eragon-and-arya98

[eragon-and-arya98]

😍😍🤗✨

A Moana fanfiction for Mermay + #falefamilyfest - read chapter 1 on AO3 here

Living in Lalotai is lonely. That is, until one day a beautiful voice joins Tamatoa's while he's singing. Mesmerized and a little in love, Tamatoa wants to convince his traumatized and unique muse to stay near him. After all, Lalotai has never housed a mermaid before!

[eragon-and-arya98]

Sketch spoiler :3

[eragon-and-arya98]

Today, in the spirit of family, I wanna talk about Puanani Cravahlo & her character in Moana & Moana 2. <3

credited only as "villager #2", we know from interviews that she is the mother of Auli'i Cravahlo (the voice actress for moana). Her character is the briefly seen villager woman who comes up to moana and reports about the coconut blight, then tells tui and sina "She's doing great!"

but thats not the only time we see that character, whom I'll now be referring to as puanani, and calling the human Mrs. Cravahlo. (fun fact, puanani means 'beautiful flower' in hawaiian)

it seems puanani has been in moana's life since moana was very young, and seems to show up most around the coconut harvesters.

She's one of the women who help make moana's Tuiga, a special headdress reserved for the chief's heir to wear on formal occasions. in samoa, the headdress is made with feathers, shells, and dyed human hair- hair from the wearer's ancestors, bleached in seawater, added for spiritual and symbolic protection. traditionally, its thought a person's mana can be stored in their hair, (it being so close to the head, a mana source,) so only people close to the person or of high mana themselves would be the one's handling the sared material. disney's artbook says moana's tuiga is made from dyed grasses, but i don't think its too far off base to assume that the people most likely to be the ones making the headdress for their next chief are either people closely related to the chief or belonging to the Aliki (ali'i in hawaiian) aka the polynesian high class.

puanani also has a front row seat at tui's council meetings, a spot traditionally reserved for the leaders of the community. in samoa these are known as the Matai, the chiefs, and you can become one either by inheriting the title or by being nominated thru merit. a family group would have a Matai as their head, but so would many of the village industries, like the Chief farmer or the Chief fisherman. so its possible she's up there as the Chief Coconut Grower, but just as likely due to being of the right bloodline.

her final appearance in the first Moana is on moana's flagship canoe in the reprise scene of We Know the Way, and looking once again at real life history, we know that polynesian wayfarers tended to travel in family groups, the larger main family canoes supported by smaller scout crafts. The fact she's hanging out on moana, tui, and sina's boat, along with several others who show up slinging coconuts in Where You Are, cements her likely position as a close family relative.

and she shows up in moana 2! most distinctly in leading the island in song as they see moana and crew off on their journey. This time its Te vaka's Vocalists supplying her singing voice, not Mrs. Cravahlo, but the character is unmistakably the same. same face, same accessories, same dress pattern, same body shape. the only difference is the darkening of her dress color, but this also could be a trick of the lighting.

while Disney is guilty of reusing a lot of faces, dresses and accessories in it's background characters, we dont see that many women in the films wearing that plain leaf crown in their hair, and fewer with the right combination of stout, round face and flower dress with loose hair. so despite not getting a good view of her front, i do think she's also the character who hands moana a flower crown at her welcome home feast, which fits with her previous experience at helping make moana's tuiga.

so, taking all these clues, here's my take on Puanani the character:

I think it likely that she is moana's aunt, one of sina's sisters. why sina and not tui? because while she is present at tui's council meetings, she doesnt appear at tala's bedside. there are a few non-named characters hanging about the fale, and one of them does look like the other unnamed woman who helped with moana's tuiga, but not puanani. and even the other tuiga maker is off hiding in the shadows, awkwardly pacing and not coming close, unlike unnamed bun woman and the tween armband boy in the corner. its possible puanani hasnt arrived yet, but i feel that if she was meant to deliberately be tui's sister-coded she would have been there at their mother's passing.

at council we see puanani next to this strapping man, who sports tattoos and fine patterned layers of skirt, indicating he too is someone of status. Possibly her husband? They're sitting pretty close to one another in a pretty open area...

in this shot we see her without the red & white shell armbands she sports when talking to moana, but right there in frame is possibly where theyve gone to- a younger man without tattoos. Her grown son perhaps? and then is the young woman on her right a daughter? or a daughter in law?

we see the pair again, dancing through the groves (left,center) with moana and puanani (on the right).

So I think it's not unreasonable to headcanon that puanani is sina's sister, married with a grown son and daughter-in-law. lets throw in that jumping kid seen frequently running around her feet as a potential grandson. One of her jobs is to help with the coconut harvest and husk them, reporting to the chief on any problems with their vital crop. she also seems pretty skilled with her hands, enjoying wearing and making crowns, jewelry. she's generous with her gifts, adorning her family members in her handiwork. she compliments moana on a great job, albeit indirectly, and by implication sina and tui on their parenting. She leads singing and sits up front in council meetings. she's strong enough to sling around huge baskets of coconuts, but needs help with the larger hauls.

"oh no he's hot" -puanani and her friend, probably.

anyway, i just think it's neat that there's a disney animator out there who cared enough to include puanani and be pretty consistent with how and where she shows up and with who. it makes motonui feel more like a real place, to see characters repeated deliberately and with some forethought into what they're doing and who they're with.

ps. happy belated mother's day to the real Puanani Cravahlo, who gave us the treasure that is Auli'i <3

[eragon-and-arya98]

wooow i didn't expect that ending, but yeah something I want in a moana 3 so bad!!! so nice animation, I love your art style so much and if they're not going to be together in Moana 3 I beg you to do it 😝😍💖

[Secretlykis] Thank you for your opinion.

[eragon-and-arya98]

Art from RyukiGaryu

[eragon-and-arya98]

Moana became a pony..

[eragon-and-arya98]

[eragon-and-arya98]

I'd love to see how Tui and Maui interact with each other.

Unfortunately, in the films, there's never a moment where Tui reacts in any way to Maui or anything related to Maui.

So it's unclear whether he's reacting respectfully because Maui is a demigod or skeptical because Maui is still a guy and close to his daughter. Or whether Tui is aggressive toward Maui because he taught Moana how to sail and can't protect her.

Only in an earlier version of the first film can you get a sense of how 'this' Tui felt about Maui.

I'm curious.

[eragon-and-arya98]

It's nice to see some deleted scenes from Moana in a new look.

_________

[eragon-and-arya98]

[eragon-and-arya98]

moana + hair troubles anyone with long hair can relate to

[eragon-and-arya98]

[eragon-and-arya98]

A strange world/to visit with Maui's old friends.

So far, every film has featured a moment where the journey takes you to a strange world and you're confronted with an old acquaintance of Maui's.

In the first adventure, Maui and Moana had to travel to the realm of monsters/the underworld, Lalotai, to meet the monster crab Tamatoa.

Lalotai is a colorful underwater world, full of bizarre creatures and plants.

In this world lives a giant coconut crab named Tamatoa, who, according to Maui, is a real slob.

He lives in a large snail shell and has amassed many treasures, including Maui's hoes.Through a timid remark from Maui, we learn that he used to get along well with Tamatoa until he kicked out one of his legs for unknown reasons.

An attempt is made to get hold of Moana's heel by distracting her... but in the end, Moana is forced to use a deception to save Maui. Tamatoa provides insight into Maui's past and motives, showing that there was once a great deal of trust between the two.

In an earlier version, Lalotai was replaced by the eight-eyed bat. I believe this exchange was the reason for Tamatoa's great popularity; he has one of the relatively few speaking roles in this film, and he also has his own song. He seems like the film's true villain, with typical villain charm.

Aside from regaining his heel, what's important is that Moana really impressed Maui and made him come out of his shell more.

On the way to Motufitu, however, Moana and her crew involuntarily end up in the giant clam.

Compared to Lalotai, it seems empty and rather colorless. The demigod Matangi and her bats live in the shell, and only an elongated monster can be seen.

The shell was actually supposed to be densely populated with various monsters, but these were cut to make Matangi stand out more.

It's a shame that so much of the shell, Kolise, was changed for Matangi. There was supposed to be a scene where the crew had to deal with a monster bird, but managed to escape on their own. This would have been really beneficial for the new character.

A scene featuring Moana and the monsters living there was also changed to the Simea nightmare scenes, but the change to the reunion between Maui and Moana was particularly sad. Maui was originally supposed to fight several giant monsters, save the others, and then run into Moana... Why did they change that? 😢

But there's no question that Matangi is a truly interesting character, with significantly more depth than Tamatoa. She acts out of her own interests and doesn't reveal much about herself. She was able to capture Maui, who was in full possession of his powers, and seemed to anticipate the events to come. Instead of stopping Moana or harming her, as Maui feared, she helps her get out of the shell and back to Motufitu.

She is a neutral character, neither good nor evil, and can still go in any direction.

In the end, Moana, her crew, and Maui escape through the Portal of the Gods that Matangi showed them. It's amazing, though, that Moana, as a mortal, was able to open the Portal of the GODS...

What I especially love about Matangi is that in the books, she seems like a true Maui/Moana shipper, saying things like, "You've turned her into a Wayfinder, now your lives are forever intertwined." or "I think you need her as much as she needs you."

[eragon-and-arya98]

Kokomora

The Kokomora are, as Maui describes them, "little skulking pirates." They are small but powerful creatures that hide in coconut shells.

They have a giant can that can split into connecting smaller ones.

They're the first people our heroes encounter on both adventures. Moana fights the small pirates, while her crew tries to stay out of these fights.

In the first film, she manages to recapture the rooster Heihei and the heart he had swallowed.

After the two are back on the boat with Maui, he escapes in a canoe, with Moana and Heihei in tow.

On the journey to Motufitu, Moana doesn't fare so well. Kotu, the son of the Kokomura chieftain, manages to stun Moana with a poison dart. But before violence erupts, the Kokomura become aware of Moana and her crew's mission. They bond and negotiate a deal.

With the help of a giant blobfish, the poison is neutralized.

In a previous version, the crew was held captive inside the Kokomura-kan. This scene was later replaced with Maui being imprisoned by Matangi.

[eragon-and-arya98]

[eragon-and-arya98]

Was there really seating there in Moana's time?

[eragon-and-arya98]

Moana's grandfathers...

There's a story about Tala as a young woman building a surfboard with her future husband.

Asolelei is a woodcarver (carpenter).

But an early version of Moana also featured the story of Soba.

Soba is lost at sea and, in the early version, the reason for Tui's dislike of seafaring.

Perhaps Soba was still in the back of Disney's mind when he created the Stone Tower of the Chieftains.