Moana - Bionicle Similarities!

[tamaru34]

In the time before time...

 

 

1: The heroine's island home is Motanui. Mota-nui. Mata Nui!

 

2: The movie starts with a village elder, telling the story of Te Fiti. Mask of Light starts with Vakama telling the legend!

 

3: The Heroine is sent, with her ussal crab- I mean, comical relief animal sidekick, to find the prophesized 7th Toa- I mean, the great demigod Maui.

 

4: The Heroine's end goal is to restore the Mask of Life- I mean, the heart of Te Fiti, back to a huge sleeping being disguised as an island, and thus awaken it. Te Fiti? Just like the Great Spirit Robot!!!

 

5: They are not alone in their quest. The evil warlord Makuta- I mean, Ta, wants to prevent them from ever completing their quest.

 

6: The heroine, at one point, travels to an ancient shrine and places powerful stones on it. Just like the Suva shrine and the Toa Stones!!!

 

7: The movie revolves around the virtues of unity, duty, and destiny.

 

8: Finally, most of the concepts are taken from maori folklore. If you remember your history, kids, the maori sued Lego for using their words frivolously in Bionicle. Kopaka, Toa, and Huki are just some of the words taken direct from the language.

 

 

Tell me what you think! Just an odd coincidence? Do you have any other familiar concepts you caught?

[The 1st Shadow]

The similarities are certainly obvious, yes. But there's a few points that make no sense.

 

(I can write a lot when I'm tired, so bear with me for a bit )

 

4: The Heroine's end goal is to restore the Mask of Life- I mean, the heart of Te Fiti, back to a huge sleeping being disguised as an island, and thus awaken it. Te Fiti? Just like the Great Spirit Robot!!!

5: They are not alone in their quest. The evil warlord Makuta- I mean, Ta, wants to prevent them from ever completing their quest.

4. Uh, no. The Mask of Light did not have to be restored to Mata Nui. It was destined to transform Takua into a Toa so that he could later aid the Toa Nuva in awakening Mata Nui. The Avohkii plays no part in the actual restoration of the Great Spirit Robot. "Giant being disguised as an island" is the only similarity there.

 

5. "Te Ka," not "Ta."

 

6: The heroine, at one point, travels to an ancient shrine and places powerful stones on it. Just like the Suva shrine and the Toa Stones!!!

7: The movie revolves around the virtues of unity, duty, and destiny.

6. When did that happen? The only times Moana goes to any "ancient" places would have been the cave full of ships, the Realm of Monsters, and Te Fiti. None of those qualify as "shrines" or involve "powerful stones."  Unless you mean restoring the Heart to Te Fiti, in which case, that's one stone, and I wouldn't call the chest of an island-sized goddess a "shrine."

 

7. No, it doesn't. Moana has literally nothing to do with the Three Virtues. Self-discovery, absolutely. Compassion and understanding, of course! But Unity and Duty? Nope. For Maui, they might, but in terms of Moana's personal journey, they are irrelevant. When I think of Moana, the only major theme that comes to mind is concerning "legacy"--Moana wants to restore a big part of her people's culture, a part of herself. Maui, who has existed for so long, helps to teach her some of what her people lost. That's what the movie was about. Not "Unity, Duty, and Destiny." Unity with whom? A Duty to what? What Destiny do they hope to achieve?

Bionicle answers those questions with no problem: Heroes representing the diverse elemental tribes need to come together and learn to work as a team (Unity) to defeat the evil Makuta (Duty) in order to awaken the Great Spirit and free the Matoran from Makuta's dark reign (Destiny). 
 

Moana's journey makes it clear that she only needs Maui to help her restore life to the ocean, as she lacks the skills and knowledge and power needed to do so. The world could have been saved without them becoming friends. That has no relevance to the goal of the story, as Moana is able to discover Te Ka's true identity on her own. No theme of "Unity." The Ocean gives Moana a choice. When she chooses to give up the Heart so that someone else can restore Te Fiti, the Ocean obliges and takes it from her. It was her acknowledgement of her legacy and what her the actions of her ancestors means to her that helped change her mind, but she didn't have to do it. No theme of "Duty." And, since in Bionicle, the theme of Destiny depends on Unity and Duty being fulfilled, we can rule out that one from this lineup as well.

 

That said, I think a better approach would have been to focus on how Takua and Moana were similar, as characters. Think back to Mask of Light. He was chosen to carry the Avohkii to the Great Temple, where he would put it on and fulfill his destiny. However, along the way, he made the choice to leave Jaller to carry out the task on his own, because he didn't want to risk Makuta following through on his threat. When he later saw what was happening with or without him, he jumped right back into the journey and finished the mission even when his friend was taken out. In a similar fashion, as I already mentioned, Moana is given the choice to go forth with the journey, or risk letting her people suffer. She makes the right choice in the end, and she finishes the mission even when Maui is stripped of his magic fishhook and is powerless to help her in the fight against Te Ka. See what I mean? That's a big similarity right there, and that's what I'd go with.

[Lyichir]

Don't forget the heroes traveling into a gloomy underworld (Mangaia) where they face off against a giant crab monster (Manas).

[tamaru34]

Thefirstshadow,

 

I think you are mixing up the Ahvoki with the Ignika. The mask of LIGHT is not the mask of LIFE.

 

And yes, Moana did travel to the shrine near the beginning of the movie, where her predecessors had laid their stones. Sure, it's not physical Toa power, but the stones symbolize political power, therefore they are powerful.

[xccj]

I think in general, a lot of the concepts are similar because they drew from the same source material. Only one did it in a less cultural-appropriation way and didn't get sued. (Sorry, Bionicle is my favorite Lego theme, but they did kind of mess that up.)

 

For other similarities between the two themes, I guess the Kakamora had some Kanohi-like designs. Plus, the entrance to the underworld is kinda similar to the Kini-Nui. I didn't really connect the "Goddess is the island" bit to Mata Nui, mostly because I was familiar with that concept in Hawaiian culture, where the rolling hills look like a person laying on their side. Te Ka, however, is a far cry from Makuta, as their motivations and origins are quite different.

 

Of course, I can't hear Motanui without thinking Mata Nui, so there is that.

 

[The 1st Shadow]

Your opening post made it sound like you were comparing the Mask of Light movie to Moana. I see that it says "life" now, so I apologize for that (like I said, I replied at 2 in the morning). On that note, they technically didn't need the Ignika to awaken Mata Nui. The Nuva could have sacrificed all their power to achieve the same result, but the Ignika was their shortcut. So, you're close, and I can see where you're going with that.

[Tahu92]

There are a lot of similarities between the two, just like there are a ton of similarities between Bionicle and Horizon: Zero Dawn (which may as well have been called "Rahi Hunter"). There are always similarities between some stories as some share common elements, especially when they come from the same cultural source material(s).

[Lenny7092]

There are a lot of similarities between the two, and I agree with you guys on all of those similarities. I always think that the giant crab from Moana reminds me of Caparar, but Manas works as well. Plus, the Realm of Monsters sort of reminds me of Bionicle’s 2007 storyline (Happy 10th anniversary to the 2007 storyline and 1st anniversary to Moana).

 

If Lego were to make The Lego Bionicle Movie, people would say that the movie would be sort of like Moana. Just saying.

 

There’s also Bionicle G2 and The Amazing Spider-Man movies in 2012 and 2014 (Here are the similarities: http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/25567-bionicle-g2-the-amazing-spider-man-movies/?do=findComment&comment=1142833 ), Bionicle and Nickelodeon’s Avatar shows, Bionicle and Xialon Showdown, Bionicle and Ninjago, and Bionicle and Transformers.

Edited November 23, 2017 by Lenny7092