Formula: Mulan - songs - hidden identity + world-building
I never get tired of examining the family rivalry between Disney Animations Studio and Pixar Studio. Disney Animation was a dominant cultural force throughout the 90s, but when it slipped in the early 2000s, Pixar swooped in and has claimed the King of Animation throne ever since. Even though it often feels like Disney Animation is perpetually playing catch up with Pixar, I was surprised to realize that on average, Disney Animation, not Pixar, has actually been more successful globally lately. From 2012-2019, Disney Aminations releases have averaged $865 million worldwide, while Pixar has "only" averaged $779 million. Obviously, there's some noise in those numbers. Pixar has released more movies, including Cars 3, which was more of a merchandising decision than a box office one. That deflates the average. Also, in the U.S., Pixar still edges Disney Animation out $320 million to $297 million. It's closer than I would've thought though. And Disney Animation has found this success by sticking to its roots mainly. Sure, there's a Wreck-It Ralph or Big Hero Six in there that's a bit more modern. Zootopia certainly feels like a Pixar movie under a different name. But much of the success has been in new fairy tales. The Princess and the Frog, Moana, and Frozen were big hits with original characters under the classic "Disney princess" formula. Tangled fits in there too, although it is a play on a known classic. So, it makes a lot of sense that they'd go for the formula again with Raya and the Last Dragon.
We'll never really know how Raya would've done in a normal box office. It would still be coming a year after the live-action Mulan, which is a similar ancient fantasy adventure with an Eastern flair. It's a fully original idea though, and I could see audiences responding well to it. They have in a COVID box office, and we'll never know exactly how much it made from Disney+ Premiere purchases. Hopefully, the results are encouraging enough for Disney to keep trying ideas like this though.
Raya and the Last Drago takes place in the fictional fractured kingdom of Kumandra. There's an ancient legend there that dragons saved the world from evil spirits calls the Druun that turn people to stone. The dragons sacrificed themselves though to do it and there's only one remanence of dragon magic still left in the world. It's protected by Raya's (Kelly Marie Tran) family. You see, after the dragons' sacrifice, the land broke into five kingdoms, defined like a Zelda map. There's the desert land, the snow land, the sea port land, etc. The five factions feud over this orb that contains the last of the dragon essence. As a child, Raya's father, Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) invites all the other factions for a feast, trying to extend a hand out for peace. Instead, they try to take the orb, breaking it in the process, and unleashing the Druun on the world again. Most of the movie takes place several years later when Raya awakens the last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina) and tries to collect all the pieces of the orb to end the Druun plague. In that sense, it's a pretty typical action movie. She goes to the different lands, has assorted challenges collecting the orb piece in each, and adds to her travel party each time. There's also Namaari (Gemma Chan) the similarly aged daughter of another chief who is trying to collect the pieces of the orb for herself. And it turns out that Sisu isn't the mighty dragon Raya expected, which you probably assumed when I said Awkwafina was the voice. Sisu is very much a Geenie or Mushu type: magical, but mostly silly.
Overall, I love the world-building of the movie. It's designed with a Southeast Asian influence but isn't trying to resemble any real-world area. The different areas of the land are distinct and cool in their own ways. The movie establishes each quickly and effectively. Truly, my only issue with the movie is that I wanted it to be in a longer format. Like, I wish this was a trilogy or even a TV series. I wanted to explore each part of the world for longer and get to know each of the characters better. I imagine the production bible for this was intense and they had to throw out so many ideas for time. This movie races through every beat. For anyone wondering how they could adapt a Zelda game into a movie, here you go. This is the blueprint. I would love to play the video game version of this movie, because that's what this world is.
Tran and Chan's roles are a little thankless, since they are the two most serious characters. I like that Disney is keeping Tran in the family. Even though I questioned the need for her character in the new Star Wars trilogy, I liked her in the movies and Tran as an actress in general. Awkwafina has fun playing Awkwafina in this. I love how quickly she's established herself as a personality. And she does successfully add some emotional depth to Sisu. That's the secret to comic relief characters in these movies. They need to be characters who take things seriously yet have a goofy personality. They can't be undercutting what's going on.
I do think the level of worldbuilding creates some small problems in the movie. Some of the logic about the dragon orb and how to defeat the Druun don't make a lot of sense if you stop and think about them. The internal logic of the movie is a bit wacky, but a lot of that seemed tied to keeping the movie short.
If my biggest complaint about a movie is that I wish there was more of it, I'd say that's a great sign. Raya and the Last Dragon is by no means a new Disney gold standard, but it's pretty damn enjoyable. Disney seems to have figured out that if they don't have new stories to tell (because I could point to numerous ways that Raya was inspired by past Disney movies), then new locations and influences have the same effect to keep things fresh.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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