| Tamatoa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Title | Tamatoa, Crab Cake (by Maui) |
| Gender | Male |
| Film | Moana (2016) |
| Status | Alive |
| Hair Color | |
| Eye Color | Yellow |
| Family | Unnamed grandmother (deceased) |
| Friends | Unknown |
| Enemies | Maui, Moana Waialiki |
Tamatoa is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 2016 animated feature film Moana.
Appearance[]
Tamatoa is a 50-foot coconut crab. His shell is both blue and red, bordering on purple, he has two wide, serrated pincers, orange-brown, and one of his legs is broken off above the shin, a result of a past fight with Maui. He has two long feelers growing from his head, blue and black, and his eyes are yellow with blue irises and long eyelashes, making him appear slightly effeminate. He has very human-looking teeth, coated in barnacles, and his shell is covered both in shiny treasure and bioluminescent algae, so that in the dark, he glows neon blue and pink.
Personality[]
Tamatoa is unpredictable and possibly insane. His mood tends to shift at the drop of a hat, going from cheeky and comedic, to murderous and menacing in a mere matter of seconds. He's quite monstrous in both size and attitude, one of his most well-known traits being his sadistic habit of eating anyone around him, be they humans, sea creatures or even gods—he even admitted to eating his own grandmother.
Tamatoa also has a twisted sense of humor, specifically shown when he nonchalantly commented that it took a week to eat his grandmother and blamed the delay on her enormous size in a dry tone. He also takes pleasure in torturing his enemies both mentally and physically, as shown when he playfully - yet brutally - thrashed Maui across his lair, while crushing the demigod's ego at the same time. With an apparent lack of boundaries, Tamatoa has no qualms with mocking someone's dead loved one, or exposing someone's deepest insecurities to amuse himself.
Above all, Tamatoa is extremely narcissistic. With a superiority complex, he views himself as beautiful, and others as irrelevant and disposable. This is only surface-level, however, which actually serves as an antithesis between Tamatoa and the film's overarching message of identity and being true to yourself: Unlike Moana, Tala and Maui, Tamatoa does not believe in inner-beauty or "listening to your heart". Instead, he views anyone who is not physically attractive or outwardly strong as insignificant and lesser than him, albeit perfectly fit for a meal. This is his biggest flaw and ultimately causes his downfall, as he underestimated Moana's intelligence (because she's a human), which allowed her to best the villainous crustacean. Though he considers himself beautiful, however, he welcomes anything that will increase his power and, by extension, his social status, such as the heart of Te Fiti.
Powers and Abilities[]
Superhuman Strength: Due to his gigantic size, is strong enough to rip a human being to pieces (as he nearly does to Moana at the start of his song), and slam Maui, an immortal demigod who also has superhuman strength into the ground and the wall of his cave repeatedly, although Maui was partially crippled by his inability to use his shape changing powers correctly- this, and the fact that Maui pulled off one of Tamatoa's legs a long time before the events of the film, suggests that he and Tamatoa are on the same, if not higher, levels of strength.
Speed: Despite missing one of his legs, Tamatoa is very quick on his feet, and is only prevented from catching Maui and Moana by the force of a geyser flipping onto his back. Cannibalism: As a gigantic crab, Tamatoa can eat pretty much any living thing (he claims to have eaten his own grandmother, which "took a week, because she was absolutely humongous!"; real coconut crabs are known to be cannibalistic) He eats whole shoals of fish drawn to the glittering treasure on his back, and attempts to eat both Maui and Moana.
Immortality: Listed as one of the monsters that sought after the Heart of Te Fiti a thousand years before the events of Moana, indicating he must possess some form of immortality. Given his implied past with Maui, Tamatoa could clearly be some kind of supernatural, semi-divine creature.
Intelligence: Exceptionally cunning and knows how to use the glittering treasure on his shell to draw shoals of fish to him. He also shows a wide and varied vocabulary, as shown by his use of the terms "decapod" and "bioluminescent algae" whilst attacking Maui and being tricked by Moana. Tamatoa also understands the use of bioluminescence, and paints himself with glowing algae so that, even in the darkness, he still shines.
Manipulation: Besides his power to draw fish to him via his glowing shell, Tamatoa shows skill at manipulation. While he cannot emotionally enthral people, Tamatoa nonetheless knows how to rub salt into emotional wounds, as shown by the way he taunts Moana, grieving for Gramma Tala, by relating that he ate his own grandmother, and thoroughly scorns and humiliates Maui by reminding him that he only became a heroic demigod to gain the love from humans he did not receive from his birth parents.
Role in the Crossover[]
Pitch Black could try to recruit Tamatoa in his war with the Guardians, disdaining the giant crab's superficial attraction to gold and shiny objects (like Rapunzel's crown, Merida's necklace or the Guardian Stone), but admiring his power to inspire terror in even a demigod's heart. Next to Drago Bludvist and Mor'du, the evil crustacean could be Pitch's most powerful ally.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
Pitch Black[]
Since both Pitch and Tamatoa have a formidable reputation in the human world, the Boogeyman would most probably seek out the giant crab to help him fight the Guardians. Since Tamatoa is an animal and a supernatural monster, he could probably see Pitch, and Pitch could use his crippling insecurity and vanity to exploit him to his side. He would not show much interest in Tamatoa's greedy and superficial love of treasure, but his physical ability to inspire fear would be of great interest to Pitch. If locked in a fight against both Jack and Maui, the two villains would gladly try to break Guardian and Demigod by taunting them about their feelings of isolation and abandonment. Pitch and Tamatoa both love to torture their opponents before they kill them.
Mother Gothel[]
Gothel's vanity and obsession with preserving her own youth and beauty at all costs chimes well with Tamatoa's narcissism and insecurity. As such Tamatoa would support Gothel, and by extension Pitch in their endeavours agains the Big Four. However, theirs would only be a partnership of convenience, not true friendship- Gothel would see Tamatoa as little more than a stupid animal and tool to be bribed, like the Stabbington Brothers, and Tamatoa would gladly remind her that he could rip her to pieces and eat her the moment he feels she's of no further use to him.
Red Death[]
Because Tamatoa appears to have a wide grasp of foreign cultures (due to his wide vocabulary and ability to speak French), the chances are he has heard tales of gigantic, destructive dragons that hoard precious treasure away from the world. Therefore, he would be the first villain to approach the Red Death, scouring the massive dragon's lair in search of shiny objects to place on his shell. While he would be quickly disappointed in that respect, he would still find great value in using the Red Death as an enforcer to Pitch's team and extorting both fish and weapons from Berk both for meals and for improving the shininess of Tamatoa's shell. That said, Tamatoa and the Red Death would still probably fight over who gets the larger share from their robbery tactics.
Mor'du[]
As gigantic animals, Mor'du and Tamatoa would be Pitch's enforcers, used for his most destructive scare tactics, both of them destroying entire villages, after which Tamatoa would start scouring the remains for treasure. As both of them are exceptionally physically durable (Mor'du has nigh-impenetrable hide and Tamatoa has a solid shell), they would get along on that level. However, Mor'du would openly scorn Tamatoa for taking too much pride in his appearance, while Tamatoa would cheerfully jibe at Mor'du's physical ugliness. The two villains would consequentially spend more time fighting each other than fighting their enemies.
Enemies[]
Maui[]
Since Maui and Tamatoa are both supernatural immortals, they have known each other for centuries, and have a bitter history. Originally, the demigod and the giant crab were friends, but at some point, Maui pulled off one of Tamatoa's legs (presumably it is because Tamatoa learnt about Maui's parents abandoning him and taunted him until he became enraged). Later on, Maui fought Tamatoa, and gained a tattoo commemorating his triumph over the decapod, only to lose his hook trying to make off with the Heart of Te Fiti, after which Tamatoa took possession of it. 1,000 years later, after Maui returned to Lalotai to reclaim the hook, Tamatoa was initially horrified to be reunited with his old enemy. However, his horror quickly turned to scorn upon realising that Maui had lost the knowledge of how to use the hook's powers, and he started beating the demigod up while taunting him for his weakness and his desperation to gain the love of the humans. If Maui and Tamatoa should ever meet again, they will gladly try to kill each other.
Moana Waialiki[]
Moana initially came across Tamatoa while being sent to distract the monster as Maui reclaimed his hook, by dressing in shiny treasure and getting him to talk about himself. Tamatoa immediately began antagonising Moana shortly after confronting her, taunting her about her late grandmother Tala by telling her about how he ate his own grandmother. He quickly stated that Moana was a fool for listening to Tala's advice to be true to who she is inside, and cheerfully tortures, humiliates and finally tries to eat the chief's daughter, only for her to distract him and escape with both Maui and the hook intact. Moana views Tamatoa as no more than a self-centred monster.
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III[]
Tamatoa would behave scornfully towards Hiccup, taunting his skinny build and clumsiness, and likely using his poor relationship with the other Vikings on Berk to rub salt into his wounds, while pointing out that he lost a leg once, and he got a far better deal of it than Hiccup since he still has nine more. On the other hand, if Hiccup has brought Toothless to their meeting, Tamatoa could use Hiccup's connection to dragons to try and improve his own outer beauty by finding out if Toothless can smell treasure and add it to Tamatoa's shell. Toothless, however, would refuse to help the evil crab, and would gladly blast him across the room with his fire breath.
Jack Frost[]
As an animal and a supernatural being, Tamatoa could very likely see Jack and interact with him. Since his home turf of Lalotai lies underwater, Tamatoa probably has little experience with ice and snow, so he could initially fear Jack because of his power to freeze the whole of Lalotai if he got enraged enough. However, he could also taunt and abuse Jack, mocking him about his desperate desire to be believed in and seen by humans and his determination to find his "center" when Tamatoa himself believes that it's what you are on the outside that matters, not what's inside you. This would put Jack in mind of Pitch and place him on guard against the monstrous crustacean.
Merida DunBroch[]
Tamatoa would enjoy terrorising and intimidating Moana with his massive size and formidable pincers, taking advantage of his hard outer shell to deflect the princess' arrows. He would also scorn her desperate desire for her mother to listen to her, since he ate his own family, and could sting her by reminding her that she turned her own mother into a bear. Merida, in contrast, would simply hate Tamatoa, for his monstrous nature and obsessive pride would remind her of Mor'du.
Rapunzel Corona[]
While Tamatoa would initially approve of Rapunzel's shiny hair, he would quickly start taunting the poor girl due to her naiveté and would dismiss her attempts to find a more meaningful dream than being surrounded by shiny treasures, a similar attitude once shown by Rapunzel's own husband Eugene Fitzherbert. He would most likely sympathize with Gothel instead of Rapunzel, agreeing with her that a search for constant beauty is the most important of all.