is the emotional intelligence with which Encanto handles family pressure and the specific cost of being the one who does not fit.
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12. Mulan (1998) — The Defiant Classic That Changed Disney 🐉
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: A young woman who refuses the life her society has prescribed for her, who proves everyone wrong through courage and intelligence rather than through conventional beauty or romance, with a soundtrack that delivers.
Mulan is the most direct predecessor to Moana in Disney's catalogue — the original film about a young woman who takes on a challenge the world believes belongs only to men and remakes the world's assumptions about her through sheer force of capability. Reflection is still one of Disney's finest emotional songs, and the film's engagement with identity, honour, and belonging has not aged a day.
11. Spirited Away (2001) — Studio Ghibli's Most Magical World 🌸
Streaming: Netflix / Max Studio: Studio Ghibli
Why It Feels Like Moana: A young girl alone in a world of ancient spirits and mythology, finding her courage one impossible task at a time, in a film animated with the most extraordinary attention to visual detail in the history of the medium.
Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003 and remains one of the greatest animated films ever made. Ten-year-old Chihiro is trapped in a spirit world that runs by rules she does not understand, and she must find her way home through a combination of courage, stubbornness, and the specific quality of refusing to give up that Moana would recognise immediately.
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10. Coco (2017) — The Most Emotionally Devastating Pixar Film 💀
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Pixar
Why It Feels Like Moana: Both are animated films celebrating specific non-Western cultures with genuine depth and research; both centre on a young person's relationship with their ancestors; both use music as a primary emotional vehicle; and both will make you cry in public with no warning whatsoever.
Miguel dreams of becoming a musician in a family that has banned music for generations. On Día de los Muertos, he crosses into the Land of the Dead and must find his way home before sunrise — uncovering family secrets and understanding his heritage in ways that transform his relationship to both music and identity. Remember Me is one of the great Disney/Pixar songs, and the film's ending is one of the most emotionally devastating sequences in any animated film of this century.
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9. Princess Mononoke (1997) — Studio Ghibli's Most Epic Fantasy 🌲
Streaming: Netflix / Max Studio: Studio Ghibli
Why It Feels Like Moana: Both films centre on a young protagonist in conflict with forces larger than themselves, navigating a world of spirits and deities with a worldbuilding specificity that rewards attention, in animation that is simply stunning.
Princess Mononoke is Hayao Miyazaki's epic fantasy about the war between industrialisation and the ancient forest spirits — a film whose moral complexity refuses easy resolution and whose visual achievement has never been surpassed in the medium. For Moana fans who are ready to encounter animation that treats them as fully capable of sitting with ambiguity, this is the recommendation.
Note: Princess Mononoke is rated PG-13 and contains intense violence — best for older children and adult viewers.
8. Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) — Southeast Asia's Disney Adventure 💎
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: A warrior heroine on a quest to save her world, set in a richly imagined Southeast Asian-inspired universe, with the same combination of breathtaking animation and thematic seriousness about trust, community, and the courage it takes to believe in people who have hurt you.
Raya of the tribe Kumandra must find and reunite the five lands divided by ancient conflict to bring back Sisu, the last dragon, and save her world from the Druun. The film's specific visual world — inspired by Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines — is extraordinary, and Kelly Marie Tran's performance as Raya brings the same quality of fierce, determined vulnerability that Auliʻii Cravalho brought to Moana.
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7. Brother Bear (2003) — Disney's Most Undersung Emotional Film 🐻
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: Both are Disney films set within specific indigenous cultural contexts, both centre on a protagonist who must undergo a profound transformation of perspective to understand their purpose, and both have Phil Collins adjacent musical energy that stays with you.
Kenai, an Inuit boy who kills a bear and is transformed into one by his totem of love, must journey with the bear cub whose mother he killed to reach the Mountain of the Spirits — a road trip that changes everything Kenai thought he knew about what it means to be a man in his culture. Deeply underrated, genuinely emotional, and set in a world animated with extraordinary natural beauty.
6. Luca (2021) — Pixar's Most Joyful Summer Film ☀️
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Pixar
Why It Feels Like Moana: Both are films about a protagonist who belongs to one world and is inexorably drawn to another — who must reconcile the call of the ocean, literally in Moana's case and metaphorically in Luca's, with the demands of the community that loves and needs them.
Luca is a sea monster boy who ventures to the surface world and discovers the pleasures of pasta, Vespas, and best friendship in a sun-drenched Italian seaside town. What it is actually about is the specific terror and joy of being yourself in a world that does not know what you are — and the friends who see you for exactly that and love you anyway. Pure joy.
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5. Tangled (2010) — The Disney Renaissance Comeback 💛
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation Why It Feels Like Moana: Rapunzel's "I've been dreaming of a far-off place" energy is the direct predecessor to Moana's "How Far I'll Go" — a young woman who has never seen the world and contains more capability than her circumstances have allowed her to discover.
Rapunzel, kept in a tower by a manipulative woman who has claimed her as a daughter, ventures out to see the floating lanterns she has spent her life watching from afar. The comedy, the romance, and the emotional sincerity of Tangled make it one of the most purely enjoyable Disney films of the 2010s — and Mandy Moore's I See the Light is still one of Disney's most beautiful musical moments.
4. The Princess and the Frog (2009) — Disney's Most Underrated Masterpiece 🐸
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: Tiana is the Disney princess who most shares Moana's specific quality: a heroine defined by purpose, by the hard work of building something, and by the discovery that what she thought she wanted and what she needed were subtly different things.
Tiana's story is set in Jazz Age New Orleans, and the film's musical DNA — swinging between gorgeous jazz, gospel-inflected emotion, and genuine New Orleans atmosphere — gives it a sonic identity as distinctive as Moana's Polynesian-inspired score. Almost There is one of Disney's most underrated princess songs, and Tiana one of its most genuinely admirable heroines.
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3. The Little Mermaid (1989) — The Ocean Princess That Started Everything 🧜
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: Ariel is the ocean princess who started the conversation that Moana continues — a young woman drawn to a world beyond her borders, defying a loving but controlling father to pursue a calling she feels as deeply as breathing.
The Little Mermaid launched Disney's renaissance and established the template for every animated heroine who came after it. Part of Your World is the spiritual ancestor of How Far I'll Go — both songs about the ache of belonging to one world and feeling called to another — and the film's combination of gorgeous undersea animation and emotional sincerity has not dimmed in over three decades.
2. The Lion King (1994) — Disney's Most Iconic Journey 🦁
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Feels Like Moana: Both are Disney films about a young hero who runs from their destiny and must return to claim it — who must reconcile who they were told they are with who they have discovered themselves to be — in a world of ancient spirits, spectacular animation, and a score that changes you.
The Lion King is still Disney's greatest achievement of its era — a film about grief, responsibility, and the specific weight of becoming who your people need you to be. Remember Who You Are is the spiritual antecedent of Moana's You're Welcome and I Am Moana — a reminder of identity and purpose delivered through the medium of gorgeous animated spectacle.
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1. Frozen (2013) — The Film That Made Sisterhood the Story 🌨️❄️
Streaming: Disney+ Studio: Walt Disney Animation
Why It Ranks First: Frozen is the closest film in spirit to Moana — a Disney film that centres female courage and identity, has a world built from specific cultural mythology (Scandinavian in Frozen's case), delivers songs that become instant cultural phenomena, and asks questions about purpose and belonging that land with equal power for adults and children.
Elsa and Anna's story — the secret-keeping, the isolation, the act of love that breaks the curse — is a masterwork of Disney emotional storytelling, and Let It Go is the most culturally pervasive Disney song since Hakuna Matata. Like Moana, Frozen arrives at its emotional resolution not through romantic love but through the love between women who have chosen each other — which is both the films' most progressive quality and their most emotionally satisfying.
For Moana fans who have not revisited Frozen recently: it is better than you remember.
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Conclusion
Moana is a once-in-a-generation animated film — one that combines visual perfection, cultural depth, musical genius, and a heroine whose specific courage resonates across every age group. Finding its equals is difficult but not impossible.
The 15 films on this list share something with Moana: the feeling of watching a world built with love, a heroine finding her purpose, and a story that stays with you long after the credits finish rolling. Start with Frozen if you want the closest spiritual sibling. Start with Spirited Away if you are ready for animation that will genuinely expand what you think is possible in the medium. Start with Coco if you want to cry in the most beautiful possible way.
And after any of them, remember: the ocean is patient. Your next great animated discovery is always one choice away.
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10 Frequently Asked Questions
1. What movies are most similar to Moana? The closest films to Moana are Frozen (Disney, 2013), Raya and the Last Dragon (Disney, 2021), and Coco (Pixar, 2017) — all share Moana's combination of cultural specificity, a brave female protagonist, and songs that become immediate cultural phenomena. Spirited Away (Studio Ghibli) is the strongest comparison for visual ambition and mythological world-building.
2. Are all these films appropriate for young children? Most films on this list are rated G or PG and appropriate for family viewing. The exceptions are Princess Mononoke (PG-13, intense animated violence) and Spirited Away (PG, some frightening imagery). All Disney and Pixar films on this list are family-appropriate.
3. Where can I stream these movies? Most Disney and Pixar films on this list are available on Disney+. Studio Ghibli films (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) are available on Netflix and Max. Luca, Coco, Brave, and other Pixar films are on Disney+.
4. What is the best Disney movie for Moana fans? Frozen is the best overall recommendation for Moana fans — it shares the cultural depth, the songs that become phenomena, the female-centred story, and the specific emotional intelligence that makes Moana so special.
5. What is the best non-Disney film for Moana fans? Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli is the strongest non-Disney recommendation — it matches Moana's mythological world-building and visual ambition in a way that no other animated film can claim.
6. Is Moana 2 similar to Moana? Moana 2 (2024) returns Moana and Maui for a new adventure finding the lost island of Motufetu. It is generally considered slightly weaker than the original but delivers the same visual spectacle, ocean adventure energy, and musical pleasures that Moana fans love.
7. What is the most underrated film on this list? The Princess and the Frog (2009) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) are the most consistently underrated films on this list — both deserve significantly more attention than they typically receive.
8. What Studio Ghibli film is most like Moana? Spirited Away is the most direct comparison in terms of mythological world-building and the journey of a young girl through a world of ancient spirits. Princess Mononoke is the stronger comparison for thematic seriousness and visual ambition.
9. Is Encanto really similar to Moana? Yes — both Encanto and Moana celebrate specific non-European cultures with genuine love and research, both feature Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical touch, and both centre on a young woman navigating the specific weight of family and community expectations.
10. Which film on this list has the best songs? This is subjective, but Frozen (Let It Go), The Lion King (Circle of Life, Can You Feel the Love Tonight), and Coco (Remember Me) have the strongest case for the best individual songs. Tangled's I See the Light and The Little Mermaid's Part of Your World are also genuinely great.
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