Raya and the Last Dragon

[TheVileOne]

It's a decent movie. The world building and visual are amazing.

However, it's too short IMO. Should have been 30 minutes longer. There is a lot of potential with the 5 world that they introduced but I feel the movie wasted it by skipping through every land. It's a shame because the premise impressed me so much, maybe the best part of the movie.

Also the movie was too childish in some part that it's hard to be invested. I wish it took itself a little bit more serious.

Overall, 7/10. Better than Soul, though.

IMHO it was rather short. Maybe not another 30 minutes, but it could've used another 15-20 minutes ish to develop Raya's group a lot more, Raya being more hesitant to trust others but growing to love all of her group like a family DESPITE the fact they all come from different backgrounds of tribes that used to be at each other's throats. When you do an action adventure story like this you need a bit more time to really sell the epic quality.

Druun needed to more than just big purple blog clouds.

Also, Raya just finds Sisu so easily and so quickly.

 

[Dugath]

Druun needed to more than just big purple blog clouds.

Also, Raya just finds Sisu so easily and so quickly.

I really do not think they needed to be anything more than what they were. As for Raya finding Sisu so easily. I am sure they made the point of letting viewers know she spent years trying to find her and was not all that easy or quick. Maybe I am wrong but it was the impression I got.

 

[Marvolo]

Show dont tell. Her search for Sisu probably should have been at the very least the entire first act. Perhaps some of the years and her growth being covered in a montage. The prologue should have been a flashback at some point during her search. The second act should have been the heists, and Fang trying to capture and enslave Sisu culminating with...well yall know how it goes.

I suspect they didn't go that route because the Disney execs said, "We need to get the talking cute animal sidekick into the film as early as possible for the kiddies." Narrative consequences be damned.


On an unrelated note, did anyone else think Sisu wasn't actually Sisu? That she was Sisu's sister? When Namaari and her crew ride through the dragon "graveyard" the camera lingered on a dragon that looked a lot like Sisu. This scene is after its made clear that the dragon Raya found isnt much like the "Mighty Sisu" legend. That she's a bit of a clutz and a goof. As if the legend isn't the whole story. I really thought it would be revealed in the 3rd act that Sisu had been turned to stone and her clutz sister survived and she was posing as Sisu because she wanted Raya to like her. Because she felt shame. Then I thought Raya would feel betrayed and send the dragon away, but they'd come back together to save the day. I wonder if they considered going that route.

 

[TheVileOne]

Show dont tell. Her search for Sisu probably should have been at the very least the entire first act. Perhaps some of the years and her growth being covered in a montage. The prologue should have been a flashback at some point during her search. The second act should have been the heists, and Fang trying to capture and enslave Sisu culminating with...well yall know how it goes.

I suspect they didn't go that route because the Disney execs said, "We need to get the talking cute animal sidekick into the film as early as possible for the kiddies." Narrative consequences be damned.


On an unrelated note, did anyone else think Sisu wasn't actually Sisu? That she was Sisu's sister? When Namaari and her crew ride through the dragon "graveyard" the camera lingered on a dragon that looked a lot like Sisu. This scene is after its made clear that the dragon Raya found isnt much like the "Mighty Sisu" legend. That she's a bit of a clutz and a goof. As if the legend isn't the whole story. I really thought it would be revealed in the 3rd act that Sisu had been turned to stone and her clutz sister survived and she was posing as Sisu because she wanted Raya to like her. Because she felt shame. Then I thought Raya would feel betrayed and send the dragon away, but they'd come back together to save the day. I wonder if they considered going that route.

That is an interesting thread they could've played around with, Sisu not actually being all that impressive and being the clumsiest of her group.

I did really like that graveyard scene of the dragon statues. It felt quietly deep.

 

[Sithborg]

Which reminds me, the most important issue of all.

One or two princesses added to the line up?

 

[#root]

I have been trying to figure out the answer to that forever but I think Raya isn’t officially a Disney Princess . She hasn’t been added to the official website yet like Moana, Tiana or even Merida. She’s like Elsa and Anna in that she’s a Princess in a Disney movie but not a “Disney Princess”.

 

[Sithborg]

Given the moves today, I think it is safe to call premium access a success for Raya.

 

[TheVileOne]

I have been trying to figure out the answer to that forever but I think Raya isn’t officially a Disney Princess . She hasn’t been added to the official website yet like Moana, Tiana or even Merida. She’s like Elsa and Anna in that she’s a Princess in a Disney movie but not a “Disney Princess”.

I recall they called her a princess earlier in the film, but I could be wrong.

 

[#root]

I recall they called her a princess earlier in the film, but I could be wrong.

Oh yeah no her dad definitely calls her the princess of Heart at one point so she is a princess in the movie for sure. I just don’t think she’s part of the Disney Princess brand. That’s a totally separate and confusing entity on it’s own. Even Elsa and Anna aren’t part of the official Disney Princess label for some reason even though they’re both princesses in a Disney movie.

 

[Persona]

This is free on Disney+ now. We watched it.

Eh!

The family enjoyed it but man is it predictable, overbearingly sentimental, and hammers the theme of "people gotta learn to TRUSS again" over and over and over. Extremely heavy-handed--script is weak, to be honest. Also, I liked Sisu but at the same time I kinda felt like they needed to tone down the Awkwafina stand-up aspect a bit. Movie felt like it was constantly trying to squeeze humor out of everything except for the designated drama scenes, and unfortunately only about half the humor works very well. And I dunno if dragons are like genies where they exist outside of time and space and so can reference, like, modern American lingo and whatnot, but in fact Raya was doing this too early on and I kinda hated it. A lot of immersion breaking stuff and did this movie need to have *counts on fingers* SEVEN comedic sidekicks? The pacing of the movie is also quite weird, something feels off for about the first hour but then the movie kind of finds its rhythm even while the structure of the story remains somehow both rote and awkward.

This is a very weird world. All these dramatically different lands/kingdoms are somehow very closely connected to each other. The Druun needed to be more of a constant presence, too. They only show up when it is convenient for the plot and in like one scene where the boat kid is like, "You almost forget they're there..." Yeah, no kidding!

I did not care for the character designs but many of the environments and especially the lighting and water effects were beautiful to look at. Nothing much new with the animation but there were some nice touches with Sisu and the fight storyboarding and animation was fairly well done.

It was ok!

 

[DarkKnight88]

“Ok” is the perfect summation of this film for me too lol

Definitely not a Disney classic, or even recent classic like a Frozen, but could see it developing a cult following like a Hercules.

 

[Mysteryman]

“Ok” is the perfect summation of this film for me too lol

Definitely not a Disney classic, or even recent classic like a Frozen, but could see it developing a cult following like a Hercules.

Hercules is one of my favorites.

 

[Dave McFly]

Hercules is one of my favorites.

mine too LOVE Woods as Hades

 

[Mysteryman]

mine too LOVE Woods as Hades

One of Woods more underappreciated performances.

 

[Babillygunn]

I really loved this film. But I am biased due to connections with SE Asia.

Loved the shrimp boat kid, and the baby and monkey gang were very reminiscent of the penguins of Madagascar. (In a good way)

also I really found Raya and Sisu to be very likable characters.

 

[TheVileOne]

I did like Raya and Sisu, I just wish they did a little more with them.

 

[Closerframe]

I kept my expectations in line for this since Disney has consistently disappointed me and I’m really glad I did. For a film that starts off with a lot of potential—especially from a world building point-of-view—the film quickly descends into the common tropes plagued by so many movies looking to start a franchise these days. For starters, Raya isn’t a very likable protagonist as she doesn’t seem to take any responsibility for her actions and by the end, the life lessons conveyed seemed forced. Also, the forced inclusion of certain characters (ninja baby anyone?) made me really question what the writers were going for other than trying to throw the widest net.

I firmly believe this would have worked better as a Disney+ show as there’s a ton of potential.