DIRECTORS: Don Hall & Carlos Lopez Estrada
PRODUCERS: Osnat Shurer & Peter Del Vecho
WRITERS: Qui Nguyen & Adele Lim (screenplay/story) & Paul Briggas & Don Hall & Carlos Lopez Estrada & Kiel Murray & John Ripa & Dean Wellens (story)
VOICES: Kelly Marie Tran Awkwafina Izzac Wang Gemma Chan Daniel Day Kim
Benedict Wong Jona Xiao Sandra Oh Thalia Tran Lucille Soong Alan Tudyk
Dichen Lachman
When I first heard of this film I was super pumped up for it. I thought it was going to be another great film to add to the long list of Disney classics. For the past decade we've gotten a new take on how girls and women in general are portrayed in animated films under the Disney banner: strong, independent, capable and not waiting for a prince charming to come to their rescue. This is the latest to join in that category, only here, is a representation of Southeast Asian culture. While representing it, we get a story that's filled with action, family, unity and perhaps most of all: trust. Raya and the Last Dragon was a force to be reckoned with!
I had the opportunity to see this film in theaters a week after it came out. When I did, I was very surprised how it turned out to say the least. Following the story of a young Asian girl, Raya is a young and strong warrior who strives to bring her people back together following a serious power struggle over all clans. Following a traumatic experience in her childhood (which involves an old friend), she loses her ability to trust in others and at one point... even herself. Then she has to seek out the last dragon for help, who turns out to be more than meets the eye. With the brilliant vocal performances of Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina, there is just no denying the chemistry between the two. You see it through their characters, you feel it through their voices and you sense it through your imagination. I thought this was a mix between Aladdin (1992) and Moana (2016), because it had me thinking of those two when I saw this. the first one for chemistry work and the second for character pacing.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight" - PROVERBS 3:5-6 NIV
While Raya is about saving the world, it's also about what it means to trust. What stood out the most to me was her issues with trusting others and completely relying on herself. And she isn't the only one, her former friend from her childhood Namari is also going through the same issues. Now Namari's character arc was a particularly interesting one, much more complex than Raya's because she goes through the most change. While Raya learns to trust, Namari learns to make straight paths. They spend the film in their adult years racing against each other to bring order, but go about it with different viewpoints and with the same beliefs. They say that trust takes time, but in movies like this, it takes minutes and either you do or don't. The way the subject trust is played in this film is well thought; and I can't wrap my mind around the fact that it took several screenwriters to pull it off so well; you would think even they had little to almost complete trust in each other to make this work. Obviously, they did just that and didn't disappoint.
There was no singing, no musical numbers and given the long history of music in animated Disney films, this was quite a step back from that tradition. I was honestly hoping for some catchy tunes or theme songs from this film people would remember forever... like the ones we got from Tangled or Frozen or Moana; big surprise there. This was just straightforward... 'no time for songs or dancing, let's just do what we came to do and nothing else'; Just get down to business and nothing else was said about it. This was very different from the way films of this nature were made as the company steps outside of it's comfort zone of songs and themes. This new approach also attributed to the film's pacing, by being all about the plot rather than letting the music be it's guide. Though the film was enjoyable, I really hoped for some new wave of tunes from this one. But who knows, this may be the first of the next wave of Disney animated films without songs and without themes.
Character evolution played a huge part in what I found so likeable about this film. There were no heroes or no villains, just people doing what they believed was necessary to survive (PHILLIPIANS 2:3-4 NIV). Because it took one dragon to save the world, it took one young woman and a few other friends to unite and do the rest. At one point, I was even on the verge of tears as well as the edge of my seat at the climax. Because it showed that people can change if they want to, and although we're not perfect we're still human. Once again, Disney has delivered another great film to add to their library of immortal and timeless films. Sure it was a long wait given the pandemic last year, but by the end it was worth the wait! The messages behind the film made it worth learning from and it's pacing made it worth the look. All in all, highly recommended!!!