Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

[titanic2187]

On 3/30/2021 at 11:10 PM, TigerPaw said:

As a South East Asian... i didn't even know this was made for us. Lol. Until I read articles after the show.

 

Cookie Cutter Disney Film, with a very rushed 3rd act and the ending was a little too perfect for my liking.

 

Also didn't the dad get wounded from the cross-bow? How did he recover when he turned back from stone to human?

 

Also Awkwafina's voice does not fit the dragon IMO. 

 

Not close to Soul or Coco... heck, I felt that the live action Mulan was better.

Yes, I fully agree with this statement. Wrong casting.  

[pepsa]

I would rate this movie 5.5 / 10 or C. It was a pretty bland movie. The water fire comparison was very close to the one made in Avatar the last airbender only leaving out the part were fire "the sun and energy" is also needed for life and brings it's own unique features to learn from.

 

The characters don't really develop during the movie nor do we get a good look in to the lives of any character. The world was beautiful and it would have been nice to get more of feeling with each culture. With the pretty high reviews I expected a better movie and it's been one of the first animation movies in long time that I didn't like. Or atleast not one I went in with thinking this will be a decent / good movie.

[Menor the Destroyer]

I thought it was a fun movie, not one of Disney's best though. 

 

What I didn't like:

 

Felt like the dialogue was off, sometimes they used these weird contemporary expressions ("group project?") and it just threw me off. Also there were some kinda random jokes/asides that cheapened the emotion a bit. Usually this is not that big of an issue for me (for example I loved Guardians 2 and didn't mind the jokes) but here the placement just felt too weird. This happened quite a bit at the beginning, thankfully it was toned down toward the end. 

 

Things felt very simplistic. I wouldn't compare Kumandra in this show to the four nations in Avatar, the treatment of the different cultures felt more like the two tribes in The Great Divide if anything. Especially the scene at the beginning where the dad invites all these different people, they show up, then they refuse to eat there. Why did they even come in the first place then? (Fang obviously was plotting to steal the gem but I don't think the other nations came with that intention). Plus all the different nations just felt like a single place. 

 

 

What I liked:

 

Some really nice and beautiful shots. Lovely animation overall and great use of color. Some favorites of mine were the scene in which Namaari arrives home, Raya's flight with Sisu, and the chase through Tail. 

 

Good humor as per usual in WDAS. The Con Baby was my favorite, I definitely am a sucker for these types of characters. Actually, I wouldn't mind watching a whole movie about this baby. If we can get Boss Baby, we can get Con Baby too. 

 

Good action scenes, I especially liked the duel at the end. It was good that they showed Raya's bloodthirsty rage there, differentiated her a bit from the typically very innocent Disney protagonists. 

 

Characters were solid, fairly thin but likable. I didn't like Awkwafina's performance as Sisu at first, she somewhat won me over through the film though as some more depth to the character was revealed. Raya was a good protagonist, the side characters were effective for comedy and charming. 

 

Message of the film was good and, though definitely on the nose, it was effective. The climax was very reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy (in a good way). Did think it was kinda BS that Namaari said that Raya was as much at fault as her, she was the one who instigated the whole situation, but still the forgiveness scene worked. 

 

Overall, enjoyable. B+. 

[Flopped]

Could not make it through this .