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 Raya and the Last Dragon 

Rate this film:
A 25%  25%  [ 1 ]
B 75%  75%  [ 3 ]
C 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
D 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
F 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 4

 Raya and the Last Dragon 
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KJ's Leading Idiot

Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm
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Post Raya and the Last Dragon
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Raya and the Last Dragon (/ˈraɪ.ə/ RYE-ə) is an American computer-animated action-adventure fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The 59th film produced by the studio, it is directed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, co-directed by Paul Briggs and John Ripa,[3] produced by Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho, written by Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim, and music score composed by James Newton Howard. The film features a predominantly Asian American cast, including the voices of Kelly Marie Tran as the titular Raya and Awkwafina as Sisu, the titular dragon, along with Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Sandra Oh, Benedict Wong, Izaac Wang, Thalia Tran, and Alan Tudyk.

Raya and the Last Dragon is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States on March 5, 2021 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film will also be simultaneously available on Disney+ with Premier Access, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic's negative impact on movie theaters across the United States, with many of them remaining closed.


Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:35 pm
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KJ's Leading Idiot

Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
Good not great with a rushed finale and takes itself too seriously. More thoughts later.

B-


Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:37 pm
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Extraordinary
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Location: San Diego
Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
I dug it. Voice acting was strong and animation is gorgeous.


Fri Mar 05, 2021 7:13 pm
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Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:48 pm
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Location: Houston, Texas
Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
I thought this was really solid as well. Gorgeous animation with some really fun action set pieces and and a perfectly suited voice cast, especially Kelly Marie Tran and Awkafina.

I even enjoyed the side characters and all the cutesy moments they brought to this.

B+


Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:48 am
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The Kramer
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
The trailers did not do this one justice.

There's a huge exposition dump at the beginning of the movie, but from that point on Raya and the Last Dragon climbs the rain all the way to the top tier of Disney Animation Studios. The movie improves each time their multi-cultural gang expands. All the characters have funny lines and a reason to fight. And yeah, the theme of working together with the Fengpublicans (why help save the world when they can help themselves instead?) no matter how many times they betray you and ruin the world is a little too optimistic for today's politcal climate. But damn if Raya sacrificing herself by giving her rival the dragon stone didn't hit all the feels. Hopefully one day our world can be Kumeria too.

The animation is maybe the best they have ever done. I couldn't believe at how far we've come regarding things like hair and water, which are both featured often. There were more feels when Raya regains the ability to "fly." The action scenes are so fluid and remenescent of Kung Fu Panda rather than just a way to keep the story moving. And the score is beautiful and yet also somewhat haunting as it very much resembles dystopian movies of the past.

Everything after the opening five minutes worked so well for me and thus I give Raya and The Last Dragon an A.


Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:24 pm
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Extraordinary
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
Gonna rewatch Raya as I think I'll like it more on another watch but ranking Disney Animated Studios from Tangled to now:

Zootopia
Tangled
Wreck-It-Ralph
Moana
Raya and the Last Dragon
Frozen
Big Hero 6
Frozen 2
Ralph Breaks the Internet


Sun Mar 07, 2021 1:56 am
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Rachel McAdams Fan
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
This was great. Excellent animation and fantastic vocal work. A-


Sun Mar 07, 2021 2:07 am
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Cream of the Crop
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
~8 decades after Amon Goeth pardoned that boy who couldn't manage to properly clean the bathtub, Disney has finally pardoned the "Southeast Asian" population/culture/(market) by dedicating a new burger with extra cheese to them.

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Sun Mar 07, 2021 4:43 pm
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
This is not a personal favorite of mine, the antagonist was weak. I liked the dragons, but most of the human characters were one note. Animation was fantastic, story was just ok. I did not feel too much tension, despite a lot of characters almost dying.


Sun Mar 07, 2021 8:32 pm
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Hold the door!

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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
Watching this again now that it’s free on Disney plus. It’s hands down my least favorite Disney movie since Bolt. The humor and characters are flat, and it’s sorely missing music and romance.


Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:40 pm
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The Kramer
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
Pretty sure that Feng girl was meant to be both the love interest and villain. But it could only be vaguely implied. We saw with Frozen 2 that no matter how progressive Disney thinks they are, they wont cross that bridge if its mean losing out on Chinese, Russian and bigoted-American money.


Wed Jun 09, 2021 4:45 pm
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
Probably my favorite since Frozen. Just a fun fantasy movie with cool world building. It’s major drawback is that it REALLY wants you to know it is about trust. That’s the theme. Trust. It the theme of the movie, trust.

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Tue Jul 06, 2021 12:43 am
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KJ's Leading Idiot

Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
We "trust" you had a good time DIB with finding the them of the movie, trust.


Tue Jul 06, 2021 12:45 am
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Don't Dream It, Be It
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Post Re: Raya and the Last Dragon
Wanted to enjoy this, so expectations were perhaps too high, but I couldn't. At least not as much as I was hoping.

After the first 5-10 minutes or so of backstory, the movie just felt very rushed along. Would have liked another 20-30 minutes here. They were going from place to place pretty much instantly, with little/no journey to speak of in-between locations. This would have helped the other issue I had with most of the characters being fairly one note by having them interact more, flesh them out with more than the "Oh, your family was turned to stone too..." bit we got which took 10 seconds.

And while the animation work on the environment, landscapes, and effects was excellent, the character models were a bit distracting to me. Most of the characters look very "plastic" or doll-like, which was a big contrast against the beautiful animated backgrounds. They seemed to me like the transition character models of sorts between what was (think Tangled, Frozen) and what's to come in future years.

And lastly, I know Disney is very unlikely to produce a PG-13 animated film, but this story would have certainly benefitted from it. Most of it felt pretty restrained and confined to the Disney family bubble.

B-.

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Fri Nov 19, 2021 12:35 pm
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