There's a difference between children painting Polynesian-looking tattoos on themselves because they think they're cool, and a multinational corporation exploiting whatever fragments of culture seem profitable, and wallpapering “Disney magic” over the rest.

Imagine the uproar if Disney made a film about Christian culture – maybe some story about St Paul going on a quest to slay a dragon using Jesus Cant (the tongue of magic) – and then started selling tacky Body-of-Christ merch (or something), and that was the only representation of Christianity in mainstream culture. Some people would get upset, and I don't think they'd be unjustified.

I do have a problem with movie merchandise in general for being cheaply made plastic garbage, I just don't think there's anything more egregious about the Maui costume than anything else. And Christians already have the market cornered with tacky Body-of-Crist merch in the form of Mass play sets. If you ask me the Orthodox have the right idea, just give the kids the real Holy Communion from the moment they're baptised, bypassing the whole need for that garbage, but that's besides the point.

I think Moana was actually very good, and I was greatly and pleasantly surprised to see something of that quality come out of Disney. It's a captivating story that stands on its own legs without any pandering or preaching, and I see nothing wrong with how it represents Polynesian culture.

I can confirm that Moana (the movi) induced respect and interest in Polynesian culture in me. Fortunately prevalence of crap merchandise is not wide where we live (in EU).

I've heard criticism of Maui (e.g. being fat, which apparently is a stereotype), but as Disney goes, I think Moana the film was pretty respectful.

But Disney seems to think “we made a film of this” entitles them to Intellectual Property ownership of all the concepts the film covers.