Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
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Raya and the Last Dragon Movie Review
Raya and the Last Dragon is a 2021 animated fantasy action film directed by Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada. It is Disney Animation’s 59th feature film and one of their best recent efforts.
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“The world’s broken. You can’t trust anyone.
The world’s broken because you don’t trust anyone“
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Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. However, when sinister monsters known as the Druun threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, those same monsters have returned, and it’s up to the titular lone warrior to track down the last dragon and stop this force.
I loved the plot of this movie. Judging by the trailers, I’d expected a rip-off of ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’, but thankfully that did not happen. There are some clear similarities, but for the most part this world is its own beast, and I am super proud of the entire Disney team for making such a huge original world and making it work. This is the first original Disney movie in quite a while now, and they’ve just proved here that they can still make magic when aiming high.
The whole dragon gem/piece aspect reminded me pleasantly of ‘Dragon Ball’ and it made for one hell of an entertaining quest story. The movie’s emphasis on action and not just fantasy was also unexpected and in that area it felt exciting and new as most other Disney movies did not focus this extensively on realistic, badass action scenes with the combat being particularly amazing and so cool.
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The messaging here is wonderful and especially important to teach younger children. While it felt somewhat repetitive at times, still I admired the theme of trust as I haven’t quite seen it before in animation and especially not in Disney films. The film beautifully teaches us that a world without trust can turn into a dangerous place and that cooperation between nations is vital for everybody’s interests. That surprisingly political bent propelled its narrative to even greater heights.
Let’s talk about the characters. This is one of those movies that is populated with a lot of supporting characters whose development was sidelined and rushed, but all of them are so memorable and wonderful that ultimately I found them great as a group. Boun is this very charismatic ten-year-old boy who is basically an entrepreneur in a very amusing fashion. He is instantly likable and just a great kid overall. Tong got little screen time, but he still made an impact as his backstory was moving and his heart is one of gold.
Little Noi is hilariously named while being by far the most cartoony part of this movie. And she still worked because seeing a baby con artist was just hilarious! Some of the scenes with her and her trusted monkeys made me laugh out loud how goofy they were. I adore pill bugs and armadillos, so naturally I loved Tuk Tuk. His name is perfect as it has a meaning (they really thought of everything) and he is immensely cute. Acting as both a pet and a vehicle, he is one of the best animal sidekicks in quite a while for Disney.
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Virana is very memorable as this icy chieftess and Chief Benja is inspiring as Raya’s optimistic father. As for Raya, I loved her. She is one of the most memorable Disney Princesses in her look alone as her styling is both gorgeous and badass with the hat being particularly striking. Her personality is also cool with the mix of caring and bravado being perfectly struck. She’s a welcome new addition into the powerful Disney heroines for sure.
Namaari is one of the best characters in the movie. Both an adversary and an eventual friend of Raya’s, her arc is very well written and she is such a cool fighter. All of the two’s fights stole the show action-wise as they were impeccably choreographed. But probably my favorite character in the movie is Sisu the dragon, which I did not expect at all. She is this original Asian in slim look water dragon who is hilarious in most of her lines. Her heart is always in the right place and her dialogue is so funny.
Awkwafina did a terrific job and she was the best choice to play this role as she’s such a talented comedian. Kelly Marie Tran is also superb and I am so glad that she got this amazing gig after needlessly getting so much hate from horrendous Star Wars fans. Everybody in this voice cast did a great job.
Getting back to the dragons, I loved the parallels to ‘Aladdin’, both in the Raya-Sisu dynamic and the spirited adventure elements interspersed throughout. It was a fantastic choice to have this rather grounded in reality movie in terms of action and drama only have a couple of fantastical elements mostly centered around dragons and they are visually striking with the added water element to them being quite unique.
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Raya and the Last Dragon is a very short movie, which did bother me personally as this world is so big that it deserved much more screen time to properly execute. That short runtime resulted in a couple of rushed scenes here and there, but for the most part the flick fired on all cylinders, which was super impressive for that short length. It’s the type of Disney movie that is very Disney in humor and fantasy and goofy characters, but also modern and unique in the added political elements, action and world building.
The fights are all fantastic and I wanted even more of them how incredibly entertaining they were. The swords looked majestic and authentic while the duals were incredibly well choreographed in their mimicking of live-action action scenes while every punch was definitely felt how raised the stakes were. The editing is immaculate and the direction is very strong. The score is also fabulous in its suitably Southeast Asian influences. This is a rare Disney Princess movie that isn’t a musical and has no songs, but at least the score itself was powerful and very epic indeed.
The animation is fantastic. The clothes, the food, the lush landscapes, the fantastical effects – everything here looked splendid and just magical. A lot has been said about this movie representing Southeast Asia and this is the type of representation that I personally gravitate toward as they went outside of the US or any other clichéd country and depicted some lesser known nations. The result was very intriguing as the movie is very Disney while still being focused on this fascinating part of the world.
What they did here with the world building is just incredible. All five nations looked different and unique with the vistas at display being uniformly jaw-dropping. They did their homework while also smoothly setting up so many possible movie and television sequels in the process. I did find the third act somewhat typical, especially in the stoning aspect that mirrored ‘Frozen’ way too much, but still the heart is in the right place and the dialogue and humor are so endearing that I’ve had a wonderful time watching this hugely entertaining Disney offering.
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