Liza Marie Tajan

I’m Southeast Asian and this story had no plot. Cool visuals, no plot, no character backgrounds, no one memorable. If this story wasn’t called Raya and the Last Dragon I would’ve forgotten Raya’s name. It doesn’t represent Southeast Asia at all. Maybe some easter eggs of weapons or food but we have different ethnic groups even within our respective countries - we don’t all wear one color, we don’t even speak the same language, we have different belief systems. We just learn in the movie these groups are bad and they’re not humanized or different besides clothing and weapons and spices - there’s no bonding moment to even give the incentive of becoming one country again after splitting apart. They keep mentioning Trust as if it’s the big theme of the movie, but where has it been established at all? These people just met and they don’t even have names or any background at all - they’re just unnamed and too many of them, and none of their character is explored. What makes Raya different from every other idiot hero? There’s also no Southeast Asian voice actors in this movie besides Tran as Raya - everyone else is East Asian so how can they even give the flavor or outlook of a SE Asian at all? It really feels like Disney tried to give SE Asians scraps and we’re expected to be happy about it when it doesn’t even take a stance on anything at all. Feels like drinking water while they call it soup. I wasted time and money watching this movie and I am sorely disappointed.