In this post I will give my opinion on the Disney animated film Raya and the Last Dragon (2021). I cannot call it a review like before because just as the title suggests, I have watched about half a hour of the film before I went shopping with my family but I have never returned to this film. I have watched multiple reviews including recap of the plot and I have realised that it was a good decision not to watch further. From what I’ve heard the message about blind trust that the film advocates is stupid at best and harmful at worst. I still think I’ve got some other things to say about what I’ve seen, hence, the existence of this article.
The Real Reason Why I Dropped The Film
Well, the real reason was indeed me going shopping with my family, but I am pretty convinced that I wouldn’t have watched for much longer had I got a chance. The reason is the predictability and writing in the film. I would like to explain it in two distinct points now:
Characters
Firstly, the main character is book definition of a brooding vigilante who was betrayed in the past and now trusts no one. We were told that she likes dragons but that’s the extend of her personality traits. She is just edgy seemingly for no reason, unable to grow past her trauma and refusing to heal. And it’s not like she wants to find the cure. Knowing how this gets resolved in the end, I cannot say that it was a good resolution.
Of course, the protagonist should have a “core wound” to heal but this time it doesn’t seem like the cure is needed. In fact, the betrayal was a valuable lesson that you shouldn’t disclose state secrets to a person you’ve just met. Especially secrets that keep humanity safe. So, this should not have been a wound at all; her feeling guilty for the death of her family and her people would have been a more reasonable motivation to mend everything.
Secondly, Sisu, the dragon, the saviour of humankind, is a comedic relief character here. I could have accepted that in Mulan at least because of the time period and positioning of the film( and because Mushu was actually useful and smart), but here they wanted to “represent” Polynesian cultures and Disney decided to represent a glorious mighty mythical creature as a joke… I… don’t want to say much more here since the rest of my personal criticism of Sisu comes from situations she is put in rather than her origin. Nevertheless, I’ve got to add that since I know that later in the story Sisu is portrayed to be right about trusting strangers, I just have to add, that this bit is the most disappointing and dangerous writing I’ve seen from Disney in years.
Finally, Namaari is a very weak antagonist. She doesn’t seem to hold any personal grudge against Raya, nor she cares much about what Raya does. Usually, antagonist’s motives are easily read and involve protagonist’s goal but here. She is weary that returning the dragon may weaken the position of her tribe, but it can also save them all from the Druun, so there is little to no reason to actually stop her. I guess this happened, because Disney decided to set her up for “redemption” in the end, but that’s a weak excuse not to make her have a clear motivation.
Predictability
All right, this was the main reason I didn’t want to continue watching this film. From the moment of her training with her father, which was predictably not a theft as the plot tried to show it, to how he said that Raya won’t be able to set a toe on the inner circle and, of course, she did… Then, it was simply cringe to listen to two fantasy characters talk about modern school team projects with modern expressions (even though both are princesses and would have most likely been home-schooled). The setting of the story was clearly not meant for such concepts. Later, when Raya found Sisu and they went to some ruin with lasers, it was so predictable to see how Raya struggled while Sisu clowned her way around with ease.
Each joke that was written was evident the moment the setup was shown, I could predict every punchline with 100% accuracy. It simply didn’t seem like I needed to see this film because I’ve seen every single element of it before.
Lost Potencial
The thing I loved the most about this film is the two part video made by Southeast Asian people and posted on Xiran Jay Zhao’s YouTube channel(Part 1, Part 2) about cultural inspiration in this film.
Another thing I liked is the setting itself. It has got great potential because Southeast Asia is not very commonly depicted in Western cinematography.
All in all, I haven’t heard many good things about this film and from what I saw, there really wasn’t many good points there. The visuals were beautiful and colourful but the plot and the characters were dull. I cannot recommend it even as a one time watch. It lacks good morals for young children, so if this is talked about, them it may serve as a form of entertainment for some people, but i’d rather it was shown only as an example of bad writing for people interested in story-telling.
P.S. as I was searching for some pictures for this post (by the way, sorry but without the sources this time), I struggled to find poster images and images of good quality. Usually, when the film is good, there’s a ton of material on it, but not this time. It does tell something about its quality, though.
Nerdy Geek Blog 
Leave a comment