Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)'s comments

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nubbi

Amazing visuals let down by mediocre writing. Most of the conflict arose because characters were written to be stupid not because it made sense for them.
In addition, the acting was a bit off at times.
However, I found it to be expertly animated. Even the more action-heavy scenes were animated well and felt weighty.
I can't say that the movie was strictly bad though. Nothing I would watch again unless I had children over but it was fine.

3 years 1 month ago

masterbeer

Mulan meets My Little Pony

3 years ago

samlowery

Let's give credit where credit is due. Disney stuck with Asian and Asian-American voice actors, made the effort to have a diverse crew, and guess what: everything turned out just fine. No one is sitting around moaning "if only more white men could have been involved!"

They wound up with a very good film in most all respects. The superlatives I'll mention were Awkwafina's voice work, which gave the film a lot of life, and the CGI. Fluid effects like smoke & water have always been some of the most difficult to digitize, and they were a joy to watch here.

2 years 7 months ago

Alexander Stavropoulos

i missed a little bit of Romance between Raya and Namari.. :p

Not the greatest Disney movie , but not bad at all!!

2 years 8 months ago

Siskoid

To be sure, Raya and the Last Dragon features some gorgeous animation - the environments, action scenes, atmospherics and use of different styles are all beautiful - but it severely undermines its world-building by giving all the characters a modern American idiom. Granted, you can usually expect a certain number of anachronisms in a Disney movie like this, and you might say it's a fantasy version of Asia (I can't really point to any single country, the vagueness a bit annoying honestly) so anything goes, but to use a line from the movie, "here's the sitch": Akwafina as the dragon could have acted like the genie in Aladdin - somehow out of her time - and it would have worked fine (in fact, she's great), but making everyone talk like 2021 teenagers doesn't. The climax has some good moments because they let go of that conceit. But then, despite its setting, this is an incredible American film interested in American things. It continuously hits us over the head with its message of trusting one another (to the point of becoming a drinking game), presenting a world of factions who don't and act against their own interests, precipitating a "plague" and deadly climate change. The plot, a quest for artifacts, is okay; the problem is really the script (written by 8 whole people). Redub the whole thing with more neutral speech and more subtle messaging, and you might have something.

2 years 10 months ago

KaphAein

Beautiful visuals, heartwarming story, and somewhat fleshed-out characters.

All the VAs were wonderful! But Awkwafina’s was especially remarkable!!

Disney did something great here! Is it their best story? Of course not. Is it amazing in and of itself? Absolutely!!

3 years ago

opusaddict

It is like Moana but with South East Asia (esp. Thailand) cultural background. But Moana is better in terms of music, writing, voice-over, and character development. But visually, both are beautiful.

3 years 1 month ago

Emiam

7/10
Excuse the language, but a fucking good craft! Sure, you have seen a lot like Disney's using again and again in their stories, but the whole impresses.

2 years 5 months ago

the_queen_n00b

The message of this movie is “trust people even if they backstab you SEVERAL TIMES with literal world ending consequences” and I dunno, that seems kinda whack to me

1 year 4 months ago

dippygirl78

Gorgeous in every respect! yes we've seen this plot thousands of times but isn't that what Disney is about? I feel like this is a story to highlight one of my favourite mantras which is - change the way you look at people and the people you look at change.
Loved the strong female leads (at last) and no romance in sight (apart from a really strong vibe from our leading ladies - subtle but definitely there! Very small steps Disney but you're going in the right direction)
Animation blew my mind, damn if some of the scenes don't look straight out of National Geographic!

6 months 1 week ago