As for Nick, he's kind of justified in that he's like that due to being a victim of prejudice all his life.

Not to mention the point of all those movies is that things don't always need to be as they seem and people don't need to be as bad as they think they are. Character development happens and people can learn from their mistakes and become better people.

And really, I think you're selling the princesses short by painting them as victims of assholery because honestly, not one of them gives into it. They either stand up to them or don't care, which really helps both sides develop as people. It's kind of like what happened with Belle and Beast where people blame it on Stockholm syndrome but Belle never really falls for Beast until he starts to put in the extra effort to not be an asshole anymore, for which he becomes motivated partly due to her strong will and stubbornness.

The point is, Disney's done this character type for ages and the reason is simple: we're all flawed and we all have moments of assholery, but we like to believe that we can overcome this and get a second chance and make right what once went wrong. This is what makes the "Jerk With a Heart of Gold" trope so relatable. Because pretty much everyone was a jerk to someone, no matter how much of a pure cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure, we want to be.


And yeah, I am totally sold on Maui. I like how he looks - he's got that squished face like a pug or Persian cat that puts him in the ugly cute territory which we haven't seen in a main character since Quasimodo. And he's proud and arrogant but also has his butt monkey moments in the trailer which I think has huge comedic potential. I wasn't that interested in this movie so far, but this trailer made me really wanna go see it.