“Disney did good this time.” These were the words out of the mouth of a friend of mine who accompanied me to our local theater a couple weeks ago where we saw Raya and The Last Dragon, a Disney-Pixar film directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada and stars Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina. This film was an important moment for two reasons. 1. This was the first Disney-Pixar movie released in 2021. 2. This was my first visit to a movie theater in a YEAR. I love movies, I love watching movies in movie theaters, I like the surround sound, the giant screen, the sometimes overpriced popcorn, soda, and candy; and sometimes I like other people being there with me to share my reaction to the film. And I can safely say that it was all that I remembered, except the popcorn came in a plastic bag for some reason. But was the film worthy of my first visit to a theater since Covid hit? Yes, and this comes from a guy who did almost no research on the film or the adorable dancing short that accompanied it.
I usually don’t read into movies before seeing them, but sometimes I’ll read reviews before seeing movies if I’m not sure about them. And animated Disney films, for the most part, require no looking into, and thankfully I was relieved to learn that Disney still knew how to make good ones. Now I make fun of Disney for several things, crappy live-action remakes, ruining Star Wars, etc, but with animated films from them and Pixar, you honestly can’t go wrong. So when I walked into Raya and The Last Dragon, I was not pleasantly surprised that it was good, in fact, I had a similar reaction that I had when I watched other animated films: It’s good, I liked it, but it’s not perfect. No film certainly is perfect, there are always a few flaws, but some are more noticeable than others, and this one has kind of a big one.
But anyway, this is part of a new series called Bomb or Blast, where I’ll review a single film or video game based on three criteria: Film work (Animation, graphics, Cinematography, Editing, etc), Story, and Acting/Voice Acting. I know I’m not the first to do a series like this, either on blogs or on social media, but I feel that my opinion is as valid as everyone else’s. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. So let’s start with Film Work.
Film Work
I love everything about the animation and editing in this movie. This is something that Disney-Pixar is famous for and it only gets better with each passing year. The concept art for it alone looks astounding, but to see it come to life in that same breathtaking way is, well, breathtaking. The way the different parts of the world look so completely different, from the ice forests of Spine to the terrifying deserts of Tail, it shows just how different the world really is. The animated people weren’t all completely flawless in the film, which is a good thing. Disney-Pixar films sometimes showed true escapism with physically flawless characters, like in the 2016 film Moana where everyone looked absolutely immaculate.
This isn’t a bad thing, not for Moana at least, but for a film like Raya that focuses on humanities imperfections, you need to actually show those imperfections and they did with a few key characters like Tong, a protagonist in the film that looks like a softer version of the antagonist from Disney’s Mulan (1998), Shan Yu. Also, the Druun, the killer clouds of negative human emotions and qualities that turn people to stone, are layers upon layers of unstable, chaotic animation that’s even more impressive. I feel like the editing was top-notch as well, with very fluid segways between scenes that didn’t feel out of place in any way. But again, this is to be expected from companies as famous as Disney and Pixar with their animated films.
Story
The story was solid, if predictable, and formulaic…but it was also the movie’s greatest weakness. To summarize, Raya, daughter of Chief Benja of Heart, one of the five Chiefs, sets out on a quest to find the last dragon named Sisu so they can reunite pieces of a magic orb to banish an evil force known as the Druun, and reunite the five tribes of Heart, Talon, Fang, Spine, and Tail after centuries of war and infighting. The movie has a strong message of needing unification and trust in a world that is void of it; one would say a little too strong, though. Now I understand that this movie is primarily for kids, some of whom may not understand subtle messages and must be told at least a couple of times the main point of the film. But even with that, they did it far too often. Heck, they smacked you in the face with that message every time a trailer popped up on tv, youtube, etc. That’s one of the few things that I dislike about this film. Now a message of unification, especially in the current world climate, is certainly justified and very necessary, but I also feel that a little bit more subtlety could have been used to reinforce it, maybe not saying “The world is broken” as much as Raya did.
I also say the story is formulaic because it’s not too far off the beaten path of other Disney-Pixar movies. Going back to Moana, I got some serious similarities from that: Girl has a glowing rock that everyone else wants, she must protect it while bringing back an ancient, god-like being to save a world that seems to be stuck in a complacent existence while it is slowly being destroyed. The only key difference between those films is the message. Moana’s is Change. Stop being complacent while our world is dying, reach outside your comfort zone, that kind of thing. Raya’s is basically “forgive and forget” by the end of the film. I want to stress again that I liked the story, I didn’t find it stressed or convoluted, but all and all the message of the film was stressed just a little too much.
Voice Acting
The voice acting was great for the most part, very well performed. What delighted me about this film was that the majority of roles were played by Asian actors in a world where everyone is of Asian ethnicity, all except for Alan Tudyk who did the noises for Tuk Tuk, Raya’s giant Hamster/Armadillo. As I said in the beginning, Kelly Marie Tran stars in the film as Raya, which I’m also glad for. This actress has had a rough few years due to the hate received by Star Wars fans after her big role in The Last Jedi as Rose Tico, so it’s good that Disney didn’t throw her under the bus. Other actors, besides her and Alan Tudyk, include singer-songwriter Awkwafina as Sisu, The Last Dragon, Gemma Chan as Namaari, who was my favorite character, and Benedict Wong as Tong.
The only performance that I disliked was Benedict Wong’s voice acting, at least in the beginning. Now I love Benedict Wong as a live-action actor, but this was not his best work. When the character was introduced, his voice was nothing like Ben Wong’s real voice. It sounded rough and scratchy, which was consistent, but it felt like Wong didn’t know quite what he wanted the character to sound like, like he didn’t have the voice on lockdown; he didn’t know whether he should be chipper, depressed, crazy, etc. Later on, they locked on to a consistent voice and emotions for the character, but it broke the immersion of the film in that one beginning scene for me.
Conclusion
Overall I’d say this movie was a well-calculated but predictable blast in theaters with an entertaining story, beautiful visuals, and interesting characters, something that is well expected of Disney. However, I don’t think it’s the movie everyone was expecting, a little weaker perhaps, but in no way a disappointment for audiences.