My Review of "Raya The Last Dragon"

Raya The Last Dragon is one of the bigger Disney Plus release movies in 2021. It has recently become free for all Disney Plus subscribers. This is great because I'm sure all of us are starved for some bigger budget blockbuster movies nowadays.

The movie starts by explaining the world before our main protagonist Raya comes into the story. It just basically explains that 500 years ago there were these monsters known as the Druun that had devastated the fictional world that Raya lives in. These Druun basically turned all of the world's inhabitants into stone including the ancient dragons that once lived there. At least all except for one dragon named Sisu.

Legend has it that Sisu was the last dragon and was able to seal the Druun away from the world with a special orb. In the present day, Raya's father is now the protector of that special orb. He has a plan to unite all the kingdoms together in harmony. That's easier said than done. You see, all of the other kingdoms are jealous of Raya's kingdom because they believe that the dragon orb that they protect gives them good fortune. That's the only way they can accept Raya's family's prosperity.

Adamant to reunite the kingdoms Raya's father invites all of the other kingdoms to their kingdom to a feast in good faith. You can tell that all of the leaders of the other kingdoms are plotting something while Raya's father welcomes them with open arms.

During this big feast Raya tries to befriend one of their adversary's children named Namaari. Namaari seems kind at first by trying to gain Raya's trust. Naively, Raya brings Namaari to the room where the dragon orb lays and Namaari quickly alerts her clan to steal the orb. Soon all of the other kingdoms get wind of the information and they all fight for the orb. The fight eventually ends in the orb breaking and the Druun are again released into their world.

So basically for the rest of the movie Raya tries to find the last ancient dragon Sisu to dispel the world from the ruthless Druun. It's an interesting story and I can see that it's all based on real life situations that we have today. This is why this movie is quite relatable to any group of people.

Throughout the movie Raya has issues with trusting people because at a very young age she was tragically deceived in the worst way possible. She's lost her family and the world has literally turned to stone. This is much of the theme to this movie. It's a social commentary on the world situation we live in today. None of us trust each other anymore and this begets further mistrust with one another. It's a vicious cycle that can only be stopped by ourselves.

Raya learns that she's not the only person that's lost everything valuable in her life. Most of the world suffers the same pains that she does. They all want the same thing but can't seem to agree on how to help each other get the world back to the way it was.

The method in which they executed the transitions in this movie remind me a lot like how they transitioned the big Marvel movies and Star Wars movies. It was kind of weird seeing these big bold letters to describe where they're at just like how they did in some of the Marvel movies. They have all of the sweeping imagery techniques they used in a lot of the Star Wars movies as well. Even the partnering up in this movie reminds me of those aforementioned big budget movies. It almost made me feel like this movie was kind of formulaic. They have some differences but you can tell the bones came from those other movies.

As for the imagery, this movie is breathtaking. I keep forgetting how good Disney has gotten in CGI animation. Some of the landscapes and water locals kind of made me do double takes because they looked so realistic at times. This is kind of off set by the plasticky looking animated character models. It's so smooth that I swore it was like plastic dolls talking to one another. A lot of the movie is eye-candy with all of the special effects and fantastic action sequences.

Also I don't know why but it almost felt like there was going to be a relationship between Raya and Namaari at the end. I'm really glad that they didn't have to have any romantic relationships in this movie because they're kind of played out in the Disney movies. I'm really glad it went the way that it did.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was a pretty high caliber animated movie albeit a formulaic one. Each of the characters we meet in this movie are quite enjoyable and have quite a lot of charisma. I think that they did a fantastic job with this movie although it kind of dragged on a little in the second act of the movie. I have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. It is something great to have the family watch together but I probably wouldn't want to watch it a second time around.