If the fate of the live-action Moana movie is keeping you up at night, then I'm here to set your mind at ease.

It's a very pleasant watch, with a beloved story and characters that have clearly been handled with care, creating a film that stays true to the message of the original offering.

One of the highlights of the film hits you from the moment the opening scene appears on the big screen. The movie is visually beautiful, and the meticulous attention to detail is evident in everything from the beautifully crafted village, to the island, and ocean backdrops and the culturally significant costumes.

The ensemble for the live-action Moana was composed of over 200 actors from the Pacific and was directed and executive produced by Thomas Kail, who developed and directed the Tony Award-winning Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton and who also directed and produced the Emmy Award-winning live capture of Hamilton for Disney+.

The new live-action offering follows the same storyline and characters as the beloved 2016 animated movie of the same name.

Listen to Laura Brodnik interview the cast of Moana, article continues.

Moana (played by Australian actress Catherine Lagaʻaia) lives on the island of Motunui and longs to voyage across the sea. She is forbidden from voyaging by her father, the chief of Motunui, but when the island begins to wilt and decay, she has no choice but set out on an adventure to save her people. On her journey, she teams up with the shape-shifting demigod Maui (played by Dwayne Johnson, who had previously voiced the character in both animated movies).

Thomas Kail told Mamamia that one of his goals for the film was ensuring the world of Moana felt like a real place that you can reach out and touch.

"We knew we had the chance to make something that feels like, when you finish this movie, you want to search the globe and say 'Where's that island? I want to go there'," he said. "Even though it's a fictional island, we wanted to make it feel real.

"We wanted to honour the original film, but we weren't ever afraid to have a different scene or to approach things differently. To make this film feel like ours. I come from the theatre, where working on a revival is a similar sort of task, where you have to trust the material but make it your own."

Australian actress Catherine Lagaʻaia was selected to play the role of Moana out of 32,000 applications, and said filming the action-heavy movie on location in Hawaii was an experience she had to take one day at a time.

"Every single day was a little bit different, and you could never guess what was going to happen," Catherine told Mamamia. "So my approach to it was to trust the people whose hands I was in, and just think 'so tomorrow I have to fall into this tank and the next day I have to stay on this boat'. I was just focused on whatever was happening next.

Watch Mamamia's interview with Catherine. Story continues below.

"It all felt very family-like when we were filming in Hawaii," the 19-year-old actress continued. "There were so many people that I recognised, and there were so many familiar faces around that I felt very safe on set, and we hadn't given this movie out to the world yet.

"Now that we're in Sydney, my hometown, where I grew up, I have no idea what the future holds or what it's going to look like. That is the phrase I live by, so I will figure things out, and it all feels like a kind of amazing, beautiful ending for this process."

The new live-action Moana is very much a love letter to the original movie, made to celebrate its cultural significance and to entertain fans who love this particular tale of adventure.

Moana is in cinemas now.