by Conan Simmons – June 27, 2021 – 8:25 pm
Directed by Carlos López Estrada and Don Hall from a screenplay by Adele Lim and Qui Nguyen the latest from Disney Animation Studios is able to surpass the usual Disney standard by the mere fact that ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ is not a musical.
Featuring the voice of Kelly Marie Tran, who garnered considerable attention from her role in the recent Star Wars movies (both ‘The Last Jedi’ and ‘The Rise of Skywalker’), as young princess Raya trained to protect a magical stone that when pieced together with other magical stones will bring peace and prosperity throughout the land of Kumandra.
Kumandra is divided into five separate tribes all comprising the Land of the Dragon. After the magical stone Raya is sworn to protect gets stolen, she embarks on a quest to retrieve all the stones and defeat the monstrous Druun that terrorizes the land keeping people in fear.
Raya encounters a dragon named Sisu, an over-optimistic and somewhat clumsy carefree character, voiced by Awkwafina. Together they gain allies among scattered survivors of the Druun’s reign of horror and must do everything in their power to reunite the Land of the Dragon.
Debuting in theaters earlier this year when the pandemic still had some theaters closed down, the film gained the top of the box office and stayed near the top for 14 consecutive weeks in spite of being available for streaming. It’s easy to see why the film is a winner.
The action is well paced keeping the adventure moving briskly through a very well crafted fantasy setting. The comedy is funny with the Toot ‘n’ Boom bugs being a standout. Normally I don’t go for that kind of humor but here it’s humorously effective.
The animation, as is expected of anything bearing the name Disney, is exceptional especially the facial animation on all the characters. The expressiveness and quirks of each character are detailed to perfection bringing more life to this film than the usual posed facial expressions of other animated films.
The fact that ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ is not a musical brings Disney Animation more into direct competition from other animation studios. As good as previous Disney films have been it’s always the musical aspect that makes me hesitant to expect anything other than funny, singing, anthropomorphic creatures. Sisu is funny, it’s the tragedy behind the character that rings more true when not expressed in an overly-sentimental showtune.
The only thing I was slightly disappointed in was the Druun. Portrayed as a ghostly toxic gas with the power to turn people into stone it would have been nice to see a more detailed monster rather than the purple smoke creature we get here. However, it does make sense for a children’s film like this to not be too scary for kids. Given that the ambient horror of the creature is as menacing, if not more so, than the monster itself the tradeoff feels balanced.
‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ will surely be nominated for several Annie Awards this year and is practically guaranteed an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Whether it wins or not will depend on what other animated films get released between now and the end of the year.
Along with Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina the voice cast includes Sandra Oh, Gemma Chan, Benedict Wong, Daniel Dae Kim and Alan Tudyk as Tuk Tuk, the giant armadillo Raya rides on her quest to acquire the stones.
A highly entertaining fantasy action-adventure filled with comedy, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ is sure to please audiences everywhere.