Jemaine Clement on that catchy song in Moana - Dec 28, 2016

[size=150:36448ci4]Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement on that catchy song in Moana

“TAMATOA hasn’t always been this glam, I was a drab little crab once ...”

If you can’t get that line out of your head once you’ve seen Disney’s animated summer blockbuster Moana — along with the rest of the tune, Shiny, that it comes from — Jemaine Clement feels your pain.

“I have not been able to get that tune out of my head since I recorded it,” says the Kiwi actor, writer, singer and comedian, best known as one half of comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.

“People keep quoting it to me every day on social media ... the tune’s just so catchy. It’s going to drive people mad. I’m going to be murdered because: ‘YOU SANG THAT SONG!’ ”

Jemaine Clement's catchy song Shiny from the animated hit film Moana

Tamatoa (voiced by Jemaine Clement) is no drab little crab, but this pilfering crustacean spells deep-sea trouble for Moana and Maui in Disney’s Boxing Day smash Moana. Picture: Disney
There’s little chance of that. Tamatoa might be one of the dangers this story’s heroes Moana and Maui encounter on their high seas adventure, but the giant crab — who fills his deepwater lair with all manner of glittery objects — is a loopy delight.

Tamatoa (who tells Moana “you look like seafood”) is the second human-eating baddie Clement has voiced for Disney this year, after playing the giant Fleshlumpeater in Steven Spielberg’s The BFG. Yet the performer is not worried about getting a bad-guy reputation.

“Not really, because it’s so fun,” he laughs. “They’re egotistical, a little bit crazy — that’s fun to do.”

Besides, even though Tamatoa brags to Moana about eating his grandma, Clement maintains he’s not a total baddie.

“I try and be scary but with a good soul. Like I will eat someone but I’ll apologise. That’s what I went for with this character,” he says.

Shinywas written specifically for Clement in the glam rock style of David Bowie by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Miranda, best known for creating the smash-hit Broadway musical Hamilton, had heard Clement’s Bowie tribute with the Conchords, so knew it would be a perfect fit.

As for the film itself, it’s written and directed by Disney veterans Ron Clements and John Musker, who also steered The Little Mermaid. In Moana’s post-credits scene, they have Tamatoa throw a little shade the way of Sebastian, their previous film’s beloved Caribbean crab.

Along with fellow New Zealanders Rachel House and Temuera Morrison, the movie also features the voice of action-comedy superstar Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui — a constant in myths and legends across the islands of the Pacific.

Clement grew up with stories of Maui: “He’s the most popular of the Maori myths,” he says.

“Everyone in New Zealand knows the stories;
like he talks about in his tattoos in the movie, lassoing the sun — everyone knows that story here.”

Johnson, he reckons, is a worthy fit for the role given that, “Maui’s always quite a cheeky character”.

Although, he adds: “In the Maori version, Maui’s the runt of the family, he’s the smallest of five brothers. So in this version (Moana), I can’t imagine ... his brothers must be huge!”