Jemaine Clement, comedian/actor/musician/master of deadpan delivery, will be voicing the role of a “magical crab” in Disney’s upcoming animated princess movie Moana, alongside Auli’i Cravalho making her debut performance in the title role, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson voicing the role of the demigod Maui.
This all-too-brief sneak peek at the character shows us a very brief scene in which we hear Clement’s voice in-character as the crab, showing off that he will definitely still be using his own New Zealand accent. Given that there are a lot of sea-faring adventures from Moana’s native Motunui Island out into the South Pacific, I guess it’s not that far-fetched to think that perhaps this fictional crab would have an accent like Clement’s … New Zealand is a whole lot of miles away, sure, but it’s in the ballpark… kinda?
Anyway, the crab is named Tamatoa, and he’s not from New Zealand specifically–he’s from a fictional, mystical undersea realm called Lalotai, which is populated by powerful, magical beings. Tamatoa is one such being, and so far, he’s the main villain in the movie that we know about. According to Coming Soon, Moana and Maui are also going to be facing off against some pirates in this movie, so there will be some other secondary antagonists as well, but it seems like Clement’s crab character will be the Big Bad of the picture.
We know very little about this evil crab so far, though, except that he likes to collect and hoard shiny treasures and riches. Jemaine Clement doesn’t give anything else away, in spite of the interviewer’s persistent questions. Instead, Clement focuses on eating and stealing as many cookies and various snacks as possible during the interview. He also steals a fruit basket that is clearly labeled “Dwayne Johnson.” That tag was clearly a mistake, though. All that food must be meant for Jemaine!
(via Coming Soon, image via screencap)
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