Comic-Con 2016: Moana heroine won't have a love interest in film

Disney’s Moana doesn’t hit theaters until November but Comic-Con attendees not only learned the plot of the animated film, they also got to see several clips at the Thursday panel moderated by EW’s own Marc Snetiker.

Set 2,000 years ago in the South Pacific, Moana is the story of the titular 16-year-old girl, voiced by newcomer Auli’i Cravalho, who goes in search of a banished demi god named Maui (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) in order to, naturally, save the world.

Directors John Musker and Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid) gave the audience a surprise by showing the first three minutes of the film which features Moana’s grandmother telling her the legend of Maui. Fans also got to see young Moana’s first experience with the ocean and a grown up Moana meeting Maui for the first time. The footage was vibrant, colorful, funny and surprisingly moving (Hint: Moana and the ocean have a magical relationship).

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Musker and Clements made a point to say that Moana doesn’t have a love interest in this story and that it’s a film about the heroine finding herself.

The pair also revealed that Johnson sings in the film with a song specifically written for him by one of Moana‘s composers, Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton).

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