Raya and the Last Dragon

Raya and the Last Dragon

Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when an evil force threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, that same evil has returned and it’s up to a lone warrior, Raya, to track down the legendary last dragon to restore the fractured land and its divided people.

  • Released: 2021-03-03
  • Runtime: 107 minutes
  • Genre: Animation, Family, Fantasy
  • Stars: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wang, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Jona Xiao, Sandra Oh, Thalia Tran, Lucille Soong, Alan Tudyk, Dichen Lachman, Patti Harrison, Sung Kang, Ross Butler, François Chau, Paul Yen, Calamansi Lindo, Ren Hanami, Sierra Katow, Gordon Ip, Jon Park
  • Director: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada
 Comments
  • abigailcoucher - 6 January 2023
    Good old Disney magic
    Raya and the Last Dragon is a fantastic film that is sure to delight people of all ages. This exciting adventure follows the brave and strong-willed Raya, who sets off on a quest to find the last dragon and break an ancient curse. Along the way, she meets friends from other lands who join her cause. The animation is beautiful and the story is surprisingly mature for a Disney film, dealing with themes of trust, collaboration and understanding. The music soundtrack is gorgeous and the characters, both old and new, are all memorable. The action sequences are thrilling, and there's plenty of humor throughout the movie. Raya and the Last Dragon is an impressive achievement that is sure to leave viewers with a smile on their faces.
  • jaceyemerald - 26 August 2022
    Beautiful animation, TERRIBLE message
    First things first, the animation and character designs are truly gorgeous. Fight scenes are dynamic and genuinely fun to watch (until the dialogue, but I'll get to that later). You can tell the company put a lot of money and the animators put a lot of time into making this.

    Unfortunately, the director and writers did not pull their weight, resulting in a movie that made me want to scream and throw something at my screen.

    Plot: 2/10. It's basic and overcrowded. In the beginning, we get a lot of narration and set up. In the middle, we're so busy being introduced to new places that the story falls in the mud and gets dragged along behind us. By the end, the only things that the writers had to work with were the bare-bones of what came before and the goal of a happy ending, which they still manage to flub.

    Characters: 5/10. Again, basic. Raya is fine, but is never given the time to establish herself beyond "basic protagonist" status. The boat boy is a cute addition to the cast. I didn't mind Sisu as a character other than the fact that she is never proven wrong. The baby annoyed me. Namaari, the antagonist, had SO MUCH potential but the writers trashed it. Everyone else fell victim to the movie's overcrowding and became utterly forgettable.

    Theme: 0/10. "Trust and forgive people, no matter how many times or how badly they've hurt you." What kind of a message is that? Raya trusts Namaari and Namaari betrays that trust and causes the apocalypse. That's fine. Raya lives alone with the consequences of trusting blindly for six years. She's scared to trust people now. Potential for an interesting character arc, right? Then Sisu comes along and says, "No matter what, blind trust will build good relationships." But her evidence for this is her family (who had known her for her whole life) putting trust in her once. That's not blind trust. It doesn't stop her from preaching to Raya, though, and the movie goes out of its way to prove Sisu's message correct.

    In the end, after a whole mess of a story, Raya reaches out to Namaari to give her one last chance (except it's not one last chance, because this movie pushes a message of blind trust, no matter how many times someone fails you). Raya invites Namaari to help her rebuild the world. Namaari responds by shooting Sisu. Maybe it was an accident, but we are shown a clear shot of her finger tightening in the trigger before Raya tries to stop her.

    She shows immediate distress, but no remorse. Instead of apologizing, she BLAMES RAYA for killing Sisu because Raya didn't trust her. But... wasn't Raya was just reacting to seeing Namaari's finger tightening in the trigger? Yes, but the movie ignores this point and instead has Raya "realize" that Sisu and Namaari were right.

    Namaari's redemption: -50/10. This is not a redemption. She doesn't do anything but choose between death or putting the gem back together. Gee, what a hard choice: "do I want to die right now or keep living?" So much for her potential. They could have had her chose to trust Raya - have her selflessly chose not to cling to her portion of the gem and put her faith in someone else to make things right - have her admit her part in all of this and apologize. But. They. Don't. They had to prove that Raya was wrong, so Raya and her group end up having to ignore multiple betrayals and give Namaari their gems because she refuses to give hers to them.

    In the end, I was excited for this film. The representation and the animation had my hopes high for a movie that would deliver, but instead I sat in the theater to watch a villain and a dragon gaslight a hero until the hero breaks down and repents for sins she never committed. Ive watched it twice now and if I ever watch it again, I'll watch it on mute, because none of the dialogue or the story is worth consuming a third time.