Maui

**Maui** is the deuteragonist of Disney's 2016 animated feature film, *Moana*. He is a boisterous demigod of South Pacific legend. With the power of his giant, magical fish hook, Maui serves as the audacious guardian of mankind. During one of his escapades, Maui awakened a terrible darkness that threatened to destroy the islands of Polynesia. This crisis forced Maui to join forces with Moana, a young hero chosen by the ocean, to save the world.

## Background

Maui was born to human parents, centuries before the events of the film. Apparently wanting nothing to do with their son, Maui's parents threw him into the sea as an infant, and left him for dead. He was saved by the gods, who raised Maui, granting supernatural abilities, immortality, and a magical fish hook that allows him to shapeshift. Despite his demigod status, Maui's cruel upbringing would forever scar him. Feeling rejected by humans, he used his powers to benefit mankind in any way they pleased as a means to earn the love and validation that he was denied by his parents; he pulled islands from the sea to provide them with homes, extended their days by pulling back the sun, and stole fire from the bottom of the earth to provide them with warmth on cold nights, among many feats. As a result, Maui became one of the most acclaimed figures of Oceania history.

As the people acclimated to Maui's gifts, he had to perform increasingly grand feats to sustain their adulation. This led him to steal the heart of Te Fiti, the mother island. As the gem has the power to create life, Maui believed it would make the perfect gift to mortals all across the world. Unfortunately, once the heart was removed from its resting spot, darkness slowly began consuming the world. The removal of the heart also gave birth to the wrathful lava demon Te Kā, who confronted Maui before he could escape. The two battled, but Maui was defeated, losing both the heart of Te Fiti and his magical fish hook in the aftermath. The heart would remain lost for centuries, while Maui's fishhook eventually fell into the possessions of his arch-rival, the giant crab Tamatoa.

Maui, meanwhile, was banished to a desolate island by Te Kā, and was doomed to remain there for all eternity as punishment for his crimes. Even so, legend proclaimed that Maui was destined to team up with a hero—the "chosen one"—to return the heart to its rightful place.

### Official description

*Maui—half god, half mortal, all awesome.*[1]
### Development

*Moana* came from co-director John Musker's fascination with the legends and lore surrounding Maui. As such, the plot was initially conceived as a story centering Maui, with Moana playing a secondary role. This was during extremely early stages of development, and it was quickly changed to focus on Moana after an inspirational research trip to the South Pacific.[2]

Maui's physical appearance was much different in earlier versions of the movie. He was bald and shorter in stature. For five years of the film's development, the filmmakers consulted in their Oceanic Story Trust, who pushed Disney to enhance Maui's physique to resemble a hero in the vein of Superman.[3] When designing Maui, the team researched athletes such as football players, wrestlers, and men with massive physiques. One source of inspiration was Dwayne Johnson's late grandfather High Chief Peter Maivia, who was also a professional wrestler like Johnson and an actual Samoan high chief.

### Personality

Maui is boastful, gregarious, and mischievous. His manner of carrying himself matches his massive physique, being larger-than-life and a true god among men. He is responsible for most of the necessities and luxuries currently belonging to mankind, and with his magical fish hook at hand, is amongst the most powerful figures in South Pacific lore. Widely regarded as a clever trickster, Maui is rarely matched when it comes to adversaries, being greatly feared by villains and monsters lurking throughout the sea. Maui can be extremely arrogant and pompous as a result of this reputation, although his many achievements tend to justify his vainglorious attitude.

For all his heroics, however, Maui can also be short-tempered, bitter, pretentious, and his inflated ego tends to give him a superiority complex. This attitude lead him to be quite antagonistic, and even murderous. When he first meets Moana, he had no regard for her life and was completely willing to leave her stranded on a barren island or even lost at sea. He can also be selfish, initially choosing to focus solely on reclaiming his hook with no intention of saving the dying world, though Moana was able to change his mind.

As a result of his poor upbringing, Maui has spent a majority of his life living with crippling insecurity. He went out of his way to perform godly deeds for mankind's benefit to gain the love and appreciation denied to him by his parents. While he seemed to enjoy the praise he earned, Maui secretly longed to be appreciated beyond his demigod status; as the human he is on the inside, rather than the deity portrayed in legends. Additionally, despite boasting about his accomplishments to Moana, Maui initially credited the gods for his many feats, claiming they're the ones that "made him Maui". He saw himself as "nothing" without his hook, and was extremely reluctant to take on challenges without it, becoming somewhat of a coward.

Through Moana, however, Maui slowly began to realize that the hook is only an accessory during his adventures and that his many accomplishments over the years were a result of his own bravery, rather than what the gods created to assist him in such exploits. Though still arrogant and gruff, Maui developed into a much more selfless and humble figure following his adventure with Moana.

### Powers and abilities

* **Godly Strength:** Maui possesses extreme superhuman strength in both his arm and leg muscles. The latter allows him to jump significant heights that end with damaging land. Maui's incredible superhuman strength allowed him to perform impossible feats such as singlehandedly dredging up islands, lassoing the sun, and even pushing up the sky. His strength also lies in his lungs, as he can produce massive gusts of wind to clear a path before or surrounding him; he apparently uses this ability to harness the breeze in the world's air.
* **Immortality:** Since becoming a demigod, Maui is virtually immortal, looking the same in the present as he did one thousand years ago. This immortality is likely how he survived on a desert island in that length of time with little or no food or freshwater, and allows him to survive attacks from monsters and other deities that would greatly injure or kill a normal person.
* **Fish Hook proficiency:** Maui's most powerful abilities come from his mighty fish hook, which allows him to shapeshift into a wide array of animals, from insects to whales. This proves to be an extremely useful asset, as Maui's quick changes from massive to pint-sized creatures prevent his enemies from keeping up and laying an attack. The fish hook glows with a blue (purple, if broken) energy when in use, and is strong enough to shatter stone and cause severe damage to deities. Because it was created by the gods, however, it can be just as easily destroyed by a deity. Fortunately, it will take more than one extreme blow to completely destroy the weapon. Maui tends to combine the strength of his muscles and his hook to perform acts such as pulling islands from the sea and lassoing the sun. Without his hook, however, Maui cannot shapeshift. He must also swing the hook a certain way to transform into the desired animal, as evidenced during his fight with Tamatoa. Although he would still have his strength, Maui is considerably less powerful when stripped of his magic weapon, and therefore vulnerable to enemies.
* **Shapeshifting:** With his hook, Maui is able to shapeshift into anything he can imagine, though mostly just animals. He has been shown to transform into a hawk, an iguana, a beetle, a fish, a shark, a reindeer (resembling Sven from *Frozen*), a pig, a starfish, a rooster (resembling a larger version of Heihei), and a whale.
* **Sentient tattoos:** Another significant trait of Maui is his animated tattoos plastered throughout his skin. The tattoos depict Maui's various exploits and accomplishments. New tattoos magically appear moments after a new milestone has been reached; as Maui explained, they must be earned. All of the tattoos are animated, but one stands out from the rest: Mini Maui. Mini Maui is a tattooed depiction of the actual Maui and acts as the latter's conscience, biggest supporter, and best friend. They communicate with each other often, and share a loving bond, though their conflicting levels of morality causes them to clash on occasion (with Maui being mischievous and Mini Maui being completely benevolent).
* **Master sailor:** Even without his powers, Maui is an expert seaman and navigator, able to sail an outrigger canoe with relative ease and use the stars to plot the quickest way to any destination. After successfully escaping the Kakamora using these skills, Maui would later teach them to Moana, albeit paralyzed and not by choice.

## Trivia

* Several of Maui's choices of animals to include whale and lizard and shark he transforms strongly share similarities with descriptions of *Taniwha* and *Mo'o*/*Moho*, mystical beings in Polynesian lore in New Zealand and Hawaii being often refereed to animal-shaped deities or spirits, or ocasionally as dragons in modern times, that can shape-shift, create and destroy landscapes etc., and both have been depicted as both protectors of people or dangerous beings.
* Disney did not open auditions for Maui, as Dwayne Johnson was directly chosen and approached for the role.[2]
* Maui had a grandmother named Hina who served as the guardian of Lalotai's entrance in earlier drafts the movie.[5]
* Maui has dimples, which are based on Dwayne Johnson's dimples.[2]
* In a few scenes, Maui raises his eyebrow in a cocky manner. This was inspired by Dwayne Johnson's signature eyebrow raise, initiated by his celebrity alias "The Rock" since WWF in the 1990s.
* The achievements that Maui boasts during "You're Welcome" are based on the actual South Pacific legends centering Maui.
* Maui was to have a second song in the movie inspired by the haka called "Warrior Face", which showcased him teaching Moana how to scare away her enemies to avoid battle.
* In the novelization, when Maui returns during the climax, he tells Moana that he and Mini Maui talked things over, which eventually prompted him to return and battle Te Kā. In the film, Maui never gives explanation for his return.
* *Moana* writer Jared Bush noted in an interview that, despite their rivalry, Maui and Tamatoa share similarities. Both Maui and Tamatoa want to feel important, and both have a way of covering up their insecurities with things that give them a sense of greatness: Maui with his tattoos, and Tamatoa with his hoard of shiny treasures.[6]
* Maui's fish hook can be seen as silhouetted artwork on the rear end of Finnick's van in the film *Zootopia*.
* A *Disney Infinity* figure of Maui was planned for release but was canceled following the game's discontinuation.[7]
* At one point, Maui briefly turns into Sven from *Frozen*.
* Maui's line, "If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you're a princess!" is a reference to the *Disney Princess* franchise, and a direct joke/jab at the Disney Princesses often wearing dresses and having animal (or at least non-human) sidekicks.
* In Maui's rap, a blue light shines on one of his back tatoos of him ripping one of Tamatoa's legs.
* During the Final battle after Maui's hook is lost, he taunted Te Ka with the lyrics from the All Blacks Haka: "Kapa o Pango":
	+ Lyrics on Maui said to Te-Ka

* |*Ka tū te Ihiihi*
* |Stand up to the fear

* |*Ka tū te Wanawana*
* |Stand up to the terror

* |*E tū iho nei, tū iho nei, hī ha!*
* |Fight up there, high up there. Yeah!

* Maui supposedly can’t float, as seen by the line in the song, “‘Cause Maui can do anything but float”