Disney Marathon: ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’

Disney Marathon: 'Raya and the Last Dragon'

So...Disney has a new movie...

This review will contain spoilers.

For those just joining us, this is a movie marathon with a twist. Myself (cranky 40 year old blogger), my son Josh (stoic 10 year old Nintendo obsessive) and my daughter Amelia (drama llama 8 year old princess) are watching Disney movies in a random order and ranking them. We hope to see interesting differences in how we organise our lists.

Disney Marathon: ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’

Film: Raya and the Last Dragon

Released: 2021

Director: Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada

Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wany, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Alan Tudyk

Plot: Raya is the daughter of a regional chief in a world inspired by South-East Asian history and mythology. The five tribes of this world turn against each other over possession of a crystal containing the last of the dragon magic in the world, the only way which to protect against evil spirits. Raya seeks to find the last dragon to bring all people back together.

Review: There's always a moment of pause when Disney leans heavily into a specific culture, as that's been an uncomfortably mishandled topic for them. Given some of the criticism levelled at the recent remake of Mulan, jumping back into East Asian culture for their new animated film makes us nervous. Fortunately they seem to have wised up, as they have specifically set their story in a fictional world that draws upon Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines for inspiration. Without a specific, real world culture we have an amalgamation of influences and much harder to be criticised for.

Raya (Marie Tran) is introduced as a child warrior-in-training, working with her father Chief Benja of the Heart Tribe to protect the Dragon Orb. This magical artefact holds the last of the dragon magic needed to protect their people from evil purple blobs that turn people to stone. During an attempt to unite the tribes of Fang, Tail, Talon and Spine there is an attempt to steal the orb and it gets broken, each tribe taking a piece. Jumping forward six years, Raya is alone and travelling the realm looking for the missing last dragon to help retrieve the broken pieces of orb and reunite the tribes. Meanwhile, the evil blobs have continued to attack settlements and petrify people.

After meeting the dragon Sisu (Awkwafina), the pair set out to visit each of the tribes and regain the orbs. On their journey they are joined by the warrior Tong (Wong), merchant Boun (Wang), pint-sized thief Noi (Thalia Tran) and nemesis Namaari (Chan) from the different tribes in an effort to overcome the mounting obstacles that stand between them and their goals. Raya is hardened against the world, and has a straight-forward approach to problem solving that usually involve her whip sword. Conversely, Sisu is goofy and optimistic, often insisting that they need to approach their foes with kindness and trust in them to do right.

Following this unlikely band of companions sees Raya needing to learn from Sisu's example, and that she can never make the tribes to unite through force if they're to undo the damage perpetrated by the evil blobs. The message is simple, but there's so many stops on the journey to the end with so many characters to be introduced to that it all feels more complicated than it needs to be. Moana featured a similar character arc with only the two main characters and a demented chicken on a raft. For the first act, this does largely mirror Moana in structure and style, but it does begin to feel like it's own thing after the set-up and introduction of Sisu.

Whilst there might be too much put into the film for the characters to work through, establishing the different tribes and related characters, each one is unique and interesting. We have a desert kingdom, a river based merchant town, some nomadic cultures and whatnot, giving each scene of the movie a distinct look. It's a shame that we get shuffled through them all so quickly we skim over the deeper lore that would make it more interesting and believable.

That all said, Disney has been on a hot streak with new animated films of late when you look at them in terms of technical quality. This is still the leading company in animation with amazing landscapes and character movement, high quality voice acting and a well polished product. The bumps lie in the narrative, zipping ahead when I want to stop and look about some more. Raya and Sisu make more fun travelling companions, though, and worth the journey. It's always nice to see Disney break away from their standard fairy tale fair, meaning they don't have to poke fun at their own cliches to excuse relying on them.

Coolest Easter Egg: A couple of people have spotted Dante from Coco hanging around the marketplace. We think it's a good likeness.

Weirdest Trivia: Alan Tudyk provides the 'voice' of armdillo/pillbug/pug dog thing Tuk Tuk. Tudyk has become a Disney regular, voicing characters in Frozen, Frozen 2, Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Zootopia, Big Hero Six, Rogue One, Moana and Zootopia. Since we think Alan Tudyk represents a stamp of quality, we're ok with this.

Rating: SEVEN out of TEN

THE RANKING ME

It's a fun adventure with a design not dissimilar to the world of Avatar, in that each culture draws upon a different region. It doesn't push enough boundaries to score particularly highly for me, but with time I may warm up to it.

Click those titles if you want to see what we said about the other movies.

AMELIA

Amelia was very excited for this film, and loved Raya from the very first trailer (unsurprisingly she's also a big fan of Korra). This character alone pushed the film to the top of her list.