Moana / Funny - TV Tropes

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Teasers and Trailers:

Maui is telling Moana his story, claiming he stopped the sun with his fish hook, pulled an island from underwater, and fought monsters. This is told through the tattoos on his body, until we see the actual Maui while his tattoo counterpart is dancing. Maui tells Mini to stop, and he droops sadly.
Moana's weirded-out look after all of Maui's haka, prompting him to say "Nothin'? Really?? What's a demigod gotta do?"
Heihei stepping off the boat with a dumb look on his face.

Movie:

The beginning of the film when Gramma Tala is telling the village children the story of Te Fiti, Maui, and all the monsters out there. When she said "OF INESCAPABLE DEATH!", one child starts crying and another child faints, but baby Moana is fully invested and excited.
- Then Tui comes in and tells them not to worry, as there are no such things as monsters...and accidentally unrolls a bunch of tapa cloths depicting horrible monsters that cover the entire hut and thus plunging it into darkness. The children then absolutely lose it.
  Kid #1: (while the children are running around in terror) Monsters, monsters!
  Kid #2: It's the darkness!
  Kid #3: No, no, no, no, no, no!
  Tui: There's no monsters, no monsters—
  Kid #4: I'm gonna throw up!
Moana tries some pork that a villager offers her. She comments that it's delicious...right in front of an upset little Pua the piglet.
- Pua means "pig" and "pork" in Proto-Polynesian. She's essentially calling him delicious to his face.
Moana gets an extremely underage admirer trying to flirt with her during her dance class. It's also the only time anybody tries anything romantic with her during the movie.
- Moana's incredibly awkward facial expression in response to the kid's behavior makes it even better.
Heihei. So much comedy gold from the stupidest rooster in the world.
- Let's begin with the fact that Alan Tudyk voiced Heihei, and rather than treat it like the giant joke it was, he gave it his everything as if he were the star of the show. And he became the star of the show.
- His introduction:
  Old Man: I'm curious about the chicken eating the rock. [Heihei repeatedly pecks a rock] He seems to lack the basic intelligence required for pretty much...everything. Should we maybe just cook him?
  Moana: Sometimes our strengths lie beneath the surface. [Heihei swallows the rock, which is bigger than his head.] Far beneath in some cases. But I'm sure there's more to Heihei than meets the eye! [She grins awkwardly. Heihei spits up the rock...only to begin pecking at it again]
- Moana discovering Heihei! She has an expression on her face that screams You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!. It leads into the scene described below.
  Moana: [Removes coconut from Heihei's head then puts it back] Heihei?!?!?
- Heihei the stowaway. Looks right, water. Looks left, water. Looks all around, water. Twitchy Eye. Camera pulls back.
  Heihei: BA-AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWK!
- When Moana puts the coconut shell back on his head, Heihei stops screaming. Only to continue when she takes it off, twice, and higher-pitched each time.
- Within the first few seconds of him being on the boat, he walks directly off and almost drowns, so stupid that he doesn't even try to right himself when he's floating head down, leading Moana to dive in after him.
- When they get back to the boat, Heihei almost immediately does the exact same thing. When Moana realizes this, she drops him in the storage compartment for safekeeping. Unfazed, Heihei continues to pace back and forth, bouncing off the edges like some kind of malfunctioning robot.
- When the waves start to get rough at night, Moana starts reciting her Survival Mantra. Cut to Heihei sliding from side to side in the storage compartment, still with the same dumb look on his face.
- Even better is when even the Ocean has had enough of Heihei falling off the boat and picks him up, stuffs him into a basket, puts the lid on, puts that into the storage compartment of the boat, and then for emphasis slams down the storage cover to make sure it's staying there. It even gives a satisfied "There!" kind of nod afterwards.
- And then he still tries to walk into the Ocean at the end of the movie. In response, the Ocean (presumably because it's simply grown tired of the chicken's stupidity) simply picks him up, spins him on his heels, and sends him off in the opposite direction.
- As he's stealing Moana's boat, Maui sets out some food for Heihei so he can fatten Heihei up and eat him. Heihei starts pecking the empty deck next to the food, and has to have his head turned in the right direction. Maui's expression really sells it.
- Maui tries to feed Heihei again, only for the chicken not to eat. Maui has to push Heihei's head down into the food twice, like a drinkie bird, before the chicken starts eating on his own.
  - As Maui tells Moana to stay behind, you can see Heihei in the background pecking the empty deck next to the pile of food.
- Maui gets back into practice with his hook by starting small, shapeshifting into a beetle—which Heihei promptly swallows. Considering that Maui originally wanted to eat Heihei himself, this could also be considered a minor form of Laser-Guided Karma.
  - The icing on the cake is how once Maui transforms back to normal, he has an irritated look on his face while Heihei just dumbly hangs off his finger.
- Blink and you miss it: When Moana is sailing back for round two with Te Kā; and ash starts falling, Heihei eats a piece of ash out of the air.
- He also gets a couple moments in the "Where You Are" sequence. The first is when he's in a line of roosters hopping over a taro root with a coconut shell on his head. Moana takes it off so he won't trip, and he does anyway. The second comes when Moana, her mother, and some of the village women are cooking something on coals, and Heihei sits down on them.
When Moana tries to hide the fact that she just had set out with a boat into the sea only to nearly drown, her cool grandma reassures her with "Whatever just happened... blame it on the pig." and that it will be their secret with "I'm [Tui's] mom. I don't need to tell him anything!"
Moana finds her grandmother dancing with manta rays in the shallows;
Tala: When I die, I'm going to come back as one of these...or I chose the wrong tattoo. (Turns her back showing a manta ray-shaped drawing)
Moana: Why are you acting weird?
Tala: I'm the village crazy lady. That's my job.
Though Grandma Tala's death scene is a sad affair, she tells Moana to "grab him by the ear" when she meets Maui. She does. One problem, however: Maui has Super-Strength and isn't fazed in the least.
At one point during the trip to Maui's island, Moana starts drifting off, only for the Ocean to rise up behind her and give her a quick smack on the head, causing her to wake up with a startled "Board my boat!"
After getting washed up on Maui's island, Moana gets outright pissed off because the Ocean ignored her pleas during a storm.
Moana: Um... WHAT?! I said "HELP ME"! And wrecking my boat?! NOT! HELPING!! (kicks at the ocean, which pulls out, and she topples to the ground) Fish pee in you! All day! So... [scowls]
Maui freaks out when he first sees Moana and Heihei, complete with terrified scream.
Maui (picking up boat single-handedly): A BOAT! The gods... have given me... a bAAAAAAUGH!
(Maui fumbles the boat back to the ground and recoils)
Moana tries to introduce herself to Maui, who keeps interrupting and talking over her. She finally wallops him in the stomach with her oar and grabs him by the ear to make him shut up. It's even funnier because that's exactly what her grandmother told her to do.
- During this, Maui assumes she came for an autograph and uses Heihei to sign her oar, telling her, "When you use a bird to write with, it's called 'tweeting.'"
- Also, despite the fact that he's been trapped on that island for 1,000 years with no visitors, and Moana's boat clearly washing up there by mere happenstance, Maui's first assumption when he sees her is that she's a fan of his who came looking for an autograph.
Without even watching the scene, listening to Maui's song "You're Welcome" becomes hilarious as towards of the end, Maui suddenly changes from singing about his divine creations to how the only thing he can't do is "float" and he plans to steal Moana's boat. The best part of this is that Moana is so distracted by his song she remains blissfully unaware of it, even as Maui sings about how he's going to steal her boat and sail away.
- When Maui talks about bringing humans fire, the goddess in his tattoos looks so offended when Mini Maui grabs the fire from her.
- As "You're Welcome" ends and Moana snaps back to reality, she realizes that all of the gifts he gave her were actually random bits of flotsam and jetsam.
  - "And thank you!" before trapping her in a cave.
- Moana's almost Precision F-Strike:
  Moana: (after being trapped in the cave) Wha-- HEY! LET ME OUT! YOU LYING, SLIMY SON OF A--
  Maui: You're welcome....
- Maui grabbing Heihei by the throat and proclaiming the rooster as his snack.
  Maui: Boat snack!
- And how does Moana escape? By climbing a statue of Maui that Maui himself carved. Think about that; he spent one thousand years aggrandizing himself.
- She then charges at Maui, leaping off a cliff at him in a rage (Battle Cry included)... only to come a few inches short in her jump, and belly flop into the water.
  Maui: I could watch that all day.
Maui grabs Heihei and gives the camera a cheery grin, saying, "Boat snack!"
Maui: [to Heihei] I am gonna love you...in mah belly!
The Running Gag of Maui trying to throw Moana off the boat. Emphasis on trying, as the Ocean just puts her back whenever she hits the water.
- It starts with Moana being placed on the boat after missing her leap and falling into the water. The Ocean sticks her on the boat, much to Maui's surprise.
  Maui: Did not see that coming.
- Then as Moana begins to recite her speech, Maui interrupts her mid-sentence by tossing her overboard. She is promptly returned. At this point Maui's more annoyed than surprised.
  Maui: Aaaand she's back.
- Then Maui jerks the boat, causing Moana to topple off. We cut to Maui's satisfied expression...which falls the minute he hears the familiar splash-thud.
  Maui: It was Moana, right?
- When Moana reveals The Heart of Te Fiti, Maui grabs it and throws it as far as he can. The Ocean throws it back into his face. Then Maui tries to leave the boat and the Ocean sticks him back on the boat.
  Maui: OH, COME ON! [Ocean squirts his face with water]
- It's then repeated after the Kakamora battle. Moana makes a deal with Maui and he shakes her hand...only to flip her overboard. And the Ocean puts her back. He doesn't even blink at that.
  Maui: [a soaking wet Moana glares at him and he shrugs] Worth a shot.
Actual hair logic in a Disney movie, as when Moana whips around to be dramatic, her soaked hair slaps across her face and she has to lift it up to speak.
When Moana asks if Maui is afraid of The Heart of Te Fiti, Maui denies it. Mini Maui then starts chewing his nails and running around in mock terror.
Maui: Stay out of this, or you're sleeping in my armpit. You, stop it. That is not a heart. It is a curse.The second I took it, I got blasted outta the sky... and I lost my hook. [Moana brings the heart closer to Maui.] Get it away from me.
Moana: Get this away?
Maui: Hey, hey, hey! I'm a demigod, okay? Stop that. I will smite you! You wanna get smote? Smotten? [Groans] Listen, that thing doesn't give you power to create life... it's a homing beacon of death. If you don't put it away, bad things are gonna come for it.
Moana: Come for this? [raises the heart in the air] The Heart? You mean this heart right here? COME AND GET IT!
Maui: Don't, you can't raise your voice like that! [Shushes Moana] You are gonna get us killed!
Moana: No. I’m gonna get us to Te Fiti, so you can put it back. Thank you. You’re Welcome.
The Kakamora, as an homage to the War Boys in Mad Max: Fury Road, play their own chase music. This includes strapping themselves to bungee cords and bouncing up and down on a giant drum to produce drumbeat.
- Moana comments on how the Kakamora are actually kind of cute, only for them to immediately draw evil faces on their heads after she says that. It comes across as Tempting Fate at its finest.
- When Moana goes on the Kakamora's ship to rescue Heihei, one of them tries to shoot her with a dart. The dart ends up hitting the leader, who turns around and gives the Kakamora the best Death Glare one can muster without any actual facial expression. The Kakamora hides the blowgun behind its back as the leader drops like lead.
- Being coconuts with legs, the Kakamora are kind of cute and don't really have faces to move. So they draw their scary faces on with chalk. It's a little like this.◊
When Maui and Moana are arguing, Mini Maui keeps score with Moana in the lead.
- He later adds another score to Moana after Maui jumps into Lalotai. Maui is confused...only for Mini Maui to gesture upwards and Moana ends up landing on Maui's face.
- Topped by his reaction after she falls screaming into the Realm of Monsters:
  Maui: (shrugs) ...Well, she's dead. Let's go find my hook.
This little bit as Moana is trying to persuade Maui to join her, which could make him a hero:
(zoom in on Maui's tattoo of a crowd cheering)
Whispering Voice: Maui, Maui, Maui, Mauiiii...
(zoom out to reveal Moana behind Maui)
Moana: (still whispering) You're so amazing!
- Moana, with a little smile, explains that yes, Maui may have done all he claims, but everyone only remembers him for stealing Te Fiti's heart and bringing ruin for everyone and he is nobody's hero. Maui looks stunned and glimpses at the ocean... and the Ocean shakes its head (well... a wave) as if saying "Nah, you're really not. You messed up big time, man."
The argument over whether or not Moana is a princess, which Leans On The Fourth Wall in a big way.
Maui: If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you're a princess.
- When she looks off into the distance at one point:
  Maui: If you start singing, I'm going to throw up.
  - ...which gets even funnier when you remember that Maui's own introduction was a musical number.
- The "being the chief's daughter equals princess" bit could be a playful Take That! at the people who ask why Pocahontas is part of the official Disney Princess lineup and Moana's reply about that not counting could be a little Self-Deprecation on Disney's part.
When Moana asks Maui to teach her to sail, Maui adamantly refuses. The Ocean interjects by plucking a Kakamora dart out from the boat and stabbing him in the butt. He's really unimpressed.
Maui: Really? Blow dart in my butt cheek? You are a bad person.
- And then, the Ocean gives Moana the oar, and gives her a high-five.
Maui, immobilized with a Kakamora dart, instructs Moana to search for a warm current. She reports the current is cold, then suddenly it gets warmer... because Maui just pulled a Urine Trouble. Moana's reaction is just priceless.
Moana: EWW! That is disgusting! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
- The giant shit-eating grin on Maui's face just adds to the hilarity.
In a bit of Black Comedy, Maui pretends for a moment that a human sacrifice is needed to enter Lalotai. Moana believes him.
Maui: (laughs) Kidding! So serious!
When Maui is doing the chant before he opens the entrance to Lalotai, his shouting sounds almost exactly like, "I'm nuts! I'm nuts! I'm nuts!"
When Moana and Maui are about to enter Lalotai,
Maui: Don't worry, it's a lot farther down than it looks. CHE-HOOOOOO! (jumps in. Beat) I am still falliiiiiiiiing!
When they're infiltrating Tamatoa's lair, Maui startles Moana by accident and she punches him in the mouth. He looks so shocked and then picks her up by the head, unamused, as she tries to frantically apologize and change the subject.
- Moana being sent in to act as bait for Tamatoa.
  Moana: (banging on a drum, deadpan) Wow. A shiny, glittery cave. And just like me, it is covered in sparkly treasure. Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle.
- And, of course, Maui lampshades the Bad "Bad Acting" and tells Moana she needs to sell it more.
- Moana's Large Ham attempt to get Tamatoa to talk about himself.
  Moana: Because...we mortals...have heard the tale of the crab...that became A LEGEND!
While plenty intimidating, Tamatoa is hilarious thanks in large part to Jemaine Clement's conversational Kiwi^noteNew Zealand accent.
- During the battle with Tamatoa, he claims that Moana can't run from him. She starts to run.
  Tamatoa: (somehow simultaneously confused and deadpan) Oh, you can. You keep surprising me.
- When Tamatoa first grabs Moana, she keeps looking back and forth between his eye stalks, leading to him getting frustrated while telling her to pick one to focus on.
  Tamatoa: What is a human doing here in the Realm of the Mon—just...just pick an eye, babe...I can't...concentrate...on what I'm saying. Just pick one. Pick one!
- This exchange, for some Black Comedy:
  Moana: (after Tamatoa shows interest in her pendant) NO! That's my grandma's!
  Tamatoa: (mocking Moana and suddenly growing pretty eyelashes to complete the mockery) "That's my grandma's!" (normal again) I ATE MY GRANDMA! And it took a week because she was absolutely humongous. WHY ARE YOU HERE?!
The lead-in to Shiny;
Tamatoa: (Menacingly) Are you just trying to get me to talk about myself? Because if you are... (Cheerfully) I WILL GLADLY DO SO!
Moana: Huh?
Tamatoa: In song form!
- Even funnier is that this is EXACTLY what Maui's Plan B was, if the first distraction didn't work. Maui and Tamatoa know each other REALLY well.
- Speaking of which, Moana even said earlier that Maui and Tamatoa are not so different since they both love bragging about themselves... only for Maui to say that they WERE friends until he ripped off Tamatoa's leg. Moana has just enough time to pull an Oh, Crap! before the crab himself shows up.
- When "Shiny" starts, we get a reaction shot of Moana making a "WTF" face as if she can't believe he just started singing.
- Just the way Tamatoa sings "You will die, die, die!" in Shiny.
- After Tamatoa finds out he's been tricked by Moana, he begins verbally breaking down her clever plan step by step before crushing the decoy Heart of Te Fiti in sudden frustration. Mere typing doesn't do it justice.
  Tamatoa: (grabs the "heart", looking at it with glee as theatrical music is swelling) Yes! I have the-wait a minute... (the music halts, and time doesn't seem to move as Tamatoa talks) Augh! Oh, I see. She's taken a barnacle, and she's covered it in bioluminescent algae, as a diversion. (crushes the barnacle and time starts moving again) GRAAHH!
- His non-American pronunciation of "algae" (with a hard G) is the icing on the cake.
- Tamatoa's reaction after Moana and Maui escape and he's knocked onto his back is to half-heartedly shout "Hey!" two times, then to ask "Did you like the song?"
- Though the beatdown Tamatoa gives Maui is definitely sad, there's something darkly humorous about Tamatoa shaking Maui off his hook by strumming him like a guitar.
  - Similarly, once Tamatoa has Moana in his grasp, he starts using her as a human microphone as he sings.
- During the song, Tamatoa tells Maui that he "can't expect a demi-god to beat a decapod", and then tells the audience to look it up. Even better is that search interest for "decapod" on Google peaked near the end of 2016, most likely because of this one line.
Maui tries shape-shifting again after re-acquiring his hook. His "Cha-hoo!" causes him to turn into...a small red fish that flops around pathetically on Tamatoa's shell. He gives a face of "Huh, this usually works the first time," so he does his war cry and flops up in the air, rapidly shapeshifting into (in quick succession) a shark, a bug, Sven, a pig, and finally, his normal self.
After barely escaping Tamatoa, Maui tries to have a genuine heartfelt conversation with Moana, who can't concentrate because his shapeshifting messed up, leaving him with a shark head. What makes it even funnier is the fact that Moana, high on the rush of survival, goes to hug Maui in joy that they're alive only to physically recoil mid-hug gesture when she sees his shark head.
- After realizing he has a shark head, Maui tries to turn back into his normal self. At one point, he even winds up morphing into Heihei. Upon seeing who he is, Maui lets out a scream and immediately transforms again.
  - At one point during this, Maui manages to a get stuck in a half-human, half-shark form again — except this time, he has a shark tail instead, basically turning him into a merman.
As they're sailing to Te Fiti after Maui discovers just how out of practice he is with his hook, Maui is lying on the raft, despondently singing his song with different lyrics, "We're dead soon. Hey, it's okay, it's okay, we're dead soon."
Moana asks Maui what one of his tattoos depicts. He says that it shows some people discovering "Nunya". When asked what "Nunya" means, he replies with "Nunya business".
Maui, when practicing using his hook again, turns into a whale to soak Moana, but not in a mean-spirited way like his previous tricks.
Moana gives a big explanatory speech to Heihei about her plan to confront Te Kā; with just her canoe, and then she stows Heihei away in the storage compartment as she ends it with:
Moana: ...none of which you understand, because you are a chicken.
For someone whose default expression is an angry scowl, even Te Kā gets a few funny moments, courtesy of Maui's transformation antics.
- First is the "O_O" face she gives after Maui goes from a beetle to a whale less than ten feet from her face, with her failure to process this blatant violation of the laws of nature preventing her from anticipating the whale-sized belly-flop that follows, completely drenching her in the process.
- Then, the following happens over the span of just one second: First, she shows surprise when something bites her finger, anger as she pulls up her hand, confusion when it's revealed to be Maui in shark form hanging from one of her fingers, then mild annoyance when Maui gets a few extra chomps in just to be cheeky, before shaking him off.
- Then, Maui brings out his shark-head form on purpose, causing Te Kā to give him a confused "o_O" kind of look as she absolutely fails to rationalize the mutant standing on her arm.
The unamused look Te Fiti gives Maui after she becomes herself again. It's kind of a mid-way point between "Yeah...no" and "Are you serious right now?" She doesn't even have to say anything for Maui to become nervous.
Maui: Te Fiti! [nervous laugh] Hey, I mean... how ya been?
Te Fiti: [gives a look that says 'Dude, you stole my heart and turned me into a walking volcano for a thousand years. How do you think I've been?']
- In fact, even after he is rewarded for his efforts, first thing he does after a quick thanks is fly the hell out of there, as if saying "Yeeeah I'mma leave before you change your mind and smite me..."
The Stinger: Tamatoa is still overturned and complains to the audience that they'd help him up "if [his] name was Sebastian and he had a cool Jamaican accent."
- Which gets funnier through meta humor: Lin-Manuel Miranda jokingly subtitled "Shiny" as "Sebastian's Revenge," describing it as "Les Poissons" in reverse as the latter song features a human trying to eat a crab, while the former features a crab trying to eat a human.

Funny / Moana

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Funny / Moana

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