After the horrible year that was 2020, we all need a little hope in our lives, and that’s exactly the message that Disney sends with the film Raya and the last dragon. Let me just say that if you or your family have been affected by the events of 2020, you will cry by the end of this movie.
Heck there are even some parts during that might make you well up, it’s that poignant. Disney did well in capturing the feeling of art imitating life, even if the story was entirely different than the events of our world. It still hit home.
Raya: The film we didn’t know we needed
When they say that the world is broken they are literally not kidding. The dragon gem that kept their world, Kumandra, safe from the drune (aka the plague that turned people to stone.) was shattered when a short-sighted girl, Princess Namaari (Gemma Chan) of Feng, betrays protagonist Princess Raya of Heart.
(Yup, Raya is from the land of Heart. I’m sure there is a real on-the-nose joke in there somewhere.) Her Father, Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Raya from the dreaded Drune, which is a purpley-black “plague” that turns people to stone. Unlike our real life plague, Raya’s world is a bit kinder and doesn’t actually kill its victims but rather puts them in a state of extreme suspended animation.
Raya’s quest is to find all the pieces of the dragon gem that broke and put them together again and that way the world can come together again and be “Kumandra” or, basically, the whole dragon again. Interesting metaphor for how things are “broken” in our world as well right now.
Everyone is divided and according to Raya, “You can’t trust anyone.” it tasks us with an interesting tale of sometimes things are exactly what they are at face value and you have to be able to trust somebody, sometime. Although the one who initially broke the world initially, Princess Namaari, never receives any kind of punishment for what she did. Wow, I think this movie imitates life a little too well on that front.
If you’re looking for a typical disney Princess film with songs and musical numbers this is not it. There is not one song that is performed by the actors, in spite of having Awkwafina aboard as Sisu, the giant blue dragon sidekick who can do all sorts of cool things once they get all the gems. You might think that this would make it boring but it simply doesn’t.
For those of us who grew up during the Disney renaissance that had all the Alan Menken numbers, this was seen as a minor betrayal, but the way this story was crafted, the characters didn’t really have time to go and perform song and dance numbers. They were on a mission, and it worked.
There was also a lack of specifically southeast asian actors, but it seems the reason for that is there is not a lot of southeast asian actors to choose from. Thanks to Crazy Rich Asians a few years back there is a ton of asian actors, but not many from southeast asia. The ones who were portraying southeast asian characters were east asian people, which seems to disturb some people, but I guess we can’t have everything.
The more religiously conservative western people are going to hit the roof when they see the obvious religious ceremonies that are not christian performed by the characters but no specific god is mentioned, they are simply asking the beings that they perceive as more powerful than they are for help with the current situation.
And in case any parents are worried, I grew up christian (southern baptist, to be exact) and found nothing offensive about any of it so if anyone has any problems, please, seek me out. We can have that discussion.
The thing that doesn’t imitate our current reality is, in this movie, everyone eventually gets returned to life. All the victims that have been turned to stone by the drune come back and can continue their lives as normal.
All the of the characters in this film, have been affected by the drune, and lost there families. However, within our current reality there is no way to get our loved ones back, not the ones who were felled by the plague. While on a very childlike level you’ll be glad that somewhere, there is a world that can actually be fixed.
On an adult level, you’ll mourn our own reality and realize that unlike Raya we don’t have a big blue dragon that can solve all our problems. That being said, the film is not a downer, not at all, it’s a very hopeful, very uplifting film. It has all the right messages for 2021, even if we didn’t realize that this is just what we needed. Stay tuned!!!
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