The Moana Easter Egg You Missed In Raya And The Last Dragon
Raya and the Last Dragon follows in the rich tradition of Disney animated films focused on a strong heroine forging her own identity while saving her people's way of life. The storytelling combined with beautiful animation is just one of the many reasons why Looper gave it a stellar review, making it well worth the $30 audiences have to pay to watch it on Premier Access on Disney+. While the film does a great job of finding its own unique place within the Disney filmography, it certainly owes a debt to animated films that have come before, most notably with Moana.
For starters, both stories focus on cultures that have gone predominantly ignored in mainstream Hollywood movies. The central plot in both cases is driven by a young woman who has to locate a mythical being to help her save her homeland. They also both happen to feature Alan Tudyk voicing an animal, but at the end of the day, these similarities are only skin-deep, as Raya and the Last Dragon does a fantastic job of world-building and humanizing Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) as she goes on a journey to not only save her family but find herself.
Still, the movie has fun with the rich legacy it's following in, and it seems as though one eagle-eyed viewer noticed a cool Easter egg related to Moana you really have to look closely to find.
Heihei from Moana pops up in a brief scene in Raya and the Last Dragon
As Raya and her companions set out to reassemble the various orb pieces, they reach the land of Talon. It's a much different world than what Raya is used to as she's essentially thrown into an environment filled with the hustle and bustle of people, animals, and street food. Redditor u/DiFaz07 points out a moment in this sequence that's easy to miss but contains an important connection to Moana. If you pay close enough attention, then you'll find Heihei, the rooster from Moana who's often found with a bowl over his head, next to one of the vendors.
Many fans of the film were delighted to see their favorite poultry make an appearance, but others had a few questions about why the rooster is there. Namely, u/teetaps points out, "That chicken should be dead 8 times over given how stupid it is." To be honest, we have a few questions of our own, such as how did the bird get all the way from Polynesia to South Asia? There's also the more disturbing question of why he happens to be standing in that exact spot. That vendor's clearly selling meat of some kind, and if we were Heihei, we'd get out of there as soon as we could.
Ultimately, it's probably best not to think too deeply about the cameo. It just seems to be a nod to voice actor Alan Tudyk, who voiced Heihei in Moana and came back to lend his voice to Raya's best friend, Tuk Tuk, in the latest feature. To be fair, we'd be pretty happy with a Disney short film depicting how Heihei ended up in this new locale, especially if he winds back up in Motunui in the event Moana 2 ever gets off the ground.