Raya and the Last Dragon has a simple enough plot. Kumandra was once one kingdom, but is now split in five due to people’s lust for power. Raya seeks out the last dragon to reunite everyone and make it whole again. Not an original story by any means, but it tells the story effectively all while bringing fun characters into the mix.
The film is visually stunning. It’s gorgeous. The food looks delicious. It’s worth a watch for that reason alone.
The story opens with Raya telling us the history of Kumandra. 500 years before the start of the film, humans and dragons coexisted and teamed up to fight the Druun. The Druun are black clouds of smoke that turn humans and dragons into stone. They nearly overpowered all living things in Kumandra until Sisu created the dragon gem. This gem defeated the Druun and revived the humans from their stone forms, but did not revive the dragons. The gem remained in what is now known as Heart, Kumandra split after Fang, Talon, Spine and Tail grew resentful of Heart’s possession of the gem.
Chief Benja (Daniel DAE Kim) of Heart believes that the four kingdoms can reunite into Kumandra once again. He invites the chiefs and their people to Heart in an effort to bring peace. Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) befriends Naamani (Gemma Chan) the daughter of Fang’s chief. To solidify the friendship, Raya shows Naamani the location of the dragon gem. Naamani betrays Raya and reveals the location to everyone else. While fighting for the gem, the different kingdoms break it releasing the Druun. Each of the chiefs take a piece and run. Before being turned to stone Chief Benja gives the remaining piece to Raya. Fast forward six years and Raya is in search of Sisu.
Raya finds Sisu (Awkwafina) and together they set out to collect all the pieces. Sisu is a lot of fun. She’s funny and still believes in the good of the people. She’s the perfect counterpart to the cynical Raya.
From here the story gets repetitive. Raya and Sisu travel to each kingdom and get the missing piece all the while adding to their team. They are joined by someone from Talon, Tail and Spine and with each new team member Sisu tries to prove Raya wrong. Sisu believes in trusting someone and giving them a chance and no matter how many times she’s proven wrong Raya refuses to let anyone in on her plan.
It’s a classic Disney formula. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that as it’s tried and true, but there’s also nothing that makes it stand out from the rest. It’s good, solid entertainment. As mentioned the animation is beautiful and the voice acting is phenomenal.
It’s worth checking out. It has a good message and overall has great qualities to it.
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