SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.
TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
Raya and the Last Dragon is Walt Disney Animation Studios' 2021 feature that sheds a light on the Southeast Asian world. It's refreshing, colorful and just arousing to the mind and eyes overall! The story revolves around Kumandra; a peaceful home once whole now parted and our protagonist Raya's (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) journey to undo the divide. Her mission involves traveling to the various regions of said country named after dragon body parts (a nice nod to different nations and cultures in Southeast Asia by the way) and collect the pieces of the broken dragon gem. The challenges she faces, the characters she meets, the places she visits and the lesson she learns form the crux of this exciting adventure!
The one major aspect of the film that has room for improvement is the writing. Expositions are thrown at the audience without us asking and there are far too many of them, with one of it appearing a minute into the show. Without curiosity trigger, expositions are always going to appear in its true form aka information dump. The only exception is Sisu's (voiced by Awkwafina) narration regarding her past and how the dragon gem was created in the brink moment of disaster. Trust is the theme and it's great that a character arc for Raya and the supporting characters are built around that value. However, the dialogues regarding the Theme can be too on the nose aka subtext deficient.
While the action sequences are snappy, fast-paced and catchy even, it lacks vulnerability or rarely results in the protagonist hurting / suffering / failing before her goal is attained. She either has help waiting for her, gets her pursued objective in the first try or important chunk of her efforts occur offscreen, with the 6 years later Sisu search being an example. The impact would have been way better had the script focused on fewer regions (which would have directly reduced the number of characters needed to exact the Theme) and the time spent for these could have been used to amplify Raya's struggle. With all these being said, Raya and the Last Dragon makes up for its shortcomings with a superb climax! Every character from each region, especially Raya and her nemesis Namaari (voiced by Gemma Chan) has to learn how to trust once again in order to vanquish the Drunn plague for good and bring the dragons back to life! And of course with the expected swelling score at the end, the heartwarming ending manages to prompt a tear or two!
In terms of characters, we've addressed earlier that there are far too many of them. Little Noi (voiced by Thalia Tran) and her hench-monkeys are a highlight! Their heist chase with Raya and Fang's castle infiltration are exhilarating! Sisu can get annoying at times, but her myriad abilities are amusing and her death is definitely shocking! Plotting wise, it's hard to ignore the writer's convenience that young Namaari (voiced by Jona Xiao) befriends Raya by accurately knowing that she would be led to the cave where the Spirit of Sisu is located. Camerawork is astounding and so is the original score! Most of the transitions are nice match cuts, whether it's meaningful or otherwise.
The world's most proclaimed studio for animation has been pushing the envelope further and further with each and every flick they produce! The shadow, lighting, textures, fur, hair, broth with the chili seeds and all the real world elements such as the trees, water, mist and landscapes have the highest quality photorealism! The Southeast Asian amalgamation of aesthetics is freaking awesome! And my god, the facial expressions of the characters have been brought to a whole new level of nuance! All animals like the Talon monkeys, Tuk Tuk the rolling armadillo transport (voiced by Alan Tudyk), booty bugs and the tree rats cameo are cute. Frozen dragon statues, Talon night market and flower drifting on river current are further examples of pure picturesque beauty! Not to forget, the modified Keris sword is amazing too!