This topic might contain spoilers for Raya and the Last Dragon. If you wish to continue and haven’t seen the movie, please beware.
Raya and the Last Dragon is Disney’s latest animated film directed by Don Hall, who is also one of the directors for Big Hero 6, and Carlos López Estrada. It’s a movie about a girl named Raya who must find the last dragon named Sisu in order to stop an evil force, If you wanted to hear what i have to said about the movie and some things surrounding it, let’s get to the point.
The Representation
Let’s talk about the representation since many people complained about this, and honestly i don’t have much to say about it. First off. I’m actually a SEA, but i lack knowledge about the cultures because i was raised in modern society and i don’t learn much about them at school, i know a few things but i still don’t know much. So, sorry if i made a mistake while talking about this.
I’ve seen a couple of audiences and critics criticizes this movie for the lack of proper SEA representation and some can’t tell what culture is represented. I’ve seen that Raya is supposed to represent all SEA cultures to create more dynamics and variations, and actually i think the cultures mashup makes the movie’s worldbuilding a lot more varied, but i don’t blame anyone if they don’t like the movie for that or if anyone doesn’t like the way it represented.
Because of the mashup of the cultures, most likely there are some people that feels that the culture is lacking or is misrepresented so they can’t enjoy this movie or they would say this movie is… not good. I do agree that they could hire more SEA voice actors for better representation. However i disagrees about the part where they said the movie doesn’t represent the cultures properly, and presenting the countries’ cultures in each land is also unlikely since in the movie have 5 lands while there are 11 SEA countries.
For the representations, i would say i like the mashup of the cultures, the foods, the outfits, even the martial arts style, i think they did a good job creating Kumandra. However i agree that they could hire SEA voice actors for better representations.
The Dragon’s Design
I’ve seen so many people dislikes Sisu’s design, and when i saw the official trailer, i thought that Sisu looks like something out of My Little Pony because of her face design and i was concerned, and i’ve seen people complained that she looks a lot like Elsa but i think that makes sense since she is a water dragon. And when i watch the movie, i started to get used to her design, some people asked for Sisu to look strong and intimidating, but i think Sisu’s design fits with her personality.
In my opinion about the designs, the other dragons’ designs could be better, i still think that the other dragon’s design looks a lot more My Little Pony-ish than Sisu, but i wouldn’t call them “uncanny”, the design themselves is not actually awful in my opinion, they just could’ve been looked better. Sisu looks fine, it started to grow on me.
The Movie
In my opinion, this is a great movie, in fact this is Disney’s best original animated movie since Moana, the concept is interesting, it has a great theme and message, it has a creative worldbuilding, the story is enjoyable, and the characters are surprisingly well-written, each main characters are from different tribes and each has their own unique personalities.
Raya is a great lead character, and is probably one of my favorite female lead Disney ever made along with Mulan, Rapunzel, and the others. I like her character and i like her development through the movie, at first, she is too trusting, and then she chose not to trust people, and then she learns through her new friends and Sisu how trust can actually make things better.
And the other main characters are actually likable, i actually like Sisu, her design may not be perfect and i do have minor issues with other people’s opinions about her design, but her personality is what makes me likes her, like i said, some people dislikes Sisu, but i like her because she has some entertaining personality…to me at least, and at the same time, she’s wise, Awkwafina is also surprisingly perfect as Sisu, and Kelly Marie Tran is also great as Raya, the entire cast did a great job voicing their characters.
The rest of the characters like Boun, Tong, Tuk Tuk, Noi and the Ongis are fun to watch, and Namaari is also a great character, i think her rivalry with Raya is portrayed really well.
The music in this movie is fantastic, i love the soundtrack and the scores, James Newton Howard is amazing at creating the scores, i really like the use of the SEA musical instruments, it sounds like an epic mashup.
The visual, no doubt, is beautiful, i admire the animation, i love the camera movements, the backgrounds are astonishing, great details, i love the action sequences, i love the detailed character expression, everything.
Overall
In my opinion, Raya is a great movie that has received a lot of backlashes and harsh reviews from some audiences and some critics, i was even surprised i’ve heard that this movie is also criticized for the lack of musical numbers.
This movie has mixed opinions whether if the movie is good or not, because like i said, some people think this movie misrepresent the SEA cultures and some people dislikes Sisu’s design, and some people don’t really like the plot, and a few critics does think that the movie is not good. But we all have our own opinions.
Raya is not a perfect movie though, it has some flaws, but it’s still a great movie, at least it’s great in my opinion. So yeah, i love Raya, i do agree that we need an animated series out of Raya, i look forward to what Disney had in their mind for their next animated movie.
Reviews I Recommend
If you want to check out more positive reviews if you are interested. I recommend you to watch Monica Joelle Ortiz’s review for this movie, she is a SEA that knows more about the cultures and she gives a good positive review about the movie.
I also recommend Kirby Araullo’s review for this movie, i personally recommend this review the most because he is a Filipino who also gives some good points about the movie and i felt that his review is more detailed, he knows a lot more about the cultures as well because he’s a historian.
I also like to recommend Imagineer’s review at the Raya discussion.
Additional Notes
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At first, i want to put this as a post on the Raya discussion topic, but i thought that it would be too long and risky for a post, so i think a new topic works slightly better.
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I already make a concept about Sisu on my notes but i thought it’ll be a bad idea to post it since not many people have seen it. But i think i’ll post it here in the forums probably after a few days i made this topic.
Anyways, you can tell me your opinions on Raya if you have seen it. Feedbacks are appreciated.
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