Lavinia Melville

The fact that they cast Chinese actresses to play the lead roles is enough to make me never want to watch this. What the hell. Do better.

I went into this movie assuming it was going to be, well ... not mincing words, I thought it was going to be pretty stupid. My immediate concerns were how Sisu (the dragon)'s face looked extremely humanlike, as well as the fact that Kumandra was a combination of so many cultures that none would get true representation. These two issues were actually mostly cleared up. SPOILERS BELOW So, onto the first issue I'll be covering; the strange conglomeration of cultures. Now, it isn't really my place to speak, because I'm not southeast Asian myself, but these are my two cents. Yes, it is still an issue, IF the decision was made to cheaply represe t as many viewers as possible. I assumed this was going to be the case and the movie was going to be a preachy story with barely disguised political notes, but executed poorly. In reality, yes, I think Disney wished to represent people,, but, that was not the main point (I appreciate that. I hate when underrepresented groups are portrayed as nothing but minorities who are awesome JUST because they're minorities; to me, that seems racist. They can be amazing, well fleshed out characters as well, which is what in my opinion, Raya does accomplish.) Personally I feel as if this movie was set in a fictional country partially because Mulan, which was strikingly similar in some ways, garnered complaints for not being 100% true to the real culture it was based on, and thus may falsely inform viewers of what said culture is really like. Because RatLD is set in a fictional nation, Disney can pay homage without worrying about making things inaccurate. Personally, I don't mind that, and again I am not Southeast Asian, but to me, I don't find it problematic. What it gets down to more, is whether or not they choose to represent individual SEA cultures accurately in the future. And let's not forget, this ain't new for Disney; a surprising amount of their films take place in real life inspired fantasy worlds. Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, etc. It doesn't excuse the issues at hand, but it is certainly not a new or shocking choice on their part. On to the human dragon fiasco. It turns out these dragons can shapeshift into humans. And not to mention, when Sisu becomes a human, she doesn't have that same face. Even her brother has that same look. Besides that, dragons in SEA cultures do somewhat resemble the dragons in the movie. As a character designer who HATED the designs before seeing the movie, I can firmly say, they look better in motion. I still hate Sisu's mascara though. Thematically, this movie gave me MAJOR vibes of Aladdin, Mulan and Finding Nemo. I don't really see the Moana comparisons tbh,, aside from Raya kind of resembling Moana. The story is INCREDIBLE. I was not thrilled with the "evil women" still having crooked noses, appearing less femenine, and having cats. All very tropey... but you know, they end up being redeemed in the end, which to me read more as society misunderstanding them. I've rambled enough, but overall, I think this movie was amazing, with relatable and strong heroes, a plot very pertinent to modern society and GORGEOUS graphics. I also liked that it seemed to be targeted at a somewhat older audience than other princess movies, but there is still a ton for kids to appreciate. And personally, I loved the movie. HIGHLY recommend. The movie was actually de-hyped, which imo makes it better because you don't have huge expectations, but there's a somewhat bad rap surrounding it. Give it a chance.