[6.8/10] It can be hard to judge a work for what it is and not what it could be. Raya and the Last Dragon is fine as a film. It delivers a solid, well-structured plot built around a clear theme that can be delivered in an age-appropriate way within a crisp ninety minutes, with plenty of hijinks to keep the little ones entertained. But I also can't help but imagine how much richer and more involving a story it could be if it were told over the course of a multi-season television show.
Admittedly, much of that stems from the sense in which the film feels like a cross between The Last Unicorn and Avatar: The Last Airbender, It has the former’s sense of a fantasy creature experiencing what it’s like to be human, along with an “emerging from the sea” sense of rebirth of the species. And it has the latter’s harmony-to-discord intro, young girl finding a mystical but rambunctious fellow young adult who’s been frozen for ages, and cross-section selection of misfits journeying through the various lands.
As with AtLA that is a big premise! Raya could do so much with it! It could dig deeply into the different cultures and attitudes of chiefdoms within the land of Kumandra. It could develop the allies from these various far flung places that join Raya’s merry band. It could delve further into the history of this place, and how the mythos and the past have impacted the present. It could show more gradual growth and understanding from Raya and her erstwhile rival, Namaari.
Instead, everything in Raya and the Last Dragon is, if you’ll pardon the expression, quick-fire. Rather than committed explorations of the assorted chiefdoms, we get five-to-ten minutes in each locale. Rather than really getting to know the side characters, they get quickly-sketched quirks with the barest hint of pathos, and the writers call it a day. Rather than a full accounting of the intriguing history of this fantasy world, we get an early info dump and a brief flashback or two. None of this is bad, but it’s all glancing, which leaves you wanting more, albeit not in a good way.
Granted, some of that is served by the visuals, which are a mixed bag in odd ways. Part of what makes you wish the audience could spend more time in this world is that the background animators do a tremendous job of designing the five chiefdoms to be distinctive and eye-catching. Each has its own style, and nowhere is the artistry more clear than in the swirling skies above an idyllic plain, or the lamplit bustle of a floating city, or autumnal wisps of a weathered tundra.
Unfortunately, the animation within those cool spaces is a mixed bag. The film can boast a few cool set pieces -- chiefly the long take with the members of Team Siso tossing the chunks of the magic orb to one another. But a lot of the action here is generic in its choreography, choppy in its editing, or muddy in its presentation. Even the big dragon scenes are something of a candy-colored yawn. Even the weakest Disney films can usually boast a heap of stunning animation, and Raya largely tops out at “pretty good.”
The same checkered approach afflicts the film’s character designs. Raya, Namaari, and the rest of the “normal” characters look like off-the-shelf plastic dolls, and many of their expressions seem off. Some of the side characters, Tong especially, get to have a little more character in their mien. And the animal sidekicks, from Tuk Tuk the giant furry rolly-polly, to the adorably simian ongis, even to Noi, the “con baby”, all have more endearing designs and get better and more interesting movements and sequences than the rest of the cast.
Sigh, and then there’s Sisu, the dragon. Despite some neat texturing, she and her cohort basically look like a mix between traditional Chinese dragons and the lineup from My Little Pony. Sisu’s expressions in particular feel overexaggerated in a way that makes her an odd fit for the quasi-realistic look of the film. And the movie wants the characters, and by extension the audience, to treat its dragons with a certain reverence, which is hard when they look more like marketable and toyetic living plushes than an organic part of the world.
Despite all of that, it’s easy to buy into the mythos of Kumandra and the epic quest at the film’s center. While there’s a certain degree of video game plotting at play here -- go fetch the various items; you’ll level up as you do; then fight the big boss -- a tidy structure helps keep the film sound on a scene-to-scene basis. Eventually, you catch on that Raya is progressing from place to place, fending off some challenge, and collecting another misfit at each stop. But it’s a sturdy format for a YA fantasy story, one that creates a sense of build and new adventure just around the corner.
Unfortunately, the characters who populate that adventure are generally just so-so. Raya and Namaari come off fairly flat and unengaging despite having solid character arcs. Sisu gets a few good lines, but Disney’s been, if you’ll pardon the expression, chasing the dragon of energetic celebrity personalities since Robin Williams’ Genie, and this is another case of diminishing returns. Benedict Wong remains a treasure as the film’s brute-with-a-heart-of-gold, and the wordless characters are adorable, but the rest of the movie’s players veer between annoying and forgettable.
Thankfully, even if the personalities involved are hit-or-miss, Raya and the Last Dragon has some strong and timely themes to build around. The idea of multiculturalism, the idea that these different peoples are stronger when banding together than when they’re divided by self-interest, especially when facing a collective threat, is a heartening and appropriate one. And the manifestation of that idea -- through the idea of when and whether to trust those from outside your personal experiences -- provides a handle that kids can understand.
The film does better when it tells rather than shows that fact. Chief Benja’s soup, made with ingredients from across Kumandra, becomes a nice metonym for the benefits of that cultural blending, one the kids replicate later in the picture. Likewise, the mere existence of Team Sisu, with different orphans and loners, united by their losses, is a good illustration of breaking down walls and finding common ground.
Unfortunately, in addition to serving up a bunch of tin-eared one-liners, the dialogue all signposts its themes to a ridiculous degree. This is an all ages film, so some hand-holding is to be expected. But everyone from Raya’s dad, to Sisu, to eventually Raya herself practically announcing the message of the film, replete with a giant glowing ball of trust for anyone who dozed off, means there’s a certain lack of grace in the delivery.
Still, trust is a good axis for the film’s ideas. The interplay between Raya, who’s too reluctant to trust given her mistakes in judgment and what it cost her; Sisu, who sometimes trusts too easily in her newly-human naivete; and Namaari, who wants to trust but has been taught to look out for her own, is the strongest concept in the film. Granted, it does run aground on the same ham-fisted dialogue and overdramatic presentation.
That said, the best choice in the film is to have the confrontation with the Druun -- the neat-looking purple energy balls that turn people to stone -- not be solved through just fighting with more fury or magicking harder, but rather through an act of trust. Raya hearing Sisu and her father, and giving up the piece of the dragon ball that everyone’s been guarding so jealously to the young woman who’s betrayed her twice, is a powerful act in the Disney pantheon. The way her compatriots follow suit, and Namaari thinks about just saving herself, but instead chooses to make her stand and save everyone, gives the movie a moving climax, even if the path to get there is a rocky one.
Maybe that path would be better if it had more time to breathe. There is something marvelous at the core of Raya and the Last Dragon: an inviting world, an epic quest, and some worthwhile ideas to underpin both of them. What’s frustrating about the film is that, by the necessity of a ninety-minute runtime, it seems like we only get a sliver of the potential in all of that. The movie has some essential issues that wouldn't be solved no matter how much real estate it might enjoy. But I can't help feeling like this grand, momentous journey would be so much more engrossing and impactful if it actually had the time and space to be, well, grand and momentous.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2024-05-10T06:49:28Z
[6.8/10] It can be hard to judge a work for what it is and not what it could be. Raya and the Last Dragon is fine as a film. It delivers a solid, well-structured plot built around a clear theme that can be delivered in an age-appropriate way within a crisp ninety minutes, with plenty of hijinks to keep the little ones entertained. But I also can't help but imagine how much richer and more involving a story it could be if it were told over the course of a multi-season television show.
Admittedly, much of that stems from the sense in which the film feels like a cross between The Last Unicorn and Avatar: The Last Airbender, It has the former’s sense of a fantasy creature experiencing what it’s like to be human, along with an “emerging from the sea” sense of rebirth of the species. And it has the latter’s harmony-to-discord intro, young girl finding a mystical but rambunctious fellow young adult who’s been frozen for ages, and cross-section selection of misfits journeying through the various lands.
As with AtLA that is a big premise! Raya could do so much with it! It could dig deeply into the different cultures and attitudes of chiefdoms within the land of Kumandra. It could develop the allies from these various far flung places that join Raya’s merry band. It could delve further into the history of this place, and how the mythos and the past have impacted the present. It could show more gradual growth and understanding from Raya and her erstwhile rival, Namaari.
Instead, everything in Raya and the Last Dragon is, if you’ll pardon the expression, quick-fire. Rather than committed explorations of the assorted chiefdoms, we get five-to-ten minutes in each locale. Rather than really getting to know the side characters, they get quickly-sketched quirks with the barest hint of pathos, and the writers call it a day. Rather than a full accounting of the intriguing history of this fantasy world, we get an early info dump and a brief flashback or two. None of this is bad, but it’s all glancing, which leaves you wanting more, albeit not in a good way.
Granted, some of that is served by the visuals, which are a mixed bag in odd ways. Part of what makes you wish the audience could spend more time in this world is that the background animators do a tremendous job of designing the five chiefdoms to be distinctive and eye-catching. Each has its own style, and nowhere is the artistry more clear than in the swirling skies above an idyllic plain, or the lamplit bustle of a floating city, or autumnal wisps of a weathered tundra.
Unfortunately, the animation within those cool spaces is a mixed bag. The film can boast a few cool set pieces -- chiefly the long take with the members of Team Siso tossing the chunks of the magic orb to one another. But a lot of the action here is generic in its choreography, choppy in its editing, or muddy in its presentation. Even the big dragon scenes are something of a candy-colored yawn. Even the weakest Disney films can usually boast a heap of stunning animation, and Raya largely tops out at “pretty good.”
The same checkered approach afflicts the film’s character designs. Raya, Namaari, and the rest of the “normal” characters look like off-the-shelf plastic dolls, and many of their expressions seem off. Some of the side characters, Tong especially, get to have a little more character in their mien. And the animal sidekicks, from Tuk Tuk the giant furry rolly-polly, to the adorably simian ongis, even to Noi, the “con baby”, all have more endearing designs and get better and more interesting movements and sequences than the rest of the cast.
Sigh, and then there’s Sisu, the dragon. Despite some neat texturing, she and her cohort basically look like a mix between traditional Chinese dragons and the lineup from My Little Pony. Sisu’s expressions in particular feel overexaggerated in a way that makes her an odd fit for the quasi-realistic look of the film. And the movie wants the characters, and by extension the audience, to treat its dragons with a certain reverence, which is hard when they look more like marketable and toyetic living plushes than an organic part of the world.
Despite all of that, it’s easy to buy into the mythos of Kumandra and the epic quest at the film’s center. While there’s a certain degree of video game plotting at play here -- go fetch the various items; you’ll level up as you do; then fight the big boss -- a tidy structure helps keep the film sound on a scene-to-scene basis. Eventually, you catch on that Raya is progressing from place to place, fending off some challenge, and collecting another misfit at each stop. But it’s a sturdy format for a YA fantasy story, one that creates a sense of build and new adventure just around the corner.
Unfortunately, the characters who populate that adventure are generally just so-so. Raya and Namaari come off fairly flat and unengaging despite having solid character arcs. Sisu gets a few good lines, but Disney’s been, if you’ll pardon the expression, chasing the dragon of energetic celebrity personalities since Robin Williams’ Genie, and this is another case of diminishing returns. Benedict Wong remains a treasure as the film’s brute-with-a-heart-of-gold, and the wordless characters are adorable, but the rest of the movie’s players veer between annoying and forgettable.
Thankfully, even if the personalities involved are hit-or-miss, Raya and the Last Dragon has some strong and timely themes to build around. The idea of multiculturalism, the idea that these different peoples are stronger when banding together than when they’re divided by self-interest, especially when facing a collective threat, is a heartening and appropriate one. And the manifestation of that idea -- through the idea of when and whether to trust those from outside your personal experiences -- provides a handle that kids can understand.
The film does better when it tells rather than shows that fact. Chief Benja’s soup, made with ingredients from across Kumandra, becomes a nice metonym for the benefits of that cultural blending, one the kids replicate later in the picture. Likewise, the mere existence of Team Sisu, with different orphans and loners, united by their losses, is a good illustration of breaking down walls and finding common ground.
Unfortunately, in addition to serving up a bunch of tin-eared one-liners, the dialogue all signposts its themes to a ridiculous degree. This is an all ages film, so some hand-holding is to be expected. But everyone from Raya’s dad, to Sisu, to eventually Raya herself practically announcing the message of the film, replete with a giant glowing ball of trust for anyone who dozed off, means there’s a certain lack of grace in the delivery.
Still, trust is a good axis for the film’s ideas. The interplay between Raya, who’s too reluctant to trust given her mistakes in judgment and what it cost her; Sisu, who sometimes trusts too easily in her newly-human naivete; and Namaari, who wants to trust but has been taught to look out for her own, is the strongest concept in the film. Granted, it does run aground on the same ham-fisted dialogue and overdramatic presentation.
That said, the best choice in the film is to have the confrontation with the Druun -- the neat-looking purple energy balls that turn people to stone -- not be solved through just fighting with more fury or magicking harder, but rather through an act of trust. Raya hearing Sisu and her father, and giving up the piece of the dragon ball that everyone’s been guarding so jealously to the young woman who’s betrayed her twice, is a powerful act in the Disney pantheon. The way her compatriots follow suit, and Namaari thinks about just saving herself, but instead chooses to make her stand and save everyone, gives the movie a moving climax, even if the path to get there is a rocky one.
Maybe that path would be better if it had more time to breathe. There is something marvelous at the core of Raya and the Last Dragon: an inviting world, an epic quest, and some worthwhile ideas to underpin both of them. What’s frustrating about the film is that, by the necessity of a ninety-minute runtime, it seems like we only get a sliver of the potential in all of that. The movie has some essential issues that wouldn't be solved no matter how much real estate it might enjoy. But I can't help feeling like this grand, momentous journey would be so much more engrossing and impactful if it actually had the time and space to be, well, grand and momentous.