By Luca Newton
Finally, Raya and the Last Dragon has been officially released on Disney+, without Premiere Access fee, and I sat down to watch it for the first time just a couple hours ago..
The latest feature film from Disney Animation Studios, was released on Disney+'s Premiere Access - a very controversial practice in general. However, it has finally launched for free on Disney+, now making it more available to watch for those who were interested, but not enough to pay for it, like me. So, after watching Disney's new feature film, what did I think of it? I thought it was great. One of Disney's best? No, but certainly a very competent and worthy addition to the roster.
Note: This review will include spoilers for the film. Watch it before reading my detailed thoughts - it's definitely worth your time!
What Is Raya and the Last Dragon?
500 years ago, dragons and humans lived together in harmony, on a land shaped like a dragon, called Kumandra. However, a evil, plague-like threat, the Druun, threatened the land, turning people to stone. The dragons had to work together to form a magical dragon crystal that could wipe out the Druun. This restored the land, and all the people. Except all the dragons stayed as stone, except the one who wielded the gem, Sisu, played by Awkwafina, who went into hiding after the events of 500 years ago. This dragon crystal caused the land of Kumandra into disarray as they all fought to get the crystal, as they believed that the gem would bring their section of Kumandra prosperity. These sections were named after the different parts of the dragon: Heart, Fang, Spine, Talon and Tail. We follow the story of Raya, daughter of the chief of Heart. He has the dragon crystal in his possession, and has aspirations to reform Kumandra, but every division is trying to get the crystal, so he has been training his daughter, Raya, to defend it. However, when he assembles all the divisions for a meal to get everyone on good terms, Raya puts her trust in a little girl of Fang, called Namaari, who backstabs Raya, and causes the dragon crystal to break into 5 pieces. This causes the Druun to return and turn most people into stone. Each of the 5 pieces are taken by each division. 6 years later, Raya has been searching for the last dragon, Sisu. She is in Tail, and finds a shipwreck, where Sisu is. Here, she meets Sisu. From then on, Raya must find all the pieces of the crystal, so that they can be put together and stop the Druun once again.
I believe Raya has a very strong premise. I will now go into what I liked about the movie.
Ambitious World Building And Culture
Absolutely the highlight of Raya and the Last Dragon, was definitely the culture and world building. It was incredible. I mean, if the premise of the film didn't sell you on this film, I don't think much can. It's just really cool, and I definitely think the way its told by Raya was definitely helping its case. It almost feels like what would happen a while after How To Train Your Dragon. How dragons had become such strong protectors of humanity, that they worked together and sacrificed themselves for their sake - to almost die in vain, as human nature caused these different parts of the island to split up and fight over a crystal. The world feels very real and lived in.
I was absolutely in-love with the way the actual world was realised - as I just said, it really does feel like a real culture as a result of these events. Each land has its own design to it that was always beautiful, and visually dynamic. It definitely helped that this film was absolutely gorgeous in its animation style, each section of Kumandra was visually rich, and culturally realised. The big mountain in Heart is striking, the frigid town in Spine was desolate, intimidating yet also kind of pretty. There was always a rich amount of colours in a scene. Additionally, the actual use of that Chinese culture within the movie was appreciated, I felt like the fight scenes were not only visually striking, but really thrilling. I absolutely loved the choreography of the duals, they all felt very much Chinese. My favourite was the dual in the falling tower in Fang between Raya and Namaari. There were real stakes, with an entertaining scene to boot.
Multi-Dimensional Characters
Kellie Marie Tran was great as Raya, and honestly I think that Raya is a really good protagonist, definitely not just a generic hero, she had some depth to her I enjoyed. What I enjoyed was how she developed over the story. She started, like her father, trusting in people. However, after she is backstabbed, and loses her father, she becomes very untrusting of people in general. Over the course of the movie, her lack of trust in people is always challenged, as over the film, she has a group filled with all the cultures of Kumandra, and Sisu makes her realise that trust is very important if she wants to save everyone, including her father. Raya learns that saving her father would only solve one issue, and that she needs to put her trust in people, to make sure Kumandra can be one again, and make sure the Druun can't return again due to human nature.
Alternatively, I think Gemma Chan's character, Namaari, was a great antagonist - which I believe Disney haven't done for a few years at this point. They've been leaning a bit too much into twist villains, like in Frozen with Han, or Yokai in Big Hero 6 - all of which are never executed well, and seem just to exist to trick the audience. Namaari wasn't a twist villain, she wasn't even evil for the sake of it. Namaari backstabbed Raya for her own clan, and later in the movie she is trying to hunt down Raya, but when she learns of what Raya is actually planning to do, she actually questions why she should stop her instead of helping. Namaari is very conflicted, but ultimately, she groups with the others and helps save the world - she ends up on the good side, rather than dying a villain.
What I Wasn't Fond Of
To be honest, there isn't too much that I wasn't fond of, but no movie is perfect, and this movie is nowhere near perfect. Firstly, I'd say the biggest gripe I had with the film was Sisu. I think Awkwafina did what she did best - and portrayed the character Sisu is well, but I just don't like that type of character anymore. Sisu was definitely more of the Olaf type of character, and honestly Sisu is my least favourite of those characters. She was just quite obnoxious, and quite stupid despite being this ancient legend. She was never really funny for me - it felt like most of her lines were supposed to be funny for little kids, which is fair enough because that is the target audience, but it bothered me. Also the rest of the film looks so nice, but the dragons all have the weirdest designs - they actually stick out like a sore thumb. It reminds me of The Good Dinosaur, where the dinosaurs just stuck out visually. Sisu looks like a plushie for little girls. To be fair, she was probably designed for little girls to buy as a toy.
Other than that, I won't lie, the actual plot for this film is pretty basic, and you can predict most of it down to a tee. The ending having a fake-out death for Sisu seemed pretty useless, although I guess it was just to even the battlefield, and I was never invested in the narrative itself, I cared more for Raya's journey and the different cultures and set pieces.
The Peak Of Disney Pessimism
I feel as though, fans are viewing Raya and the Last Dragon with a jaded approach which has become pretty common among many of Disney's releases over the last couple of years. I believe some of it is pretty unfair. The bulk of the jadedness stems from Disney's live action ventures, with The Lion King (2019), Cruella or even the upcoming Jungle Cruise. Based on the fact that Disney seems to be investing in unoriginal projects more than original stuff, because ultimately money is more important. Through remakes nobody asked for, or films based on villains that didn't need redemption, or films based on Disneyland rides or sections, after their success with Pirates of the Caribbean. Honestly, from that angle, I definitely agree. This series of films in the live action department are never that strong, and are definitely their weakest work. Even if I personally enjoyed some of the remakes, their very existence definitely deserve a jaded approach, as their intentions were definitely not because they absolutely needed to redo these films to improve them.
However, I believe that pessimistic approach has spilled into other parts of Disney I don't exactly agree with. Recently, I've seen Disney Animation and even freaking Pixar, heavily criticised compared to other animation studios, as losing it. While I do love Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse and The Mitchells Vs The Machines, I have legitimately seen people call Sony Animation overall on par or even better than Disney and Pixar, as if they just forgot every other movie both Disney and Pixar have done over their entire career. I'd say it's pretty unfair to hold films at different standards just because who the corporation is. Like, judge a film on its own merits. I fear that Raya and Last Dragon released within this time, and I've seen people really exaggerate its issues.
I do want to add that I'm honestly only talking about is mostly what I've seen on social media, nothing to do with critics specifically, who gave Raya good reviews.
Overall, I really enjoyed Raya and the Last Dragon, it was just culturally rich enough to win me over, with its gorgeous visuals, and strong characters, with the exception of Sisu. I'd definitely be interested in this world being expanded upon in a show or something.
4/5 - Great
Thanks for reading.
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