Think of RAYA as an animated action-adventure film in the vein of INDIANA JONES meets LORD OF THE RINGS. But how is she going to do that without a dragon? Now it is up to Raya to try to recapture every piece of the gem and vanquish the Druun once and for all.
The Druun is released on the land once again and starts turning everyone to stone, including those Raya loves most. But jealousy and deception upend his attempt at unification and the gem is suddenly (conveniently) broken into five different pieces, each going to one of the kingdoms. Raya’s father decides to invite all of the kingdoms to meet in Heart, naively believing he can be the one to bring everyone together once again. Raya’s prosperous kingdom, Heart, is charged with protecting the gem and she and her father (Daniel Dae Kim) practice for hours on end to hone their combat skills in case anyone tries to take the precious artifact.īut unfortunately, the real threat to the gem comes in the form of misplaced trust. When the dragons gave their lives to defeat the darkness, they left a gem with a magical life force inside that prevents the Druun from rising again. The dragons perished defending the territory from an evil force, the Druun, that turned most living things to stone. Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) hails from Kumandra, a once-harmonious territory that was split into five competing kingdoms long ago following the extinction of dragons. RAYA is an action-packed, female-led adventure film that focuses on themes of tradition, trust, and honor. MULAN and SOUL held me over in 2020, and thankfully, Disney came to save us just in time with its beautiful, heartwarming film RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON.
I love the thoughtful messages contained in each story, the breathtaking animation, and the nostalgia. The last "premier access" title, Mulan, became available as part of the wider D+ library three months later.I am a diehard Disney nerd (my euphemism for what the kids now despairingly call a “Disney Adult”) and have been yearning for new Disney films during these tough pandemic times. (Of note: Disney+ subscribers still need to pay an additional $30 on top of the monthly fee to gain unlimited access to the title. The implication here is that film exhibition is still in its growing pains stages as it adjusts to the new landscape of day-and-date releases with the major studios and streamers. Both titles had a simultaneous release on a streaming platform, with Tom & Jerry on HBO Max and Raya on Disney+, but the Warner Bros./HBO Max deal has been described as having a "more generous" split. The key difference, the trade outlet suggests, is that some theater chains, including Cinemark, rejected the new film. While the $8.6 million gross, according to The Hollywood Reporter, isn't anything to sneeze at in these unusual pandemic times, it is worth noting that last week an animated film with far worse reviews (and no New York City theaters), Tom & Jerry, opened to $14.1 million. (One of those theaters even had a special greeter, Liam Neeson.) The animated film Raya and the Last Dragon easily topped the box office this weekend, the first one that also included some theaters in New York City.
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