Movie Review: 'Raya and the Last Dragon'

Raya and the Last Dragon is a tough sit for anyone over the age of 9. That's not a bad thing in that the movie was made with 9 year old's in mind, that's great. As a kids movie, I can't fault anything about Raya and the Last Dragon. The animation is stunning, it's absolutely gorgeous to look at. The story is basic and entirely inoffensive... sort of, for the most part. UGH! (See post-script)

Raya and the Last Dragon centers on the character of Raya, voiced by Kelly Marie Tran. Raised as a warrior by her father, Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim), Raya is meant to spend her life defending the Dragon crystal, a magical orb that saved the world from destruction. All of the tribes in this fictional universe want to be the tribe to have the crystal but Chief Benja's Heart Tribe is the one chosen for the task.

The Fang tribe however, has an eye on the crystal. Using the cunning of Namaari (Gemma Chan), they manage to trick Raya into revealing the location of the crystal by pretending to be her friend. This leads to all tribes discovering where the crystal is located and the subsequent fight over the crystal causes it to be broken. With that, a curse that had been banished by the creation of the crystal returns.

An evil force known as The Druun had been banished by dragons centuries ago with the creation of the crystal but now, with the destruction of the crystal, The Druun returns and begin to turn people to stone. This includes Raya's father who is turned to stone just after saving Raya's life by tossing her into a river, The Druun can't get wet.

Years pass and Raya grows up to become a lone warrior, desperately seeking the legend of The Last Dragon. Rumor has it that one dragon remains alive after all of these years and if she can find the dragon, she could save those who've been turned to stone and unite the tribes as they were before The Druun.

Finding the Last Dragon turns out to be the easiest part of her journey. Having stolen a map from Namaari years earlier, Raya finds Sisu (Awkwafina) and uses a portion of the broken crystal to awaken her. Sisu turns out to not exactly be the dignified and regal dragon that Raya had envisioned since she was a kid.

Sisu's not gross or mean, she's just... different. She's like a little kid in a dragon's body. She's got a wild spirit and trying to keep Sisu focused on the task of stealing the missing pieces of the crystal turns out to be Raya's biggest challenge. The two must travel to each of the kingdom's and fight to get the pieces of the crystal so that they can reunite the pieces, banish The Druun and unite the tribes.

Along the way, Raya and Sisu can't help but pick up strays. Up first is Boun (Isaac Wang), a young boy operating his family's shrimp restaurant aboard a boat to keep The Druun at bay. Boun's family was turned to stone by The Druun not all that long ago and he's copin g by keeping the restaurant busy. When Sisu tells him she is a dragon and they are on an adventure, he jumps at the chance to help.

Up next is a baby and her three monkey friends. Members of the Tail Tribe, the country the characters occupy is shaped by a dragon shaped river, this baby has been lost since her parents were turned to stone. She's coped by becoming a pickpocket and she and her monkey friends join the story when Baby steals Raya's map and crystal pieces.

The final straggler to join the ragtag team is a member of the vengeful warrior clan, The Spine. Benedict Wong gives voice to Tong, a fearsome and thick warrior whose sadly the last of his clan. The entirety of The Spine clan has been turned to stone, including Tong's wife and children. He's convinced not only to join the team but to also hand over his part of the crystal for the chance to possibly save his people.

The cast also includes Sandra Oh as the Chief of the Fang Clan. She's not a villain per se, but she does provide one of many obstacles for our heroes as their journey unfolds. She is also Namaari's mother and their relationship is a dramatic touchstone in the movie. Namaari is the primary villain and the journey becomes not fighting with Namaari but trying to turn her to join their cause.

So, from that description you can sense a solid enough narrative. It's not reinventing the genre, it's a very typical adventure story with little to no invention. Raya and the Last Dragon is machine tooled to be inoffensive, simple, and to rely on the remarkable imagination of animators who far outpaced anyone in the story department of Raya and the Last Dragon.

Depending on where you look, wikipedia, Disney's corporate website, or IMDB, you can find anywhere from 2 to 6 different credited writers on Raya and the Last Dragon and the multiple perspectives are very obvious. That's especially true of the humor of Raya and the Last Dragon, this fringe of cringe humor where characters talk too much and then apologize awkwardly for talking too much or showing enthusiasm for anything. The apology is the joke.

It's a style of humor that has overwhelmed much of modern animation to the point where even the venerable and venerated Pixar has even employed the style for a cheap laugh. I guess cringey character humor is better than low brow gutter humor but not by much. To the degree that Raya and the Last Dragon employs this style it becomes exhausting. A joke about passing gas might have actually broken the monotony.

The derivative nature of Raya and the Last Dragon is perhaps the biggest disappointment of all. Sure, most of the core audience of Raya and the Last Dragon, little kids, won't realize that what they are seeing is a formula older than their parents and grandparents, but it doesn't make the lameness of this rehash any easier to take for those of us who've been subjected to this story more than we care to recall.

The story team behind Raya and the Last Dragon have taken every shortcut and cut every story corner. The story is deeply derivative and excruciatingly predictable. Disney's malice toward parents is even on display in the fact that Raya's mom is gone before the story begins and her dad gets turned to stone. Disney killing parents is one of the oldest and strangest clichés in movie history so, of course, it's on display in Raya and the Last Dragon, a story without any invention of its own.

Again, I know I am being way too hard on Raya and the Last Dragon. It's a movie made for children who've never seen any other animated movie before. From that perspective, it's probably quite enjoyable. I can certainly say that the animation is gorgeous and it is almost pretty enough to be forgiven for all of the clichés and over used tropes in the story.

Almost.

Post-Script:

I don't have much to say about the racial politics of Raya and the Last Dragon. The film features an almost entirely Asian voice cast in a story with vaguely Asian myths and legends. That said, it's a tad reductive to continuously portray Asian characters as part of warring warrior cultures whose legends all surround mysticism and dragons.

But, being a white guy, I can't call it offensive, the cast appears to enjoy telling this story and they all agreed to being part of this so who am I to complain. I am probably trying to anticipate a Salon thinkpiece and probably thinking myself into troubling waters. So, let's just stop there and let the thinkpieces do the thinking.

BTW, there is already at least one thinkpiece already out, even before the release of Raya and the Last Dragon in theaters and on Disney Plus on May 5th. Read it here, if you dare.