Moana Coloring Pages

If your child has watched Moana twenty times, these Moana coloring pages are a good way to spend the twenty-first. They cost nothing to print, and they follow her from the beaches of her island to the open sea, with Maui, Heihei and Gramma Tala along for the trip.

Inside the collection:

• Moana at sea: paddling a canoe, steering a small sailboat, standing on her sailing canoe under its tall sail.
• Island life on Motunui: weaving a basket, climbing a coconut palm, thatched huts between the palms.
• Friends and family: Maui with his giant fish hook, Heihei the rooster, Gramma Tala in the garden, and the ocean itself.
• Portraits of Moana with a flower in her curly hair.
• Holiday pages for Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day and birthdays.

Moana's story in a few lines

Moana is the daughter of Chief Tui on the island of Motunui, in Disney's animated film Moana (2016). The island is dying, and the ocean has chosen her to fix it: she must find the demigod Maui and return the stolen heart of the island goddess Te Fiti.

She sails beyond the reef against her father's wishes, guided by the stories of her grandmother, Gramma Tala, and by the old art of wayfinding: reading the stars, the waves and the currents to cross the ocean. Moana 2 (2024) sends her back to sea to reconnect the peoples of the islands.

One of the quietest pages here comes from an early scene. Each chief of Motunui places a stone on top of the island's peak, and Moana stands by that tall stack of stones above the sea.

Maui and Heihei coloring pages

Maui is a shapeshifting demigod, big, proud and covered in tattoos that tell the story of his deeds. On his page he stands on a rock with his magic fish hook resting on his shoulder. The tattoo patterns on his chest and arms make it one of the busier sheets, a good pick for an older child with fine markers.

Heihei is the rooster who stows away on Moana's boat and almost walks off it a dozen times. Here he sleeps curled up next to Moana in her boat, under a single star. Chicken lovers can find more feathered friends in the chicken coloring pages.

The ocean as a character

In the film the ocean is alive, and it helps Moana by raising a wave like a hand. Moana stands knee-deep in the water and reaches out to a curling wave shaped like a hand. Color the wave in layers of turquoise and deep blue, and leave the foam white.

What colors to use for Moana

Moana's look is warm and earthy, which makes her easy to recognize:

• Skin: warm brown, a little lighter on the cheeks.
• Hair: very dark brown or black, long and curly.
• Top: red-orange, sometimes with a cream pattern.
• Skirt: tan or beige made of woven fibers, with darker patterns along the hem.
• Necklace: a pendant with a blue shell, which holds the heart of Te Fiti.
• Flower in her hair: white or pink, often a plumeria.

Coloring Moana's curls

Her hair is the biggest shape on most pages. Color it in dark brown first, then go over it in black with long, curving strokes that follow each curl, leaving thin gaps where the light catches. It looks full and wavy instead of flat, the way it moves in the film when the wind fills her sail.

For Maui, use a medium brown for the skin and a dark brown or black for the tattoos. His fish hook is carved from whale bone, so a cream color with gray shading looks right.

Ocean and island pages

Much of the collection is set on the water. Moana swims with a sea turtle above the coral, stands at the shore with fish swimming around her feet, and paddles through splashing waves. The ocean coloring pages, the turtle coloring pages and the fish coloring pages carry on below the surface.

On land, she weaves palm fronds into a basket, climbs a coconut tree, and tends large taro leaves with Gramma Tala. The huts and woven mats of Motunui fill a whole page with no characters at all, a calm sheet for a child who likes drawing places. For more islands, the Hawaii coloring pages and the beach coloring pages share the same sun and palms.

Moana Christmas, Halloween and birthday pages

Moana celebrates the holidays her own way. She carves a jack o'lantern and collects candy in a pointy witch hat, ready to join the Halloween coloring pages. In December she wears a Santa hat with a present, puts a star on a little tree and even builds a snowman on the beach, next to the Christmas coloring pages.

Spring brings a basket of decorated eggs for the Easter coloring pages. For birthdays, Moana leans over a cake with five candles, and in February she hugs a heart balloon under a palm tree.

Simple Moana sheets for little sailors, harder ones for big kids

The portraits, the heart balloon and the coconut palm leave wide spaces for a young child to fill. Quick to color puts these simpler Moana sheets first:

• Moana Portrait with a Flower
• Moana with a Heart Balloon
• Moana and the Ocean Wave

Maui's tattoos, the woven basket and the village of huts take patience and a sharp pencil. Lots of detail gathers them at the top of the grid:

• Moana Weaving a Basket
• Moana with an Easter Basket
• Maui with His Fish Hook

Children who love Moana usually enjoy other adventurous heroines too: the princess coloring pages, the Frozen coloring pages and the mermaid coloring pages. Fans of island life will also like the Stitch coloring pages, set in Hawaii.

A Moana party or a summer afternoon

Moana pages suit a beach birthday, a luau or a hot afternoon:

1. Print the canoe, the sea turtle, the birthday cake and Maui.
2. Put out blues, greens, browns and one bright red-orange.
3. While the kids color, ask them to name a place they would sail to.
4. Hang the finished pages in a line, like a voyage from the island to the open sea.

A string of colored pages along a wall, with paper waves underneath, makes a simple party decoration. Older kids can cut out Moana and her canoe and glue them onto a blue paper plate painted like the sea, a small craft that keeps a party busy for half an hour.

Getting the Moana voyage onto paper

Each page downloads as an A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi, free for home and class. The sail and the palm leaves often run near the edges, so on Letter paper the fit to page setting saves their tips. To print the voyage in one go, collect the pages in your Add to pack list first, then download one file. The printing guide has the steps for each browser.