Disney Animation’s latest feature, “Raya and the Last Dragon,” is so affecting and candid about failure, selfishness, and the faith required for second chances that you could be forgiven for forgetting that it’s an animated movie for kids about a girl attempting to save her mystical realm by locating a dragon.
The story is set in the fantasy realm of Kumandra, a place where humans and dragons once lived in harmony until a monster army known as the Druun swept the land until a dragon named Sisu cast a spell that stopped them – but imprisoned dragons in stone.
The remaining fractured human tribes broke the nation into tribes five who live in a charged state of discord. When Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) attempts to reconcile the tribes and restore Kumandra, a fight ensues and a precious dragon gem breaks freeing the Druun. Chief Benja’s daughter Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) begins a dangerous solo mission to find the last dragon and save her world.
The filmmaking team for “Raya” is as epic as the film’s vision. It boasts two directors (Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada), two co-directors (Paul Briggs, John Ripa), and a screenplay from Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim with the story credit involving eight different writers. In this creative team forum, you can feel the broad aesthetic and structural influences of Greek Mythology, recent Disney classics like “Moana”, and this crew peering enviously over the fence at LAIKA Studios’ “Kubo and the Two Strings”.
Though heavily influenced by all aspects of South-East Asian culture from anthropology to architecture, dancing, linguistics and music, “Raya” isn’t as overtly embracing a canonical multi-cultural myth as something like “Moana”. In many ways, it’s a kind of “Middle Earth” South East Asia, so-to-speak, allowing for inspiration and specificity without the rigidity of accuracy. It appears that the filmmakers have synthesised their motivations as respectfully as possible; the test ultimately is in the reception of South-East Asian critics and audience alike.
The Disney Animation Studios’ recent resurgence continues to pay its dues to “Tangled” in modelling, action orientation, and humans and creatures’ general integration. The world of Kumandra, where our story unfolds, and its South-East Asian inspired locales are breathtaking.
Luscious forests, peninsula townships backing onto the arid rock, entire towns living straddling the bay, stunning mountainside fortifications surrounded by beautiful temples continues to reflect the incredible advances in digital technology to create richly textured worlds. The glorious reality integrates seamlessly with the fanciful, colourful Dragons, amorphous glowing tar blobs the Druun, horse-sized cats and Raya’s giant armadillo/bug steed.
The primarily Asian American voice cast, including Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Izaac Wang, Lucille Soong, do a terrific job, but there are a few real highlights.
Kelly Marie Tran’s vocal performance of Raya is full of determination and grit. Raya is unflappable in the face of five years of the Druun ascendency and her world on the brink of collapse. Tran’s a performer with a light that can’t be extinguished, and that buoyancy with the challenging experiences make Raya a great warrior princess for the Disney stable.
Raya’s nemesis is Gemma Chan’s Namari, the daughter of Fang Land’s Chief Virana (Sandra Oh), who plays as the Killmonger to Raya’s Black Panther. Their conflict is the movie’s conflict; their similarity and their ultimate goals are so closely aligned that whoever wins outright feels like the people of Kumandra will lose.
Awkwafina voices the shapeshifting dragon Sisu. The filmmakers found it irresistible to make Sisu’s human form a Disney-fied Awkwafina. Much like Robin Williams as the Genie or Dwayne Johnson as Maui, there’s another indefinable layer of the experience when the voice performer’s very spirit is in every animation choice.
The heart of “Raya” is in the ways that that disparate parts of Kumandra can come together, and it’s not easy. The film doesn’t betray the societal discord we’ve all seen first-hand in the last year. Instead, it embraces every flawed instinct, every impulse to withdraw, all thoughts of refusing a second chance; we ride this dragon until the wheels, and the hopes of the world nearly fall off. It does what big, classic Disney morality tales do, with sharper reflection.
