{"id":6011,"date":"2021-04-09T13:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T18:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=6011"},"modified":"2021-04-09T13:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T18:00:36","slug":"raya-and-the-last-dragon-a-new-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=6011","title":{"rendered":"“Raya and the Last Dragon”: A New Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson<\/em><\/p>\n

Disney\u2019s newest animated production, \u201cRaya and the Last Dragon,\u201d debuted on March 5 to rave reviews. The film currently holds a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and boasts several firsts. After COVID-19 shut down the entertainment industry, \u201cRaya\u201d became the first Disney animation to be produced and released during the pandemic. The film also features Disney\u2019s first Southeast Asian princess. With stunning animation, detailed world-building and a darker narrative, \u201cRaya\u201d represents another entry in what is becoming a new era of Disney classics.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like \u201cFrozen\u201d (2013) (Norwegian) and \u201cMoana\u201d (2016) (Polynesian), \u201cRaya\u201d is influenced by real-life cultures. Kumandra, the fantasy world of \u201cRaya and the Last Dragon,\u201d draws heavily from many Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Fighting styles are modeled after traditional martial arts like Indonesian Pencak Silat and Muay Thai (NBC), and the characters greet one another with a joined-hand gesture similar to greetings common across Southeast Asia (Hollywood Reporter). In one scene, Raya offers \u201cb\u00e1nh t\u00e9t,\u201d a type of rice cake from Vietnam (Time).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent films like \u201cRaya\u201d have shown Disney\u2019s increased concern for respectful representation. While developing the project, the creators of \u201cRaya\u201d visited several countries in Southeast Asia, and they even created a Southeast Asia Story Trust to ensure the film\u2019s cultural accuracy (Hollywood Reporter). Some have criticized the choice to mix all the unique countries of Southeast Asia together in Kumandra. However, the filmmakers of \u201cRaya\u201d made this decision consciously.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe easy thing we could have done was, this land in Kumandra was Thailand, this was Vietnam, this one\u2019s Malaysia,\u201d said Qui Nguyen, co-writer of the film. \u201cBut then it gets into a really ugly place of going, oh, well, this country is bad, and this one\u2019s good, and our hero\u2019s from here\u201d (Time). Instead, Nguyen compared Kumandra to a fantasy world like \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d which is based on a m\u00e9lange of European countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, in line with other recent Disney films, Raya\u2019s arc doesn\u2019t revolve around romance. Like Moana fighting to save Motunui, and Anna and Elsa working to restore Arendelle, Raya\u2019s quest is to find the last dragon and rescue the land of Kumandra. The film also tackles mature topics and reaches some genuinely dark depths, dealing with death and despair in a manner reminiscent of \u201cBig Hero 6\u201d or \u201cFrozen 2.\u201d Recent Disney films appear to be more willing to trust their young audiences with deeper concepts and to let the storyline take more intense turns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside films like \u201cMoana\u201d and \u201cFrozen,\u201d \u201cRaya and the Last Dragon\u201d features beautiful CG animation, strong and complex characters and detailed representations of unique cultures. With this latest installment in their canon of \u201cnew classics,\u201d Disney has once again upheld a reputation for storytelling that is both transporting and timeless.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson Disney\u2019s newest animated production, \u201cRaya and the Last Dragon,\u201d debuted on March 5 to rave reviews. The film currently holds a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and boasts several firsts. After COVID-19 shut down the entertainment industry, \u201cRaya\u201d became the first Disney animation to be produced and released during the pandemic. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-6011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-summer2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}