POP Maui Shark (Moana)

Maui is the demigod of the wind and the sea, a character in the Disney cartoon Moana, the legend of the end of the world. This cartoon is based on a Polynesian legend that tells the creation of the islands of the archipelago by the goddess Te Fiti through the power of her heart. After creating life, she lay down in the middle of the sea taking the shape of an island. But over the years, her heart became very coveted by different creatures. One day Maui stole the heart to offer it to men in the hope of winning their love. But his action caused unhappiness and the destruction of the oceans and forests around. For without her heart, the goddess Te Fiti loses her soul and disintegrates spreading chaos around her. No more life is then possible in the surrounding area and the legend tells that the curse may continue on all the islands of the archipelago, including that of Moana. Indeed, when she becomes a teenager Moana, daughter of the chief Tui, the heroine of the cartoon, sees her island die: the fish disappear and the coconuts rot in the trees. Supported by her grandmother Tala who thinks she is the chosen one, Moana goes in search of Maui to find Te Fiti and give her back her heart, the jade stone she found on the beach when she was a baby.

Her meeting with Maui is a very funny scene in the cartoon and from the first exchanges with this demigod, you can get an idea of the character. Indeed, Maui is very pretentious and shows a certain superiority complex. His body is muscular and massive, he has big arms, a big belly and a lot of tattoos that tell important scenes of his life. Some of them come to life, notably "Mini Maui", more benevolent, which represents his consciousness in a way.

In spite of the complicated beginnings, together they will manage to reunite Te Fiti and his heart to restore the balance in the archipelago. Before that, Maui and Moana go in search of the magic hook of the demigod, which is what gives him the power to transform himself into any animal. This hook is found in the land of monsters with the crab Tamatoa, one of Maui's oldest enemies, obsessed with all that is precious and shiny and very full of itself. It is moreover, by playing on this facet of Tamatoa's personality that they succeed in recovering the hook. Indeed, in this scene Moana is used as bait then plays on the ego of Tamatoa who was happy to speak about himself, in song while Maui recovers his hook. After a ruse of Moana, attracting Tamatoa on a copy of Te Fiti's heart, they manage to leave the world of the monsters.

On this Pop! figurine, Maui is represented with a shark's head because his hook is malfunctioning. Indeed, back on earth, Maui finds itself taking on different shapes that mix with each other. On this figurine, we see Maui with his shark head, the lower part of his body has its normal appearance. We find his thick brown legs, his blue tattoos that we recognize. We can also guess his green leaves loincloth. On this shark's head, we find the two large fins, a mouth from which pointed teeth protrude. Its large black eyes give it a disillusioned look.