Raya und der letzte Drache

Yet another brilliantly done animation movie which is absolutely absorbing and should please audiences of all age groups. The movie has an Asian background and the antagonist is Raya, a warrior princess on a mission to bring back a dragon gem which will then help to bring back her father who has been turned into a stone statue by evil spirits. All this she does with the help of Sisu the last dragon who converts into human form for the mission. The plot keeps us glued to the screen since it has all the elements of an emotional drama ( father -daughter relationship) .The kingdom is split into 5 parts resembling the parts of a dragon starting from Fang, then Heart, Spine, Talon and finally Tail. So there is a mission, an assorted crusader group from the 5 areas, a few evil spirits ( the druuns), some adventures on the way, a bit of betrayal by a member, death of a member, and finally a fight to gain the gem which breaks into 5 pieces. Now Princess Raya has to retrieve and reassemble the 5 pieces to make the gem whole again and achieve results. ( Similar to mission of Avengers end game ?).

There are a few nicely done scenes like a hand to combat of princess Raya and princess Namaari, dragons dancing and flying all over the landscape, Vietnamese boats area etc. The dialogue speaks of trust, togetherness and peace like " Maybe the world is broken due to lack of trust" and " We are a world of orphans because we are fighting over a piece of gem". Very relevant to what is happening in our world today.

I applaud Disney for making this animation that celebrates diversity. However, the story is not very good. I get annoyed by the endless poor decisions that the characters make. The dragons look more like Monsters Inc characters than dragons that are depicted in Asia.

'Raya And The Last Dragon (2021)' has a strange tone that actually sees its comedy clash immensely with its drama, rather than compliment it. It doesn't help that the opening is pretty much played straight and that there is a rather serious undercurrent running throughout the entire affair. It also has an odd pace that kind of makes it feel like a video-game truncated into two hours, awkwardly squashed to fit its medium. These issues are particularly frustrating because there are segments in which the movie truly is great. Rather than being outright bad, its least successful moments simply pull down its most successful ones and make the overall affair less effective than it clearly could have been. Still, it's not as if the flick isn't enjoyable. For the most part, it's a solidly entertaining experience with some unique aesthetics and appropriately amazing animation. The fact that it was completed almost entirely from home due to COVID-19 is especially impressive; it looks and moves just as good as any of Disney's recent efforts, if not better. One highlight is certainly its fight scenes, which typically have quite a bit of weight to them and emulate something seen in a proper martial arts flick (though they're obviously less violent). In the end, this is a mostly fun but occasionally frustrating adventure. Despite its issues, it proves that people can pull together to create compelling no matter what the circumstances may be. 7/10.

Raya and the Last Dragon is the most spectacularly meh film I think I've ever watched. Cool world. Boring characters. Ok story. Awful pacing.

This is a great animated movie. Visually beautiful with a good story, heart, and some pretty cool action (the fight scenes were really good!). I was emotionally invested in the characters and the outcome of the story. Very funny. Awkwafina did a great job, elevating her character. I really enjoyed it and would watch it again. Oh and I liked the musical score. (1 viewing, 11/6/2021)