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The X-rated reason Disney’s Moana is being renamed in Italy

Disney Animation’s latest big screen adventure ‘Moana’ is set to hit screens worldwide very soon – but it won’t be appearing under that title everywhere.

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In Italy, the animated feature will be renamed ‘Oceania,’ as its original title has associations with somewhat less family friendly entertainment.

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Variety claim the studio have changed the film’s title as on Italian shores the name Moana is synonymous with one person: the late pornographic film star Moana Pozzi.

Pozzi was a somewhat unique figure in the adult film industry. After working in porn throughout the 1980s, she also moved into writing and even politics in the 1990s, co-founding the Love Party of Italy and running for mayor of Rome.

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She passed away in 1994 from liver cancer, but remains a household name on Italian shores, which threatened to put Disney’s new movie in a highly awkward position.

As an unnamed Italian marketing expert told Variety, “If you type ‘Moana’ and do a Google search in Italy you risk coming up with porn videos. And it’s very expensive and a waste of money to try and change that.”

As such, Disney opted to play it safe and retitle the film.

It will also be retitled ‘Vaiana’ in Spain and France, for the rather less sensational reason that Moana is a registered trademark in those countries.

‘Moana’ opens (under its original title) in UK cinemas on 2 December.

Picture credit: Disney, Getty Images