‘Moana’ on ABC: How to Watch, What Time and What Channel

Disney’s 2016 animated feature Moana will air Tuesday night for an evening of family-friendly entertainment. The film, which is presented by Disney+, will kick off at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Anyone with cable, or a TV antenna, should be able to get ABC, just check your local listings to make sure.

For those who prefer to stream their entertainment, AT&T Direct TV, YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV all carry ABC as part of their packages. The latter two can be streamed directly to your devices, and offer free trials for non-subscribers. If anyone is unable to watch it live, the film can be streamed anytime on Disney+.

The story involves the young Moana (Auli’i Cravalho), who goes seeking out the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) after a terrible curse he unleashed reaches her island. Initially released on Thanksgiving weekend in 2016, it was a box-office hit and still boasts a 95 percent score on RottenTomatoes. Along with the broadcast, Cravalho and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda will be live-tweeting throughout the two-hour runtime. Some special surprise guests will show up, as well. It also marks the latest iteration of The Wonderful World of Disney, which will follow Moana with Big Hero 6, Up and Thor: The Dark World in the coming weeks.

The Wonderful World of Disney was one of many subtitles that Disney dolled out over the years whenever a broadcast network would air one of their films. It started back in 1954 as Walt Disney’s Disneyland, which also tied in advertisements for the theme park, which was brand new at the time. It was first called The Wonderful World of Disney from 1969 through 1979, then shuffled through a handful of rebrands before the name was brought back in 1991. While they bounced between the major networks over the years, they’ve been exclusive to ABC since Disney’s acquisition in 1996.

The return of the Disney primetime special is one of the many ways that networks have been adjusting to fill their schedules, given the widespread production shutdowns. So far, it’s meant remote broadcasts, shortened seasons and partially-animated finales to fill the void in the meantime.