Raya and the Last Dragon

 

Image credit: IMDb

While I do love that cinema is surviving these strange new times in which we find ourselves, I won’t say it’s not without its problems. Obviously one is the distribution of movies and the rise of streaming service original content, which comes with its own exclusions because there’s a fair chunk of audiences who either can’t afford the luxury of streaming or have decided they’re too old to learn (this comes from personal customer interactions). Another one came to me only today, that the writing for films has shifted with a lot of new films being written shorter and more ‘made-for-tv’. I’m not saying that this is resulting in bad movies, but I certainly have noticed that I’ve found it hard to get as excited about films as I used to and I think this is why. The thought occurred to me today when I finally sat down to watch Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, a movie that I was very keen to watch, but hadn’t gotten around to. 

It tells the story of a world torn apart by tribal feuds, which are reignited when a peaceful meeting goes awry and unleashes an ancient plague that had been locked away centuries ago by the last dragons. After being betrayed by a friend and losing her father to the plague, Princess Raya goes on a 6-year pilgrimage to find the last dragon, Sisu, rumoured to still be alive. When she succeeds, she gets more than she bargained for when Sisu reveals that she can’t stop the plague like before. The two embark on a great adventure chasing down the last remnants of dragon magic and the only hope to bring back everything that has been lost. 

The film has a very sweet and message about trust and the importance of community, very much needed in a world growing mad and jaded by the pandemic, though still saccharine and trying. Visually, it’s absolutely stunning with the character animation as well as that of the world, both when it’s flourishing and dystopian, being crisp and captivating from the opening scene. Where the movie fell down for me was in the predictable narrative and the fact that, because it was written to be streaming-friendly, it felt short and there was not enough time to form a real emotional attachment to any of the characters. But this could also be a shortcoming of the predictability. 

Image credit: Stack

Raya is a strong and inspiring heroine, but we’ve seen many like her before and sadly there was nothing that really made her stand out from Moana or Mulan or Jasmine. Sisu was definitely fun and kind of fresh, being beautifully voiced by Awkwafina, but you got used to her pretty quick and even in the film’s more dramatic moments, there didn’t seem to be any real emotional development. 

It definitely seems like I have more negatives to say about this movie, but that does not mean that I didn’t like it. I would absolutely sit down and watch this again when I am in the mood, but I think at the end of the day I feel a little let down by Disney in that this was just another visually appetising and more-or-less nourishing movie. It wasn’t anything particularly special and it wasn’t ‘Disney magic’. 

Having said this, I would still recommend it if you’re wondering how to fill an afternoon. It’s pretty and cute with a fun cast of kooky characters.

Director: Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada & John Ripa (2021)

Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Izaac Wang, Daniel Dae Kim, Jona Xiao, Alan Tudyk, Lucille Song, Benedict Wong & Sandra Oh