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It's on the many boat adventures from one land to another where Raya finally learns to trust her fellow man again. The colour scheme softens as the action shifts to the mainlands surrounded by water. In the first act, Raya's trust issues are at its peak as she navigates the barren landscapes, their desolation reinforced with the saturated colours and high contrast. Moving away from dry terrain back to what is Raya and the Last Dragon's most significant contextual symbol, water also informs the movie’s stylistic choices. Completing the merchandise collection are a shrimp boat chef (Izaac Wang), a gentle giant (Benedict Wong), a "con baby" (Thalia Tran) and three little monkeys. Then, there's Tuk Tuk (Alan Tudyk), an armadillo of sorts who's essentially Raya's ride, as the name suggests. She brings a mix of self-deprecating comedy, occasional wisdom and a get-out-of-jail-free card. Sisu is a water dragon who can take on human form. To gather the broken pieces from the five lands and unite them all, Raya reluctantly assembles a fellowship of the MacGuffin. When the dragon gem splits following Namaari and her mother Virana’s (Sandra Oh) hostile takeover, it conveniently splits into five pieces, as if to ensure each of the five warring factions in Kumandra has one. Trust is not only repeated to the point of semantic satiation, but built into clunky visual metaphors of a bridge, and the water under it. She helps Raya remember the lessons her own father taught about learning to trust and taking the first step in faith. This is where the dragon Sisu (Awkwafina) comes in. How our sense of safety and desire for connection with others is jolted in such a way trust requires to be learnt all over again. It's a lesson in how trauma can affect our total being, drastically altering the way we see the world. To cope with the loss of her father and the treachery of a close friend, Raya detaches herself from the rest of the world. This trauma plays into Raya's trust issues. Being a Disney movie, Benja being turned to stone is the inciting event for Raya, with her mother having already been mysteriously disposed of before the story began. Only, Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim), has trained his daughter to protect Kumadra's legacy since her pre-teens. The similarities also extend to her noble birth, and tender relationship with her father. Raya navigates them like a regular Lara Croft. The quest begins with booby-trapped caves, progresses through stealth missions in well-guarded fortresses, and ends in climactic combat sequences. So, Raya embarks on an impossible quest to find the last surviving dragon to stop the extinction-level threat and reunite Kumandra again. In the ensuing one-upmanship, the gem broke into five pieces, allowing the return of the Druun.
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500 years later, "people being people," as Raya aptly puts it, tried to take sole possession of the gem. So, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity, leaving behind a magical gem that can ward off the Druun. It didn't last because a bunch of blobs called the Druun, who turn living beings into stone, saw to it. Humans and dragons once lived together in harmony. Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) serves us Kumandra history 101 in the expository prologue.
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While Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada's film is by no measure a dud, it does lack that intangible "it" factor that elevated past films to classic status. Five years later, Disney makes its first foray into creating new IP with Raya and the Last Dragon. 2016 was perhaps the last great year for the Mouse House's animation outfit, having given us two gems in Zootopia and Moana. That's why the studio has been mining its existing IP, instead of telling new stories. It's a natural force that helps heal wounds of the past, before paving the way for change and renewal.Ī Disney film carries considerable nostalgic baggage. It shields the living from the deadly plague that has turned most of its world into a wasteland. I slaughter when I hit the water.”) Water connects the five lands of Kumandra. Water, not fire, empowers its dragon, who breathes a mist of vapours, and possesses a talent for swimming (“I got water skills that kill. It precipitates the sea change of the warrior princess at the centre of Disney's new animated film.
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Water is a defining motif in Raya and the Last Dragon.