Raya und der letzte Drache

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)

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.

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.

The movie's basically another allegory on greed and how it can tear humanity apart.

Now the plot's lack of originality would've been fine if they had a strong cast and some solid writing to build upon. But sadly, they were more concerned over the number of characters they could shove into the film than they were with actually developing said characters into actual people.

They keep cracking jokes and pop culture references instead of holding conversations that would could've added depth or provide a much more organic build-up to trusting and accompanying Raya -- a lone wanderer. They do have their somber moments, but it's brief and doesn't really do much in terms of establishing their bond over lost loved ones. It feels formulaic.

Back to the theme, I get it. People are inherently greedy. Greed is bad and destroys communities. It's overdone and the movie constantly bashes the audience's heads over it. Especially Sisu, who's the worst offender of the bad off-timed

I gotta admit that Raya does have great visuals and fluid animation. However, the dragons just pull you right out of the immersion. They stood out like sore thumbs with their wacky colors and fur, similar to those silly caterpillars with googly eyes. I bet they designed these "sacred dragons" with the intention to sell as many toys as they can.

Not even close to Disney's usual caliper. Every character was completely one-dimensional in personality. The plot line was so predictable. It wasn't even funny. I hope that this is not the future of Disney movies.