★★★

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Written by Dalton Welsh - March 9, 2021

The 2010’s saw Disney animation begin to come into their own, making quality films outside of the oversight of Pixar, particularly in 2016 with the releases of both Moana and Zootopia. So when a film was announced that had a great fantasy and Eastern Asian influence complete with dragons, and with the director of one of my favourite films of the past few years in ‘Blindspotting’ helming the project, I was understandably anticipating another hit. Unfortunately, while there is still a considerable amount to appreciate in ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ it falls short in what made the earlier entries in modern Disney canon work so well, its characters and a more streamlined narrative. The film follows Raya who lives in the fantasy world of Kumandra which is under attack from sinister monsters known as the Druun who can only be stopped by dragons, who are believed to have died long ago. So, Raya embarks on a mission to find the last dragon to bring the world back to order.

The film of course meets the usual Disney standard of great animation, showing particular strength in the scenes in the rain, seeing the water droplets paired with the beautifully rendered rays of sunlight passing through. Additionally there are some decently choreographed action sequences, specifically the sword/hand to hand combat sequences, unfortunately these are few and far between and are never used to their full potential.

Speaking of squandered opportunity, the film’s compelling fantasy setting is also underutilised and underdeveloped. The idea of a semi-post apocalyptic fantasy setting has so much potential for an engaging story, and there are a lot of fascinating elements like giving distinct landscapes and cultures for the factions of the world of Kumandra. But there’s so much they try to include that none of it is given enough time to really flesh out and make the world memorable. Resulting in a story that feels equally unresolved, we are constantly moving, visiting new locations, reminding me a lot of the faults with the Star Wars film Rogue One, cramming so many moments and locations into the film that it simply doesn’t have the time for. Only in the opening scene and in the films climax are we really given the time to take in the world and sit in the scene in front of us

The same can be said for the film’s characters, in that there are simply too many. While Raya, being the film’s protagonist, is given some characterisation, and the voice acting by Kelly Marie Tran is pretty solid, it isn’t enough to make her a compelling hero. And then expanding upon the overstuffing of the film, there is the slew of secondary characters. Along Raya’s travels she slowly builds up an entourage of those wanting to join her on her quest, the first of which being the last dragon, Sisu, voiced by Awkwafina. Just about every Disney animation includes the comic relief character and Akwafina’s Sisu attempts to fill that position, unfortunately, exactly none of the humour lands. Not only does the humour fail to bring about the most mild of nose exhales, the language used is very modern which can feel really jarring in amongst the more ancient setting of the film. This could have worked as a way to emphasise Sisu being an ageless otherworldly character akin to the humour used by Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdin. But, while I can respect Awkwafina as an actress, she possesses neither the charisma or the ability to generate such clever dialogue like the great Robin Williams did. Then there are the other members of Raya’s rag-tag team, who I’m not even going to bother going into because they are seemingly inconsequential to the story and do nothing but take time away from our central protagonists and antagonists. On top of this the central plot is yet another story surrounding a MacGuffin, which isn’t an inherently bad way to take the story. The use of a MacGuffin to drive the plot can be used to simplify the story to allow for more time to flesh out the characters. But when the characters in question are underdeveloped it really highlights the tiredness of this storytelling technique.

Ultimately, while I do have a lot of criticisms with the film, the issues I have never reach truly awful levels of bad. It’s never boring, consistently keeping the audience engaged, and I can appreciate the film's attempts to tell a relatively original grand scale fantasy adventure. If only it had taken ques from Disney’s previous work, particularly Moana which has a very similar story at its core. Only they knew to keep the adventure to just Moana and Maui, to give their characters time to flourish, as well as devote more time to a smaller number of locations and scenes to make for a more concise and ultimately impactful story. While the films fell short in many respects as well as failing to reach a larger audience given the state of the world, I hope this doesn’t discourage Disney from trying to develop more original projects in the future.