Raya and the Last Dragon

     Raya and the Last dragon was a movie that came out of thin air for me. I had no idea that this movie was coming out. By the time I saw a few commercials for it the movie was already out on Disney Plus. And from what I saw the movie definitely had potential. From the commercial alone the animation was wonderful. So I decided to give it a try.

    The movie starts off with a story about the land of Kumandra. Kumandra was a very prosperous land with dragons and humans living together, but that changed when the land was attacked by the Druun. An evil spirit that turns living beings into spirits. But luckily they were stopped by the sacrifice of the dragons. The dragons created an orbed that used magic to ward off the druun and revive the people turned to stone. 

    After their sacrifice, Kumandra separated into five different tribes Heart, Fang, Spine, Tail, and Talon. In the present, which is 500 years later the movie shows Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) as a young girl becoming a guardian of the dragon orb. The orb is located in the Heart tribe and is the cause of jealousy among the other tribes as they believe it brings prosperity to Heart. This is when Fang decides to hatch a plan.

    

    Raya's father Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) had called the other tribes to his village in order to reunite them and become Kumandra once again. But of course, the other tribes reject this plan. In an attempt to convince the tribes, Raya decides to befriend and trust Nammari (Gemma Chan), a princess of the Fang clan. They quickly bond and Raya shows Nammari the dragon orb, but Nammari betrays her and alerts the rest of her clan that the orb is vulnerable. This causes the breaking of the orb which releases the druun. With the druun released many people are turned to stone including Rayas father. 

    Six years later Raya is protecting a piece of the orb while searching for the last dragon, Sisu. Raya is able to find Sisu (Nora Lum) in the Tail territory. It is also revealed that Sisu is able to use the magic imbued into the orb by her siblings 500 years ago. They are also able to find the second piece of the orb that is being guarded by boobi traps set by the former chief of the tail clan.

    It is from here that Sisu and Raya decide to track down the other three orbs in order to bring everyone who turned to stone back to life. On this journey, they meet an enthusiastic young boy named Boun who is the captain of the "Shrimporium", Tong, a warrior and the last of Spine Land, and little Noi, a con artist baby from Talon. Along the way, they also acquire the next two orb pieces from talon and spine, with the last being in Fang. 

    Since being betrayed, Raya has had a hard time believing that Nammari could possibly help them get the last piece. But Sisu urges Raya to trust that Nammari will do the right thing. They contact Nammari and meet to retrieve the piece. But Nammari tries to betray them, albeit reluctantly. The confrontation leads to Sisu being shot unintentionally, thus releasing the rest of the druun upon the world. 

    With the druun ravaging the rest of the world Raya realizes just how remorseful and sorry Nammari is for everything she's done. So she decides to put her trust in her. As the group is surrounded by druun Raya gives her gem to Nammari in a show of trust. The rest of the group follows her lead and gives Nammari their gems and are turned to stone. Nammari is able to put the gems together and save Kumandra just like Sisu did 500 years prior. With the stone intact everyone who was turned to stone is reverted back to life including Sisu and the rest of the dragons. Lastly, all of the tribes are able to come together and become Kumandra.

    This movie has been my favorite movie to write about on this blog. I was absolutely blown away by this movie. The animation in this movie was phenomenal. I could see every single emotion that was portrayed on each character's face. The colors shown throughout the movie were amazing as well. This movie was definitely pleasing to watch. The story was great in my opinion.  A badass warrior who finds the last of the dragons in order to save the world? Yeah, I'd watch that ten times out of ten. The characters bring this movie to life. Raya and Nammari are fierce warriors, Sisu was both wise and awesome comic relief. The characters really complimented each other and had great chemistry. 

    Raya and the Last Dragon was great but it did have its cons. The movie explains that four dragons used their magic to revive the rest of the world. But how come humans were revived but not the other dragons? Why was Sisu the only dragon to be awakened? I also believe that the task of acquiring all five pieces of the orb was much too easy. Getting the first four gems kind of seemed easy. For such as huge mission the difficulty should have been a little harder in my opinion.

    Overall, this movie was awesome and I would recommend that everyone watch it.