Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@taylacespedes
Topics: Australia, Parenting, TV And Film, TikTok, Disney
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Australia, Parenting, TV And Film, TikTok, Disney
The mother of a die-hard Moana fan has this week raised a grievance against Australian toy retailer Myer, after the doll she'd ordered arrived worlds away from how she'd expected.
The Perth mum took to TikTok this week, where she explained that, after her daughter had been asking for a doll of the Polynesian Disney princess for some time, she recently caved.
Tayla Cespedes shared a self-fronted clip on the video-sharing app, where she could be seen holding up the box containing the children's toy, explaining that she'd paid $84.99 for a 'Singing Friend Moana Doll, 38cm'.
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"I was taking her out of the box and my daughter was so excited to play with her," Tayla said of the gift.
"And upon taking her out, I noticed that it said 'Vaiana 2' on the box, and I was like, hmm."
The Aussie TikToker said that she raised the issue with her husband, describing the mistake as 'a bit odd'.
Despite pointing out that the doll 'came with all the things, exactly the same as what came on the website, Tayla revealed things got even weirder when she attempted to make Vaiana/Moana sing.
Lifting the doll, the mum clipped 'Demo Mode', for a lyric-less melody to be played.
Then, after clicking another button which was supposed to prompt the doll to start singing the anthems from the second movie - released in November 2024 - Vaiana/Moana began doing so in an entirely different language.
"I don't even know what language that is," Tayla confessed.
"I am actually so confused."
The confused social media user then explained that she searched the website of the toy retailer, but was unable to find anything under the name 'Viana', adding that there's seemingly 'no such thing'.
"But now that I've opened the entire thing," Tayla went on. "I'm like, can I return this? Because my daughter was so excited, but we can't even use it because it's in a different language.
"She was so bloody excited."
The mum then went on to encourage her followers to get in touch if they recognise Vaiana, or if they recognise the language spoken in the songs.
The comments quickly became filled with explanations.
One wrote: "In Europe, she's called Vaiana/Viana becase some country had an adult movie star called Moana, so they changed her name so when kids looked this Disney movie up, they wouldn't be traumatized."
Another agreed, writing: "it's the same doll. it changes the name because in my country and Europe the name is different."
"America changed the name from vaiana to moana cause of the cornstar named vaiana," a third continued.
"but in the rest of the world its vaiana. but there is also another issue with it cause I heard german, danish, spanish".
This theory was also supported recently by the Huff Post.