I just watch Raya and the Last Dragon (Spoilers ahead)
I do not know… I can’t say that I liked this movie. It was entertaining, it was interesting, but I also see a lot of problems with this movie. See my train of thoughts during the movie below. (It looks more negative than it is.) I am glad that I waited for the free release on Disney Plus. This was not worth the premium.
Storywise, I don’t think they reached the full potential of this story, I think there was a lot more in it.
The first forty five minutes really felt like this would work better as a series, where they have time to expand on all the details. I have a feeling a lot of backstory got cut. There are 5 different cultures in this, and we barely get to know one.
There is a huge gap of six years, I really want to know what happens during those years. What was Raya up to? It’s good that I want to know more, but I also feel unsatisfied that I didn’t get answers.
Maybe if I got a little bit more backstory, I cared more about Raya and her story. Namaari was way more interesting. Raya basically have one character trait, she doesn’t trust anyone, but Namaari is much more complex.
The only thing for Raya that comes close to another character trait is the bond with her father. The most time we see them together is in the very first fight scene when we do not know yet that he is her father. After that the moments of them together are
too short for me to really bond with her.
From what I had seen in trailers Sisu was less annoying then I expected. I feared an Olaf situation. But she was a good character.
Maybe also the amount of characters was an issue. This is an adventure story, like Moana, only Moana had basically two characters for most of the story Moana and Maui. Here it was spread over too many characters. And the lead was less interesting than the villain.
There are too many issues with the story and the main character to end up on my favourites list, but I might give it another watch.
My train of thoughts during the movie. Slightly disorganized.
- It looks amazing
- Similar way to tell history as Moana. I do like this style a little better.
- Also we have a gem, like in Moana.
- I absolutely love that we see different type of environments than we normally see in Disney movie with a female lead.
- Oh please, don’t let her be perfect… please give her some flaws.
- Hey, is that traditional animation when they tell the story of the different countries.
- So do we have to remember and the history of the dragons and the stones, and of the five countries?
- Uh oh, both have single parents… dead parent-alert!
- Yes, that was stupid to bring the enemy to the gem…
- That is one cool sword.
- Noble sacrifice, but we know that the statues can be turned back to life, so let’s not get all desperate.
- It feels like a desert planet from Star Wards.
- Okay, what happened in those 6 years? Are we going to see nothing of her quest in between? Why this ship, where does it come from, why here? It makes it look very easy to find a dragon.
- I probably cannot say that it may look Asian, but certain characters feel very American…?
- It has nice some nice fantasy creatures, like the beatles and the cats.
- Raya is very lucky that everything goes exactly as she plans it.
- Okay, how did she know she would turn back in the water?
- Ah we have a complexer villain, that circle gesture by Namaari is a nice moment.
- Seriously… credit? Can it get more American?
- I do hope that all those powers of her brothers and sisters do come back at the end.
- There are a lot of women in this movie. All the villains are women, even minor characters like generals and the little baby, which would be men in other movies are women. Not that it’s bad, I just notice it.
- In the meantime… we get the name ‘Kumandra’ which sounds Asian, but then split it up, we do translate ‘fang’, ‘spine’ etc.?
- The Spine Warrior, Tong, looks like Hookhand from Tangled. Only with an eyepatch instead of a hookhand. And the little monkeys save Raya like the thugs from Rapunzel.
- Namaari calls Raya ‘fugitive from Heart’, what happened in those six years!
- Yeah, let’s bring 50 soldiers, but still go into a 1-1 combat… She is alone, you can just capture her!
- That moment between Sisu and Namaari is so much more interesting than the fight. I care more about Namaari than about Raya.
- Okay we now have our party complete, next part of the quest. Find stone -> Fight -> Win -> Next.
- Last stone and still 50 minutes to go. That’s a lot.
- I like the different styles they have to use for storytelling within the movie.
- How come Sisu knows exactly where to go and what to do even when she is asleep for over 500 years.
- And how come the not very well hidden dragons are in Heart and Raya doesn’t know that!
- Yeah…. How the dragon gem was made wasn’t exactly the backstory I hoped for.
- Yes we know, TRUST IS THE THEME OF THE MOVIE, you have only said it twenty times.
- Oh come on, stop with the friendship BS, you knew Namaari for a few hours.
- Are those all the Queen’s children?
- So, Namaari is called a princess, is Raya a princess too?
- Oh the soup metaphor is back.
- It’s very plot convenient that the gem broke into five pieces. Five countries, five dragons. What if the gem broke into six pieces or three?
- Seriously, we skip over the death of Sisu this quickly? It was finally getting interesting.
- Raya knows very quickly where she needs to go to find Namaari.
- Ah, another fight.
- Namaari is right.
- Can you please combine the pieces and get it over with?
- It is about trust? Gee… smart girl. You thought of that yourself?
- Oh yes, then she would turn into stone, I forgot about that.
- Luckily the pieces fit back together like a puzzle.
- Hey Namaari turned into stone, I hadn’t expected that to happen.
- Oh good, that only lasted less than a minute. Another problem solved.
- Looks very pretty, though. Colours are amazing. That sunlight and the water is awesome.
- That’s a lot of dragons. Twenty five minutes to go.
- Two out of five countries made up and that was enough? What about the other three countries?
- Of course the dragons are back, so all are happy. Good that we see how everyone is doing, that’s three plot threads wrapped up. Almost feels like Lord of the Rings.
- That’s how our Christmas plays in junior high went: Some groups are fighting, we solve the problem, celebrate Christmas together and we all live happily ever after.
- Oh we are done, that’s 18 minutes of credits.
