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Tuesday, March 9, 2021

#2: Raya and The Last Dragon


The movie simply doesn't go all the way in it's main aspect.

  • What has the Druun's impact been on this world besides just turning people into stone? You can see bits of it, but it's not enough explanation during, essentially, an apocalypse.
  •  3 out of 5 countries were just about destroyed. We no longer see any civilization in Heart, Tail, and it's dying in Spine. Think about it; It's probably because Fang and Talon are surrounded by bodies of water. There could have been a fabulous moral of needing others to survive to tie into the trust moral (Note how  there are talks about Fang needing to expand to survive, and needing the gems and Sisu to do so safely) but it's not here.

 

 

It's held back by the fear of not selling toys. This is Disney's first, tentative step into slightly more serious storytelling, and they aren't going to go further.

 

The side characters aren't that bad, but they don't add anything besides showing how badly the Druun have affected the entire world frankly, they take the first steps to fix the world on screen

 



It does something I'm not fond of; Having contempoary jokes in settings that probably wouldn't make sense. I think it's the language used. Sisu makes a joke about a dance battle. I could easily believe the people of the fractured nation of Kumanda probably have ceremonial dancing and competition. Maybe it's just Awkwafina's voice that makes it seem too modern. Her voice is just too modern.

She's much more fitting as human Sisu with the voice.




It just turned into a fetch quest. It's overt enough to point out Raya's hypocrisies when necessary. I loved that, we don't need another DP who operates on default peppiness in unfitting situations.

 

 Raya doesn't really interact with people so we can't see her distrust them. It's show not tell.

(Film #1 this year? "Judas and the Black Messiah")

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