Disney's Moana

Disney Princess Avengers. The premise actually sounds like it could great

When they began singing the "Coconut song" I actually thought it was the song from the movie, until, well, they mentioned coconuts in the lyrics. The voice work on that song was really close to the movie's, or at least how I remember it. Moana and Maui are waaaaay off, tho :S

Moana's a character that sounds not too hard to voice on paper, but is actually a bit tricky. She's perky without being bubbly, and tomboyish without being gruff. Plus the accent.

An interesting article on how Moana's story is a classic hero's journey.

As a mythology buff, I really loved and recognized the structure of an epic in the movie. Not in the common vernacular of something cool, but a saga that tells the story of a hero or line of heroes that set off on a journey to improve themselves and their home.

What's interesting and the article doesn't bring up is her grandmother acts as both the Mentor and the Guardian, the person or creature, (in this case both) who provide the final temptation and test before the hero can move on to their last leg of the quest.

And instead of being antagonistic like so many Guardians are, it's temptation from compassion, but a temptation nonetheless.

In a lot of quests, they're usually of a more physical nature, Hericles slays the hydra, Gilgamesh kills the lava demon (heh) Humbaba, Perseus tricks and kills the minotor, and so on.

Also from a character development standpoint, it's interesting that Moana goes the final leg of the journey on her own, and even makes it to the island on her own. Sure Maui comes to help, but he provides a distraction so that Moana can return the Heart. Even when she needs the assistance from a male character, she still would have tried with or without him, and it's still her who's able to see the truth Maui could not.

And again, all without any romance at all, no male or female damsel is won as a prize, returning with the knowledge of wayfinding and restoring life to her people is enough.

Hate to rain on your parade (and go slightly off topic), but the myths you mention as examples of mostly physical quests...yeah, you might have gone a bit off the mark with each of them. I mean, you got all the stuff regarding Moana and the heroic quest narrative right, and it's pretty damn hard to know and remember all the details of myths (heck, I had to check out a couple things for the clarified myths below, and I've literally lived my entire life reading this stuff), but if I didn't make things clear somebody would point the mistakes out anyway, possibly without telling what exactly you got wrong or getting the details wrong themselves, and that wouldn't really help the case.

In order: Slaying Hydra wasn't entirely Heracles' own accomplishment since he had help, not to mention that it was only the second of his twelve labours (the first and final ones would be better examples, as he wrestles down the Nemean Lion and Cerberus, both quests a purely physical challenge). Hydra could regenerate its heads, and it got a new one every time he cut one off, so he had no way of killing it with just brute force. He had assistance from his nephew Iolaus, who burned Hydra's necks as he cut its heads off, thus preventing it from regenerating. The real physical part about fighting Hydra happened when Hera, given her murderous tendencies towards Zeus' illegitimate kids, sent the giant crab Karkinos to be Hydra's tag team partner, and Heracles crushed the crustacean with his foot. Hera still rewarded the crab for having tried, and turned the dead monster into a constellation. And that's how the Cancer constellation came to be.

Humbaba was never mentioned to be made of lava, and he was far from a demon, being a faithful guardian of sacred trees. Rather, he was a giant and a mix-and-match monster with parts of various animals (both are very common monster archetypes), and he did have a breath of fire (which is probably where you got that idea) and he could hear anything that happened in the forest he guarded. Plus, it's Enkidu (or depending on the version, both him and Gilgamesh together) who slays him. Not to mention that it isn't really much of a fight: Gilgamesh tricks Humbaba into bartering away the seven divine powers that keep him safe and to lowering his guard, then pretty much sucker-punches him and catches him alive, after which the monster asks for mercy and tries to escape. That's it. Plus, this was only the first real adventure of Gilgamesh.

And finally, the monster Perseus killed was Medusa, while the guy who took the Minotaur down was Theseus. Two entirely different people. And the former's quest relied on more brain than brawn, as Perseus had to solve the dilemma of Medusa's petrifying eyes by using a well-polished shield as a mirror in order to avoid looking into the gorgon's eyes.

edited 18th Mar '17 1:26:28 PM by ArilouLaLeeLay

Figured I'd make some goofs, writing that at 3 AM. Just so long as it's vaguely comprehensible.

TLDR: Moana's good.

edit: (rereads post)Gah, did I write that? Bleh, shameful.

edited 18th Mar '17 3:10:06 PM by darkabomination

And good for you.

So, is Heihei a pet? Is there a reason the village hadn't already cooked and ate him? He's a rooster on a primitive Pacific Island - I find it hard to believe he was bred and raised for anything other than meat.

Seems like he would've been eaten soon, especially with the coming food shortage. He just seems like a suicidally stupid creature that just so happened to end up on Moana's boat.

I find it funny that he technically fulfills the role of a princess's animal sidekick, but is completely incompetent. He's not cute, he makes more problems than he solves, he's left by himself whenever possible, never tried to come on the journey, can't talk, and the only useful thing he does do is completely by accident.

That's true. Pua is a lot more of a animal sidekick played straight. Heihei is just extremely incompetent.

Heihei is a pet. Moana argues against eating him while she's still a kid, IIRC, by trying to claim he has some kind of value.

Basically the only reason they didn't eat him years ago is that Moana finds his incompetency endearing. It might just be that she's a big fan of Wash.

edited 6th Apr '17 6:44:22 AM by TobiasDrake

After all those years, how Heihei still hasn't managed to have himself killed through sheer stupidity, I have no idea.

Heihei is quite a twist on the standard animal sidekick. Usually they have human level intelligence. Heihei on the other hand is dumb even by ordinary rooster standards.

Heihei is simply too stupid to die

Achievements in Ignorance?

Heihei actually is too stupid to die. The reason he's alive today is because his idiocy made him endearing to Moana, causing her to take him in as a pet instead of let the village eat him. He owes his continued existence to his stupidity.

edited 11th Apr '17 6:54:26 AM by TobiasDrake

So.... I was re-watching Moana today and when it got to the song 'Shiny' I had sort of an epiphany.

Shiny and the entire Tamatoa scene are not, as I believed upon my first viewing, a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment that's just there to shoe in a Villain Song and pad out the film with some ultimately meaningless conflict that has little to do with the rest of the story.

The Tamatoa scene and the song 'Shiny' in particular are actually the pivotal axis to the entire plot of the film.

Firstly you have to take into account that Shiny is sung by Tamatoa, a villainous crab who only cares about outward appearances, because, as a decapod (look it up) he's hard and tough on the outside, but weak and squishy inside his shell... And in his song he explains that he became that way after Maui cut off his leg. Once he was drab and unappealing and then his only friend made him feel weak to impress some humans... And as a result he started focussing on making his outer shell hard and shiny, but everything about his scene reveals that deep inside he's still superficial and insecure.

Secondly you have to look at the way that Tamatoa is ultimately 'defeated' at the end of the song: Moana tricks him into going after a barnacle that's she's painted to look superficially similar to the Heart of Te'Fiti and Tamatoa doesn't just fall for it, but he falls for it in such a way that Moana and Maui are able to escape with Maui's hook. Because even though Moana drops the painted barnacle, which means that he can capture/eat her and Maui and just pick what he thinks is the Heart of Te'Fiti up after, he instead goes after it and ignores that Moana and Maui are getting away. In his song, he derides the fish for chasing anything that glitters and acts like he's so much better than them, but in the end he's defeated because he is the same.

Then the song and the scene around it become all about how appearances can be deceiving and about no matter how much you try to change your superficial outward appearance, that alone won't change who and what you are at your core.

And it's no coincidence that that is main lesson for both Moana and Maui's character arcs. And, indeed, the resolution at the end of the film.

How it should have ended.

That does point to a thing: what was up with the ocean anyway? Its abilities seem to change arbitrarily. I thought that its abilities disappear during a storm... until the ending in the battle with Te Kā, where the ocean can freely bring Moana around for reasons.

How is Moana doing merchandise wise? I imagine it's tricky. Moana doesn't wear frilly princess dresses so there goes the Official Cosplay Gear. I remember Maui gear was recalled for being racist/cultural appropriation.

They ditched the Maui faux tattoo bodysuit of course, but they seem to have the usual merch. There are Moana cosplay dresses and character-design clothing, jewelry, Maui fishhooks, snow globes, dolls of all sorts. There's a Heihei rubber chicken.

I have relatives in Saipan, and on Facebook I've seen a lot of Moana-themed kids birthday parties. Father/daughter Maui/Moana cosplay seems to be popular too.

edited 30th Sep '17 4:24:12 PM by alanh

Chibi Moana anyone?

Paging any artist who might be lurking: Disney is hiring Story Artists for the upcoming Moana series.

TIL that Te Vaka recorded a longer version of the intro song, "Tulou Tagaloa":

Necro cause sequel

Um. I'll take "sequels that I never saw coming" for $200, Alex.