I don't have too much to say except... Boy howdy, does it feel good to get excited about movies again. Raya and the Last Dragon is Disney's latest solo animation effort and the (co-)directorial debut of Paul Briggs, known for working on the stories for Wreck It Ralph and Zootopia. It appears on the surface to be Disney's attempt to hop on the bandwagon of anime fandom as well as continue their attempts at expanding into worldly cultures as Pixar has helped them do with films like Coco and the upcoming Luca. But does this film succeed at that, or did Disney overreach their grasp? Let's take a look!
The film's prologue explains that the land of Kumandra used to be a peaceful, harmonious land until the Druun, an evil, blobby spirit, attacked the land and turned all the people and dragons of the land into stone. It wasn't until Sisu, the last dragon, used her powers (or so the legend said) to create an orb to ward off the Druun and bring all the people (but not the dragons) back to life. The land was divided over the demand of power over the orb, but 500 years later, Benja, the leader of the land of Heart, attempts to bring the lands together and, as he puts it, become Kumandra once more. Sadly, though, one member of the Fang tribe attempts to steal the sacred orb, causing it to break into pieces, causing the Druun to rise up once again, and each tribe gets away with a piece of the orb. Six years after this, Raya manages to summon Sisu only to find out that she never created the orb, but if they can journey to each land and gather up the pieces of the orb, she can fuse them back together to get rid of the Druun once and for all.
Okay, I'm going to go slightly out of order on this, because what I'm about to say transitions better into.....
WHAT DOESN'T WORK ABOUT IT
This was obviously Disney's attempt to replicate the success of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, and while it doesn't cram nearly as much material as M. Night Shyamalan's disastrous live action adaptation, it still leaves the movie with a ton to work with. It leaves just enough room for the emotional impact to happen, but not really enough room for that moment to sink in. It's like, "Here's an emotional moment. Great! Next scene!" The story may have worked better as a TV series or even a Disney+ series. As a movie, it squeezes too much material into one two-hour running time.
The dragon, Sisu, played by Awkwafina (more like, Awkward-fina), is clearly the film's attempt to continue the success of comedic side characters to offset the emotions of the main character, and on a scale of said characters, she's not as annoying as the gargoyles from Hunchback of Notre Dame, but she's no Mushu either. She makes references to modern day like referring to herself as that one student who never did work on a group project but got the same grade as everyone else... What? I mean, I guess they would have school in this world, but... I don't know, that sounds too much like the Genie from Aladdin, which makes no sense in the context of this world.
The Tone Gets to be Jarring
As many people have mentioned, the tone is inconsistent as the film goes on. What surprised me, though, is that people were saying that it started with a serious tone and sprinkled too much comedy throughout, but for me, it was the other way around. When the film started, I thought it had the perfect style to combine drama with comedy, so the constant witty dialogue didn't bother me. Then, we reach the third act, and the film takes a drastic dive into seriousness that threw me for a loop. I don't want to give too much away, but it gets intense fast.
WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT
I don't know about the rest of the world, but I was getting tired of the female lead getting degraded in Disney films like Mulan and Moana. Here, however, Raya's father entrusts her with the responsibility of protecting the orb, and Disney actually had the courage to let her fail at it and face the consequences of failing at her responsibility. Props to you, Disney. Props.
Even though, like I said, the plot does throw a ton at the audience, the story does still get across its emotions. You feel the connections between the characters, you feel their struggle as they try to figure out what's best for the sake of the entire world. When it wants to be sad, it can be sad. When it wants to be hopeful, it can be hopeful. And when it wants to be funny, aside from Sisu's scenes, it can be really funny; I enjoyed the baby thief in this much more than most people.
Every action scene looks like it's straight out of an old kung fu movie. It's new territory for Disney, but they did a fantastic job with it. In fact, why don't we see more animated action movies? It's an environment that you can manipulate every aspect of; there's so much potential!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Raya and the Last Dragon is parts Avatar: The Last Airbender and parts Raiders of the Lost Ark, which makes it a ton of fun for the whole family. It's a little too overstuffed and tonally jarring to be on the same level as something like Frozen or Lion King, but it's still a fun flick, and the kids will most likely love it.
My rating:
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