Is there more than meets the eye to Disney’s newest It Girl?
Disney produced another animated instant-classic last year with Moana, the story of a young girl living on an island in ancient Polynesia who is called by the ocean to seek out a Demigod — Maui — who has incurred a terrible curse. It’s got everything the kids love: stunning visuals, appropriate humor, lively music, The Rock, and an everygirl heroine in Moana, a princess in the league with the best of her ilk — steadfast, hopeful, individualistic, and daring.
But hang on a second; is Moana an everygirl? Is she even a girl? Or is she something more? Something like, say, an immortal demigod whose real parents aren’t who you think they are? That’s the idea developed by Matpat over at The Film Theorists, whose latest video deals with Moana’s real and secret lineage, citing evidence not just from the existing film, but also from earlier drafts of the script, commentary interviews after the fact, and Polynesian mythology.
I’ll spare spoiling the video, and this theory isn’t possible to verify without confirmation from someone at the studio, but from the exhaustive research Matpat’s done, I will say that if it isn’t true it seems at least to have been considered by the filmmakers at some earlier point in the film’s development. This is fan theorizing done right, and I urge you to check out the rest of the videos on The Film Theorists’ YouTube page, there are some real humdingers over there.
Related Topics: Animation, Disney, Fan Theory Friday
