Moana, Disney's upcoming feature set 2,000 years ago in the South Pacific, doesn't come out until 2018, but that hasn't stopped fan artists from sketching up their own visions of the film's seafaring princess.
Top image by Kathryn Hudson.
Only one image associated with Moana has come out, and Disney has said that it isn't concept art for the movie, which focuses on Moana Waialiki, the only daughter of a chief from a long line of navigators. But based on that artwork and the setting of the film, a handful of artists have started drawing their own visions of Moana, drawing from various South Pacific cultures.
The Daily Dot notes that some of this fanart glee might be a reaction to the disappointment a lot of folks felt regarding Frozen, which included aspects of Sami culture in its design, but included no Sami characters failed to include the diverse physical appearances of Sami people, instead giving us a pair of typically white, slender female protagonists who look very much like Rapunzel in Tangled. This eagerness to explore the world of Moana, even at this extremely early stage, seems to reflect some excitement at seeing another non-white princess added to the Disney canon.
Here are a few of the pieces that have popped up on Tumblr and deviantART:
This image, by Batty, focuses on Moana as a sailor and a navigator:
From Emma's Disney World
Also from Emma's Disney World
By Gilly
Why the Internet refused to wait for Moana, the Disney princess of 2018 [The Daily Dot via Neatorama]