- This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. When you feel empowered,
you can do great things but sometimes life gets you down. Working with a therapist can help you to be the strongest version of yourself. No matter what life throws at you. Try it out at betterhelp.com/SUPER. Hey brother, I'll be
straight with you guys. I love Moana. Loved it when it came out
and I've loved it ever since. And I recently had a rewatch of it and it just made all of
my favorite Moana theories start bouncing around in my head. Like, have you ever noticed
at the end of the movie when Moana finally meets Te Fiti, for some reason they look
like exactly the same. Why is that? And when Moana's dad
sees the Heart of Te Fiti for the first time, he's all like. - This. This is just a rock. - Which kind of makes it sound
like he's seen it before. What's up with that? When Grandma Tala passes, she suddenly emerges into the ocean as this giant spirit manta ray, which is something she kind
of predicted would happen. - [Tala] When I die, I'm going
to come back as one of these. - Which is this like super
cool piece of lore and magic around the film. But it does make me wonder, what would Moana's spirit animal be? And as ever when we're
analyzing animated Disney movies there's always the question,
is it possible Moana is part of a greater Disney universe? Is it connected to any
other Disney movies? There's really just so much to unpack and it was crazy as I
was going through this, how many of these seem to stack. Like the more that one makes sense, the more the next makes sense, which is why today we're counting down our top five Moana theories. (deep adventurous music) - [Maui] I am still falling! - Okay, theory number one,
Moana is not the chosen one. Or at least not the first chosen one. She's more like the chosen
second or chosen fourth or possibly even like chosen 37th. I don't know. All I'm really saying is
that she's not the first. The ocean screening process is brutal. - Fish pee you! All day! - But have you ever
wondered why specifically the ocean chose Moana to
carry the Heart of Te Fiti? The legend doesn't even say that Moana is the one who's
supposed to put the heart back. According to Grandma Tala's legend, she is supposed to find Maui and Maui is the one who is
supposed to put it back. But if that's the case then why even bother with a chosen one? Why not go straight to Maui
like the ocean knows where he is and we know the ocean knows where he is because when Moana is
out at sea by herself and out of her depth,
she is really struggling, hanging on for dear life and
eventually it becomes capsized and just passes out and
wakes up where of all places? Maui's Island, but more
on Maui in a minute. The reason the ocean chooses Moana has to do with that opening scene or should I say test where
Moana saves the baby turtle. It might just look like a toddler choosing
to do the right thing but there's a little bit more happening. This is actually a very
carefully crafted situation put forth by the ocean. Even the sea turtle isn't what it seems. Toddler Moana here is
being given a clear choice between two options. Either she can get this
really, really cool conch shell or she can go save that baby sea turtle. And let's be real. It's a
really awesome sea shell. I probably would've failed. In fact, I did. Here's the shell. This is why I'll never be
the chosen one Jonathan. Moana does not fail though. She instead rescues the baby sea turtle and successfully delivers it to the ocean where after she does so
the entire ocean ripples indicating that she in
fact passed the test or more specifically the first test. And as a reward, the ocean
gives her tons of seashells and the Heart of Te Fiti which baby Moana then immediately loses. Like, come on ocean, what, you couldn't have given
her like a bag or a bucket to go with all those
seashells or something. Like, ooh, I'm sorry, are your arms full with all
of those awesome rewards I gave you? Here's the key to life
as you know it, see ya. Get it? Sea ya. Ocean humor. But of course it's not really lost. Grandma Tala happened to
witness the entire thing and collected the stone and saved it until Moana had grown up. And when Moana finds out
about it, she is so excited. She immediately runs to her dad and says I have the Heart of Te Fiti. I can save the island,
get rid of the plague. And it has to be said. His response is kind of surprising. - This is just a rock!
- No! - Odd response, so personally, I would've gone with something like what are you talking about? Where'd you get that awesome green rock? Can I have it to go with my shell? I'll never be the chosen one, but no he dismisses the Heart of Te Fiti entirely because he has seen it
before because he was chosen before Moana and his harsh
feelings towards, let's face it, an honestly really cool rock that would go great in
anyone's seashell collection, are also completely understandable once you get the full picture. Because the first test
is just being chosen. The second test is proving that you will carry on no matter what. And that one he fails. And it's actually a really sad story but we learned that as a
young boy, much like Moana Chief Tui felt the pull to the ocean. But just like for his daughter,
traveling beyond the reef is against the rules for the tribe. But also just like his daughter, he decides he doesn't
care and recruits a friend to jump in a canoe with him and try and make it beyond the reef. But what neither him or Moana realize is that this first venture, their first attempt is
actually the second test and it's something of a Kobayashi Maru. Which in case you've never seen Star Trek and it haven't I just know what it is. It's a test that you are
supposed to fail no matter what and the real test is, how do you react? And we know in Tui's
case the attempt fails and his friend dies and it
causes Tui to back down entirely and begin following the
beat of the tribe's drum, never leave the reef. Years later, Moana and
Pua make their first stab and it goes pretty similarly. They're starting to
make it to the breakers but obviously they don't make it. The canoe flips and both are sent underwater
where Moana gets trapped. Fortunately for a Pua, Moana is able to keep a somewhat
cool head, free herself, rescue them both, and land back on shore with her resolve still intact. Mm, sort of. At first, she actually almost still backs down. It isn't much, but a little
bit of extra encouragement from Grandma Tala is all
it takes to keep Moana on the path out past the reef. But speaking of Grandma Tala that brings us through theory
number two, which is that the Heart of Te Fiti was
keeping Grandma Tala alive. After a quick musical number, Moana decides not to put
her stone on the mountain and instead has her
grandmother lead to the caves where she discovers the boats and decides that she too is
going to become a voyager. And it's here when Tala finally reveals that she saw the first
test when Moana was a baby. She also reveals that she
recovered the Heart of Te Fiti and has been holding onto it ever since but now at long last returns it to Moana. And we know what happens, Moana is super excited, she goes to report the good news, but then something kind of
out of the blue happens. - [Villager] Chief, it's your mother! - Oddly coincidental, am I right? Like she hasn't seemed sick,
but the moment she gives away the Heart of Te Fiti, she
suddenly becomes really ill. Well, as I'm sure you can tell, I don't think it is a coincidence at all. I mean, let's just run down what we know the powers of
the Heart of Te Fiti to be. - [Tala] It could create life itself. - The heart can create life. And then what happens in the
wake of Maui stealing it. - [Tala] Draining the life
from island after island. Devoured by the blood thirsty
jaws of inescapable death. - But what's important is to
put these pieces together. You have the Heart of Te
Fiti which can give life being held by the only
person on the island who still believes this
thousand year old prophecy. And she's hung onto it
for most of Moana's life until she decides that she's
ready to carry out the tasks and gives her something
that literally gives life. It feels prophetic in a way,
and I think it's because it is. Grandma Tala does and has played an absolutely vital role in this process. She's the mother of Chief
Tui who was possibly chosen by the ocean before her
granddaughter Moana was. She's the self-proclaimed
village crazy lady for being the only one who
still believes in the prophecy. And it's her guidance that
ultimately drives Moana to accept the mission that
has been bestowed upon her. And when Moana finally
does leave the island it's Grandma Tala's
spirit ray that allows her to finally get past the breakers. And Grandma Tala who appears
to her later in the movie when she is positive that she has failed. The Heart of Te Fiti through its own natural life giving powers
and its natural desire to find its way home
kept Grandma Tala alive until the exact right moment. Alright guys, and now we're
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third theory of the day. If Tala becomes a cool
spirit Ray in death, then what would Moana's spirit animal be? What would she become? Tala's animal really comes
as no surprise at all. She's seen dancing with the
rays earlier in the movie and even has a tattoo of one on her back. I mean, she even says out loud. - [Tala] When I die, I'm going
to come back as one of these. - Moana, however isn't
nearly as associated with a specific animal. I mean pig? Rooster? Moana's not coming back as a
bioluminescent Hei Hei, is she? No, thankfully not. Nor does she come back as a spirit pig. I think for sure Moana is
coming back as a sea turtle. Yeah, this actually goes
back way to the beginning of that movie and that initial test where Moana chooses to
save the sea turtle. Now this might just look
like part of the setup. The ocean trying to
determine whether or not Moana is willing to set
aside her own desires, in this case a really cool shell, in favor of rescuing a life. But it's actually way more specific to Moana than you might think. For one, if you look more carefully at the small sea turtle shell you'll notice it bears the symbol of the oh so recognizable
Heart of Te Fiti. It's the same symbol on the heart itself and the one featured on
the side of the canoe that Moana ultimately
uses to navigate the ocean and restore the heart. A sentence I carefully
crafted to be accurate and also include the
words symbol and navigate because turtles themselves are actually great symbolic
representations of voyagers. Because if you don't know, turtles actually have this bizarre and crazy ability to be
born on land, wake up, dig outta the sand, find
their way to the ocean, mature into adults over decades while they circumnavigate
the entire globe. But then when it's time
for them to lay their eggs somehow they know how to come
back to the exact same beach. You see how this is a great fit for Moana? She finds her way to the ocean, leaves, travels the globe, and comes back. Case closed, Moana's
spirit animal, sea turtle. But hey, on those travels, she ends up meeting the goddess Te Fiti which brings us to theory number four. Why does Moana look exactly like Te Fiti minus, you know, all the greenery and the several hundred foot talledness? This genuinely caught me off guard the first time I saw the movie, I wasn't sure if it was
coincidental or intentional. But when you consider
the themes of the movie it's actually brilliant. One of the big themes
throughout the movie is that everyone is trying
to discover or realize their true identity. Like the villagers who are voyagers. That's how they found their way to Motunui in the first place have completely lost sight of that. They never leave the island. Tradition is their mission. ♪ This tradition is our mission. ♪ - [Jonathan] Not only do
they now travel the ocean they're afraid of it. Maui's identity for most of the movie is wrapped up with his hook. Without it, he feels like he is nothing. - Without my hook, I am nothing! - Te Fiti without her heart becomes a ruthless lava monster
by the name of Te Ka. Even the literal ocean is
working to restore order so it can return to its own purpose of being traveled on by people. I will say there is an exception which is Tomatoa, fully
embraces exactly who he is. ♪ I'd rather be shiny ♪ - At least he's honest. But so where does Moana
fall in all of this? Because at the end of the day it seems like from the very beginning Moana has known that she was
destined for life at sea. And that's exactly it. Have you ever wondered
why Grandma Tala's story is all wrapped up in finding Maui and having Maui return
the Heart of Te Fiti? And yet at the end of
the movie, it's actually Moana who ventures by
herself to return the heart. Easily one of my favorite
scenes in any Disney movie ever. But if Moana was the one who
was gonna end up doing it then what was the point of Maui? It can feel like a miss but instead it's actually
super duper clever because while yes, the Heart
of Te Fiti is that little rock. The real Heart of Te Fiti that Maui delivers across
the ocean is Moana herself. She is the chosen one. It's what brings her out to sea. But she's unqualified and unprepared, which is why she has to find
Maui to teach her how to sail and give her the confidence
to carry out the mission. And in doing so, Maui
himself finds purpose outside of the hook. And when he teaches Moana how to sail, Moana is able to teach
her village how to sail, and they can become voyagers again. Maui never needed to bring
the little green rock across the ocean. He needed to be able to
empower Moana to travel across the ocean because Moana
is the true Heart of Te Fiti which is why Moana and
Te Feti look the same because Moana is her literal heart. In fact, the movie even spells
it out for you at one point. Like, do you remember that joke where Maui is writing
with the bird on the oar and he says, like when
you write with the bird, that's called a tweet. - When you use a bird to write
with, it's called tweeting. - I agree, it's hilarious. But look what he draws on the oar. It's a representation of the two people on the boat in the movie. The hook is of course, Maui, but Moana is the heart. And that brings us to our
final theory of the day that Te Fiti is responsible
for Rapunzel's powers. What? Oh yeah, I didn't think
we were taking a left turn into Corona, did you? Okay. So we've talked a lot in this movie about what are the powers
of the Heart of Te Fiti and after we see it
restored to Te Fiti herself she uses it to immediately spread life and vegetation all around
the land and cure the plague. It's an extremely similar power set to that of Rapunzel's hair in "Tangled." Basically in grant never
ending life and youth and is a general panacea, meaning
it can just cure anything. And if that sounds familiar, it should because that was the second theory in this video, that Grandma Tala carrying around the Heart of Te Fiti is granted an extended life. Basically exactly what
Mother Gothel has been doing by singing to Rapunzel's
hair for centuries. Well, I guess she was
only singing to the hair for like a couple decades, but you get it. Now in general, I don't like
to compare Mother Gothel and Grandma Tala 'cause one
of them's like super selfless and the other one's super not. But I think you get the meaning. But hey, I hear you. Just having similar powers doesn't really mean two things are connected, right? And that's true, but you
have to consider the source of the power of Rapunzel's hair which is the golden flower they find at the beginning of the movie. And guess what you can see
Te Fiti growing at the end of the movie when she is spreading
life all over the planet. A golden flower. And there you go, you guys. Those are our top five Moana theories. Hope you enjoyed me. If you have any other thoughts on Moana and you have theories
you wanna share with us please let us know in the
towel section down below. (epic booming) And hey, if you need
even more, don't worry, we got you covered. Here's my sixth favorite Moana theory, that Maui is responsible for creating the Druun in
"Raya and The Last Dragon." You can check out that video right here. Otherwise, Ben, until next time I will see you in another life, brother.
