Watching a movie as an adult is an entirely different experience to how it used to be as a kid. Back then, we didn't just sit in front of a screen for 90 minutes, occasionally checking our phones to look someone up on IMDb or text someone if we got bored. Nor did we then go on to give our own criticism of the film, either hailing it as a masterpiece or trashing it as if we could have done something so much better.
No, when we were kids, we actually
committed to the film.
Not only did we sit through the whole thing, barely blinking, for hours at a time, we also collected all the merchandise. And learned the songs. And drew pictures of our favorite characters. Basically, we became so immersed in the alternate universes we saw on our screens that they almost became real.
So when two little girls met a cashier who resembled a character from Moana, they truly believed they'd found the actual guy.
Rella Rivera, a radio host, posted a video to YouTube of her two daughters speaking to a cashier in Costco. The little girls - Ryley, who is eight, and her little sister, Rylyn, aged five - can be seen excitedly waiting at the checkout to be served by William Va’ana, but they refer to him as "Maui".
With his stocky build and long, curly locks, Va'ana does indeed resemble the animated demigod - and everybody knows it.
"Who's that?" Rella asks her daughters, who have met Va'ana several times before.
“That’s Maui!” they shout in response.
The young girls then ask Va'ana if he will shout Maui's catchphrase (a high pitched "chee-hoo!") - to which he says, "only if you guys are going to do it too".
Unsurprisingly, the kids leap at the opportunity and stand behind the cashier's checkout desk in order to chant with him. And he doesn't hold back, either.
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In the description of the clip, Rella explained that her daughters do this every time they visit the store - and Va'ana is perfectly used to it, seeing as he used to perform as the character professionally.
"Each time my daughters come to Costco, they search for the "real life" Demi god, Maui," she said. "Will, featured in this video also does character appearances as Maui for parties and previously at Aulani
Disney resort. Thank you, will, for bringing a smile to our daughters faces at each visit!"
“Every time he sees my daughters, he yells out to them with a ‘chee-hoo!’ and they love it,” Rella said in an interview with People magazine. “He’s so awesome for doing that.”
What's more, since the video was posted, Va'ana has attracted a lot more visitors who want to meet the real-life Maui.
“There were pictures posted in the comments of other kids who have pointed him out in Costco and he was nice enough to take pictures with them as well,” Rella explained.
Though it probably seems like such a small action for him, Va'ana is making a lot of children's dreams of meeting their favorite character come true. What a great guy!
