So true. It had that Avatar the last air bender vibe with better action and animation but with less depth and SUPER rushed. Honestly, it was good. My biggest complaint is that Disney is the LAST to be in any position to preach the message the film conveys. They come across as massive hypocrites....and from r good reason.
i feel like the general consensus is that the dragon design is... uncomfy south east asians don't think the dragon design looks authentic to the traditional mythology, everyone else thinks sisu looks like elsa's fursona or uncanny valley in the artstyle (please correct me if i'm wrong, I haven't watched the movie yet)
It's a movie, the dragons don't NEED to look "authentic" lmao, the entire point of movies is creative liberties but the issue is that everyone is so damn butthurt about everything these days. If anything, the dragons designs were too *plain*
@@CaptainphoenixofficialYT Dragons are depicted as having fur, feathers, scales and everything inbetween. That's like having an issue with scientifically accurate feathered raptors because they're not feathered in Jurassic Park.
@@SaffronFire I honestly don't have that much of a problem with her design. They got almost everything right about her. The mane, the serpent-like body even the horn. It's just the fur that really triggers me and I'm not even Asian.
I agree I thought it was good overall, but lacked the depth and internal conflict of previous films. I also think they kinda messed up the overall message of trust, it would have been better if Namaari and Raya had to work together from the beginning and slowly build into trusting one another, typical butting head duo type thing for sure but it would have been better for the overall message. The film kinda says you just need to trust people, even people who have wronged you....multiple times. Which is more faith then trust.
It's also EXACTLY what Raya and her father was doing AT THE BEGINNING of the film. They already learned this lesson and were moral people. The fact that a betrayal doesn't happen the second time is just due to the world going up in flames already. It's not hard to trust people when you know you'll die in a minute even if you don't work together. The hard part is where you have something to lose, where you take a risk by trusting someone, but you want to better the world and take that risk.
It also rubbed me the wrong way that Namaari blamed Raya for Sisu's death too. Like, girl, you were the one who still fired the crossbow. If she didn't do that, Raya wouldn't have had an arrow to accidentally deflect into Sisu. Raya DID give Namaari a second chance. She followed Sisu's plan and put her sword away even when Namaari brought out a crossbow and demanded Sisu and the pieces. She just reacted quickly to Namaari's trigger finger (and at that point, it's not a lack of trust that she won't hurt them because that's what she's doing). It was basically the Fang people's ambition and greed that nearly screwed the world over...twice.
@@sabrina21797 But Raya WAS wrong though, because it was clear from the moment she pulled out that crossbow that Namaari didn't want to hurt anyone. Least of all Sisu, who she revered and had absolutely NOTHING to gain by shooting in the first place. Raya didn't "react quickly", she _assumed_ Namaari didn't feel guilty for her part in unleashing the Druun, and would do something illogical instead of trusting Sisu to handle the situation, and her reckless interference caused Namaari to block her strike with the bow, but unintentionally shoot Sisu in the process. That wouldn’t have happened if she hadn't of let her paranoia get the better of her. The only thing Namaari is at fault for is bringing the loaded weapon in the first place, but it's their mutual distrust that ultimately killed Sisu. Raya is NOT innocent. Also, while I'm not defending Fang's attempt to steal the gem in the beginning, their reason for wanting to save the world with Sisu themselves actually made sense. They weren't being "greedy" (wealth and status isn't even apart of the equation once they find out Sisu is alive), so much as they didn't want to endanger their people by letting Raya restore victims who could attack Fang civilians seeking retribution for their sins. Their whole goal, by the time Namaari nearly gave up the gem peice, was to be forgiven by the rest of the world and save it at the same time. Hence why Namaari said she "didn't have a choice", and why the absolute last thing she would want is Sisu dying or being hurt.
Yeah, like I liked it too but it often had me feeling like ok it’s another Disney movie 😐 Also maybe it’s just me but I low-key feel like it was overhyped. But the visuals are amazing 🥺💜
@@sabrina21797 Namaari didn't fire the crossbow. Raya flicked her sword and that caused the trigger to go off. Raya thought Namaari is going to shoot Sisu.
My biggest problem with this film is that the pay off is “the power of trust” but the entire movie everyone who tries to trust someone gets stabbed in the back This movie had some pretty cool world building ideas I really liked tho
Well, I agree and don’t agree at the same time. Because yeah, if you’re talking about Raya and Namarii (and maybe Sisu) you are right, there’s clearly a problem with the way Disney chose to portray the trust between them. BUT I don’t know if I am the only who saw that but every character of their group (Boun, Noi, Raya and this guy that I don’t remember the name) come from different part of their country: Spine, Tail, Heart and Talon. They trust each other in order to save the world even if their countries were in war since hundred of years.
I would say it was more about the fact every single sentence had to have the word trust. Use synonyms. Also show don’t tell, could they have made the message louder
Yea, "Dragon nerd" just felt like too much. The dragons were real and you clearly revere them(more so then everyone else for what ever reason). Calling yourself a nerd is like calling a Catholic a Mary Nerd or a christian a Jesus nerd, or buddest a a budda nerd it just sounds weird.
part of me sort of does think this should have been a series as oppose to a movie. I mean come on, 5 nations at war/brink of war while our protagonist recruits people from these 5 nations to try to end the conflict? It just screams that is has all the elements to make something akin to Avatar but with its own tone/style.
That was actually a common fear most people had when watching the trailers for the film. It's an awesome premise with some great world building and really charming characters, but a series format would've allowed them to delve deeper and explore the characters more thoroughly (not that the characters weren't great, because they were).
@@DLxxx maybe Disney will make a series out of it ala Tangled. The characters were all awesome. Heck even the secondary villain, Virana, was given a realistic motivation.
@@emperium108 That's exactly what I'm thinking! Tangled the Series was easily one of the best (and my personal favorite) continuation of an animated Disney film I've ever seen, and they didn't have nearly as much ground to work with as Raya does. Imagine if those same writers, or writers of their quality were allowed to handle a high budget, multi season Raya animated series on Disney Plus! That'd be perfect 👌 Maybe they could title it something like: "Raya and the Fate of Kumandra". Also yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one who ended up liking Virana. She has a surprising amount of human layers the film did not need to give her, which was very much appreciated.
I kept saying "this should have been a tv show" all while watching the movie. An episodic story would have given the viewer more time with the characters and antagonists because I feel like the themes the writers were trying to convey is to complex and that the way its show it in the movie isn't that good (its serviceable). I don't feel like everyone on Raya's team had a reason to be there other then they were each a member of one of the clans, heck one is a freak'n baby! Why do they trust each other. Why do they TRUST each other. We dont really see them bond with each other. Sisu was the only one I liked without issue, I think because she was such a wholesome but simple character.
I swear the last time I saw a Disney toy, the plastic fell cheap enough to be something straight out of Dollar tree. I don't know what is up with Disney making super cheap expensive toys, but it's irritating to feel. like... The touch feel of many of their toys is just absolutely disgusting.
I’m gonna be honest, namarri and her mother pissed me off even till the end of the movie. I really don’t understand how everyone forgave them at the end. I understand that all the tribes played a part but fang started the whole thing and acted like they were the ones who were wronged!?!? Idk it just pisses me off 😩
True. All of this could have been avoided if Fang trusted the Heart tribe to protect the dragon gem. In fact, all of the tribes were greedy and took pieces of the gem. They are all to blame.
@@liahtru1644 yeah but fang was the one who started going after the Gem and the other tribes were just enjoying the party until namrri started fighting raya for the gem
Uhmm... sorry for said this do you have brains? Everyone start fighting over the gem because they think it will bring power and well-being , so do Fang . I don't think they do wrong when you react at them Pov , forgive not mean forgot what they do . U.s , France and China they used to invade my country ( Vietnam) but do we do ? We forgive and live happy together :))
For me the real problem was that there were too many characters. They should have cut all that “recruiting people” part to focus on Raya, Namaari and Sisu. This could have been an awesome “enemies to friends” movie if it just focused on the right characters and changed its message from “trust each other” to “forgive each other and build something together”.
The recruiting people part isn't as bad as you think. They were actually recruiting people from each of the colonies. Raya is from Heart, Namaari is from Fang, the young boy (can't remember his name) was from Tail, the baby was from Talon, and Tong was from Spine. So the recruiting characters part of the movie was to show how they've been starting to trust eacother even though they were from each of the different colonies. So pay attention to that before complaining.
If you can’t even remember their name, it means the movies failed to create enticing characters. They should have cut all the recruiting part and focus on the two female leads only.
@@virginia905 I guess you're right. I just wanted to tell you why they recruited so many characters. And I honestly think that they should've just focused on Raya and Namaari's relationship and Sisu.
Random Opinion: I just felt like some of the dialogue felt way too unnatural and forced and unrealistic, that and some of the “twists” were so over the top cliche that it was eye rolling. If it were up to me, just a couple subtle changes to the film, not necessarily the story, would’ve made it much better. That was the only real problem I had with it. I do wish that Sisu was a bit more of a “serious” character? Maybe even intimidating? Idk that’s also just probably me.
as long its not a "remake" they do make a good movie... most of the time but if its a remake or a version of a saga... its not Also, i already saw the movie... not on disney plus, maTES!
Yeah, Sisu looks a bit like a weird combination of the Kirins, normal ponies, and dragons. Although to me I just see her overall design as an attempt to bring East Asian traditional dragons into the typical Disney 'art style'.
the movie was fine but my two issues with it are: 1. The story moves way too fast, jumping through different places. 2. Lack of a main villain, its getting a bit boring that recent disney movies lack a main villain, frozen 2, wreck it ralph 2, raya & last dragon follow same path when it comes to lack of villains. Also when they do have a main villain they use them as a plot twist near the end of the movie which is getting a bit too old. I just miss when Disney had great villains because it makes the story more interesting, more impactful. Lets not forget the disney makes the villains more memorable than the heroes and more iconic. I just hope Disney stop doing plot twist villains or a movie where an event is the main threat. But I got a feeling Luca (pixar) and Encanto wont have main villains.
thats a problem with character driven stories vs story driven stories. there's more emphasis on the hero and their character so villains get less interesting or cut all together so all the focus can be on this character journey. it's a general shift in story telling, not just disney specifically. lots of interesting videos about the topic and why we started shifting our focus
1:41 "A title that's completely unnecessary" Me as a Southeast Asian: EXCUSE ME!? but seriously, especially at this current time of Asian discrimination in America, YES, It's completely necessary
I agree. It's so fuckin wacked up, but in my opinion as another southeast Asian, the representation itself was too much of a boiling pot of different countries, and it felt lack luster. Good on you if you enjoyed it though, not gonna try to overshadow your opinion
I'm hearing mixed things about it. Most agree that the animation was good, but there is a lot of debate over how good the story and characters are. It seems split down the middle with people liking it.
80% of the words that came out the dragon’s mouth was cringe. This movie wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. They overused modern dialogue and slang. How can Disney make good new movies like moana, zootopia, brave, etc, and then make this movie that’s all over the place with so much forced comedy. Ik all Disney movies have comedy in them to maintain the family friendly rating, but at least the jokes in the other ones felt natural most of the time and were funny. This one has a bad plot and and should’ve been a series. Also I feel like all those good reviews I see on the internet are probably fake since Disney has connections or deals with a lot of review companies and people
Also the extra characters annoyed me, at least the dragon had some funny lines the extras were just unbearable for me. Like that ninja baby, seriously the movie would have been so much better without that ninja baby.
When I noticed the dragon has big bushy human eyelashes..and what looks like drawn-on eyebrows.. I can never unsee it, omg it bothers me so much now. :,) It’s like looking at a fish dragon thing..with the manicured face of a human disney princess from the 2010’s. Either that, or the design gives me big My Little Pony vibes. Just doesn’t feel like it fits in the same universe as Raya’s pretty rustic and grounded-looking character designs and environment. It’s literally just an animated plushy for Disney to stock their shelves with later. It’s so blatantly obvious. :,)
I was hoping youd end the "They dont make kids movies, or adult movies" with "they make money". This movie was a disappointment. "Trust will save the world" when trust almost ended it? Hmm.
Catradora had warped my brain so much that when the female characters that are trying to kill each other dont kiss in severly disappoint. However between this fim and wonderwoman 1984 its probably a improvment.
@@privatehere3324 enormous compared to Mulan; another movie which could have been VASTLY improved by giving more focus to the relationship between its main women.
I didn’t like the design of the dragon. It looked like something a socially awkward furry girl would draw during lunch time 🗿 but other than that, I enjoyed the film
I liked it. I think it looks majestic and beautiful in some moments, and really fierce in the Spine battle scene, while keeping her ungainly/overly cheerful personality really well in the rest of the movie.
The original design was better & she even had whiskers, a longer tail, slimmer limps & looked better over all. They could had change just the colors but I think the bright colors looked like reefs or corals.
@@lagopusvulpuz1571 They actually did a pretty good job. The dragon, Sisu, is based off of mystical Naga, which are brightly colored serpents with massive horns on their four heads. If they made it a little-less human, I would have liked it a lot more (the dragon design)
My 2-3 big problems 1) the stakes are really low. Everyone who is lost is turned to stone and is turned back, the impact of the story is reversed. Frozen felt Way more darker than this with characters experiencing and facing death, and Moana was fighting for the physical sustenance of her village. 2) There wasn't enough time to let the characters breath but they wasted like 10 minutes on whimsical scenes of dragons flying that added barely anything to the story. Actually nothing. 3) Alot of cheesy lines but holy lord was this amazing to look at.
I feel like the movie was trying to get us to focus on the character development and the different people she comes in contacts with rather than the pacing to get each stone. For me I knew in the back of my head she’d get each stone eventually but I was focused on the lessons and insights she gained along the way that empowers her as well as looking forward to seeing how it’ll all work together, plus this is a family film so probably not great to drag things out too much.
How about the fact that the moral of the movie is that you can’t bring your dad back from the dead until you trust your abuser and vow to enable them even if it means your death?
More like how broken their nation was and how people are divided by mistrust and hatred for one another. The dragon gem is a good representation of that when it shattered. And that nearly brought them all to ruin. The same could apply to us in the real world how divided we are which is what I feel it was trying to get at
i think this would work better as a series. Something like 'The Dragon Prince' is doing. every season you learn more about the magic system and the different nations/tribes
At one point we need to move past everything being the first and just let these stories be their own thing. These films don’t have to be amazing, they just have to be given a chance to be made.
I see a lot of maritime south-east Asia references but yeah it kinda easily gets overshadowed with the mainland South-east Asia, it's not obvious enough, everything is too blended that you don't know which is which
its actually pretty important that she's a "south-east asian" princess cos its culture is very different to that of the majority of asia so its pretty cool they recognise that, as someone from Thailand i feel very connected to my fellow SE asian neighbours such as Burma or Cambodia. But Japan, China Korea etc are completely foreign to me. If a Chinese dude went up to me and was like "wassup my fellow asian" i wouldnt feel the same way back since we are so completely different whereas if someone from like Laos said the same thing i'd feel much more connected since our cultures, history, geography, climate EVERYTHING! is much more intertwined compared to other asian countries outside of south-east asia. kinda like how syria for example is actually in asia (its in western asia) yet people dont really consider syria an asian country (or syrian people asians) they consider it a middle eastern / arabic country. It's the same with South-east asia yet many westerners (not all!) think its just the same as the rest of asia and "unnecessary", so to point out if a character is south-east asian and NOT just "asian", for me and fellow SE Asians its awesome to get that recognition that we're a unique set of countries that differ completely from anywhere else in asia and defs the rest of the world. thanks for listening to my tedtalk lol (also rant aside great review defs agreed with your rating and comments on the film, highly recommend for peeps who haven't seen it)
I paid for the $30 on Disney+ since theaters are still close here and kids wanna watch it. I really liked the movie. It's kinda hard to adjust seeing a princess movie without a musical number but at the end I didn't regret paying the 30 bucks. We will spend more than that anyways if we all went to see it in the theaters.
The Movie is well maybe just about right albeit I have to say again *The Naga* well referred to as Dragons *real* and *Original* design had such a great potential and unique style and yet they Elsafied the design unfortunately and the movies most impressive character is the female clan leader whose the antagonist thought
i think another gripe i've seen fellow SEAsians have with the movie is how touch-and-go the culture felt. the only thing they seemed to bring out is the cultural aesthetics, and even so lumped together a bunch of different SEAsian countries together :/ not to mention the primarily east-asian cast for the southeast asian movie ... i still wanna give the movie a try but how the rep was done irks me a bit.
Welcome. I love how Disney's representation of other cultures is...PUT AS MANY THINGS THAT FEEL OF A CERTAIN CULTURE AND CALL IT A DAY. Our representation that Disney gave my people is Elena of Avalor. She represents ALL hispanic/latino culture...and it's a TV show spinoff of Sofia...and everything just...feels...mexican. because we are all the same no?
Those things don't bog down the story and narrative of the film, nor does it really negatively affect the characters themselves, so I'd definitely give it a try if you just want experience a good story. Also, the film is GORGEOUS, and the music is surprisingly good in parts.
japanese animated film starring all white cast. kaguya hime starring chloe grace moretz, kubo starring hugh jackman chinese kungfu panda boom suprise starring all white main cast jack black, angelina jolie and you wanna complain because its starring east ASIAN!!!! its not like you have southeast asian actor lying around in hollywood...
@@angelabby2379 You don't need to invalidate OP's comment because their statement is as true as your complaint about previous movies not even having an Asian cast despite being Asian stories. Those concerns and criticisms are valid and they should be pointed out in order for things to move forward. If no one mentioned how it's not right for Asians to just be grouped together and be thought that it's acceptable for East Asians to represent South East Asians in a movie about South East Asians, a movie that's being heavily promoted to represent strictly the South East Asian cultures, then everyone would think it's okay. There are PLENTY of South East Asians in the film industry and the fact that you claim otherwise shows even more so how under represented they are. Disney could have easily looked for actors within this culture and done an open call casting, but they clearly decided it would be easier to use East Asians who are already famous and probably didn't care since it's still within the Asian title. All these comments about the lack of proper representation are valid and you don't need to put them down but trying to say another thing was worse. People are allowed to be mad at more than one issue.
As a SEAsian, I love how Disney combined and represent our culture together though I can see it's mainly Thailand. Some of y'all are just too overanalyz, overall culture design is great
I pirated the movie, and I'm glad I did. I thought it was just okay, maybe a 6.5 out of 10. I think they were good, but the action scenes sometimes felt a bit weird to me? Like the rest of the movie felt like an animated summary of a movie I'd love, but then it'd slow down for a cool action scene. I never got attached to any of the characters and I always wanted the damn dragon to shut the fuck up. I only remember the names of Raya and Sisu, and the rest of characters only felt surface level (if that makes sense.) There's the big guy with the dead village, but I never really saw him take much impact from it other than the one scene, and I didn't care enough about him at the time to think much of it. Same pretty much goes for other characters.
Yeah they did Tong injustice, he might have an interesting background on how he survived being alone. He is nobody just a soldiers who survived. I wonder how he got part of the crystal. It would be interesting if he stole it from his leader. Then he was kinda divinely punished, surviving alone, that would be a great side story and still fitting the theme. By being selfish he was alone and theres a character progression when he did help. I feel raya need at least 2 hours, more focus towards the character and exploration of the world.
In my opinion, the movie is good. like I'd give it a 7.8/10. Don't get me wrong it's a great movie with an emotional and raw story(seriously this movie deals with very mature topic for a kids film) Disney has done better, but it's not bad. Not as good as coco, zootopia, soul. On the level of tangled or frozen. I think the pacing had a big deal with the problems in this movie, they travel so many places so fast(also a nit pick but I swear they all must travel at light speed, like this is an entire country and they travel across the entire thing in like 3 days) , I feel we don't get a chance to absorb the scenery(especially spine)and side characters. It's also a bit repetitive until the end, go to a new land, find the gem shard, run into fang, escape, argue about trust, then rinse and repeat. The ties to Asian culture are very good aswell. I'm black though so I don't know much about the culture lol
I honestly can set the whole Elsa furry thing aside and say this movie is SO GOOOODDD. it would've been GOD TIER if it was a mini series tho. It felt like there was almost TOO much to explore in a movie under 2 hours.
Kind of but also kind of not. The first scene with them is so cute and I can see first relationship material there. For the rest of the movie though there’d have to be quite a few scenes to bring them closer before I feel a kiss would make sense.
Eh, most people jump on the bandwagon of hating things they have no knowledge of all the time. This could be the opposite of that...or people will just say they hate it just because everyone else likes it, or like it because everyone else does.
@@enderlove2794 Yeah, that's the vibe I've been getting too. There are many things in Raya that are usually worth serious praise (stunning visuals, great world building, strong leading character, great action choreography, strong message, etc.), but everyone's just weirdly understating them. There were MANY solid original ideas and twist in the story Disney has genuinely never done before, but no one's talking about them. All people seem to care about is Sisu looking like an "Elsa furry", even though the design actually looks really good in motion, and it's really unfortunate. I feel like if this came out a couple years ago in threaters, without the pandemic, Disney Plus, and the 30$ premium access, everyone would be far less unenthused here.
@@DLxxx for some reason people only focus on the negatives nowadays. Like, yeah, there are some things which I understand why people are upset about it, but the whole movie shouldnt be written off like that. The same thing happend with ghost in the shell. So many people wrote off the movie becuase kept saying an asian actress should have been casted as the main even though the whole point of the character was that she was her shell. And, the creators of the original manga and anime movie didnt give a fuck that the person who played her was white. Man, I'm not one of those people who think everyone is sensitive and shit, but I see why people say this now. Everyone finds a problem where one isnt and gets pissed for other people instead of actually listening to the people within the demographic. One of the main complaints of this movie was that the dragon wasnt accurate, but I'm pretty sure that was a stylistic choice. Disney went deep like they always do, and I dont think they would've purposefully overlooked such a detail. It's okay if people who are part that culture don't like it, but they cant say that they're misrepresenting or anything like that.
the thing about the dragons design is that how obvious Disney wanted their own my little ponies series. lol honestly though i feel Awkwafinas voice made it work.
"You brought a crossbow to a peaceful negotiation, and ill just go blame myself for sisus death even tho i wasnt the one who pulled the trigger" totally see your logic there 🙄
@@harmonetheanimationaddict4419 i disagree. Throughout the film, Sisu showed herself to be a horrible judge of character. Every time Sisu decided to trust someone, they backstabbed her. Raya had literally no reason to trust Sisu could rightly judge the situation.
@@hannahscholtzz7355 Except if you recall, Namaari was different since this time Raya had actual past and experience with Namaari backstabbing her as a child and bascially costing her everything; it'll be common sense for anyone to NOT trust someone who previously betrayed them and is the reason why she have trust issues in the first place.
My god, i'm so sorry, i'm very sorry, but i can't stop cringing at some comments saying things like 'East Asian dragon' or 'South Asian' Like, bro tf ... It's SOUTH-EAST Asian, not East Asian or South Asian, please differentiate it, it's necessary 😭 do you guys need another geography lesson??? East Asia: China, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan, South Asia: India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan (probably) South-east Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Timor Leste, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Even their dragons also differ for each regions, three of these regions has snake/serpent-like dragon, for the South-east Asia though, their dragons don't have whiskers, they usually have big scary bulging eyes with scales and fangs, plus a lot of cool golden ornaments and optional stuffs like legs and wings. (Yes legs are optional, because they're supposed to look like a giant snake)
I don't care if everyone likes this movie or not. I'm just glad a major movie company finally took some time to create a movie based on Southeast Asian culture/people. That's worth celebrating the movie alone.
I agree with your opinions. I guess Raya and The Last Dragon should’ve been a full blown animated series instead of mushing it all together into just one single movie. Graphics in the movie are phenomenal, though, not gonna lie.
If you didn’t say that it wasn’t a musical I honestly wouldn’t have noticed, but I’m bias because I don’t really like musicals 😅😬 I still really liked the film
I feel like if they took the humor and just made it like dad jokes or just dry humor that would have been better. It wasn’t terrible though. I just wish Sisu dragon appearance looked more like her human one. I swear it’s like two different faces
I only disagree on you saying that the streak was still on.......yeaaahhh no, Frozen 2 and the abomination name Ralph Breaks the Internet, dropped the streak Disney had and please not count Pixar those are a separate catalogue, but I will say Raya SAFE Disney after their embarrassment that was Mulan 2020, and is the best animated film they had done since MOANA (again no Frozen 2 sucks also Ralph 2, which is a shame I love Wreck it Ralph). Raya might not the great but I think is still a solid film and have the best action on ANY DISNEY film ever (I agree on even Marvel and any other Disney property), I just wish they developed more Raya and Namaari, I really wanted a lot more with these 2, maybe if there was less characters would have develeped all better, but the ending need it to work so I understand, still, beautiful animation, good story, bit exposition heavy but not too much as many point, and the visuals always help, also I wish they fleshed out a bit more all tribes,show more of their culture and world, but the little we got was good still, over all I'll give it a solid 8 out of 10..................also I ship Namaari and Raya...yes I have a ship problem XD.
to me, this movies was kind of a rogue one situation, where you meet a cast of characters you really like (except for that bloody dragon) and want to know more about them, but they just get towed around for plot purposes. raya would've been great as a longer, more seriously toned, action film, while they could still lace it with humour. and the gayer side of me was _really_ enjoying namaari's, well, everything and let's talk about sisu. this movie was good and could run pretty well, but i feel like it could've soared had it taken a route like what dreamworks did with how to train your dragon. keep the dragon actually looking like it was from south eastern asia, like its source material, and maybe don't make it so... idk, humourous? when i first heard about this film i'll admit i was expecting something more... dignified. also, raya and namaari should've gotten together, thank you for coming to my tedtalk ✌️
I think that the “same face syndrome” of the dragons is a bit forgivable because they have so many more design liberties that show personality and composition like eye shape, their crests, and their overall body language. I feel like the same-faces isn’t that severe of a sacrifice in the animation budget
The original design was better & she even had whiskers, a longer tail, slimmer limps & looked better over all. They could had change just the colors but I think the bright colors looked like reefs or corals.
I agree it would have been probably better as a tv show. The relationship between Namaari and Raya somewhat reminded me of that of Catra and Adora, which worked really well because we were able to spend much longer with them I also think there were several moments that were just so incredibly done. Like when the Fang people ride through the stone dragons land and Namaari pauses to look back and salute them👌
It was nice, it shows a tradition that Southeast Asian usuaaly do. Go to night markets, then also the credit stuff. unless you are a SE Asian, you wouldn't understand it.
I was thinking, if this was a book, it would be awesome because there you would have time to build up characters, but this way we barely meet them at all
For this movie, from storyline in the eye of common people, it must be the best. But, for who live in real Southeast Asia, 5 tribes in Kumandra doesnt represent all Southeast Asia aboriginal race such as the big five which is : 1-Malay(Malay Peninsular/Sumatra/part of Borneo/Sulawesi/Brunei/Singapore). 2-Siam(Thailand/Myanmar/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam). 3-Dayak(Philippines/Whole Borneo). 4-Java(Java Island/Bali/Timor Leste). 5-And the last is the real native or aboriginal race, Orang Asli/Orang Darat/Orang Laut(Papua/Sumatra/Malay Peninsular). I never think this movie will effect Southeast Asian a lot when i see the storyline more describe the power of dragon which is more refer to China and the other country in Eastern Asia. Why Disney made this story? I Don't know. But for me, Disney always trying to whitewash the other race movie that they made. In this movie, they trying to chinese-ing the Southeast Asian. It's also means like Disney support China to pull Southeast Asia under their hegemony while represent the great dragon Sisu (more to chinese culture)who save Kumandra (Southeast Asia). In addition, this story is written by Chinese. I'm not trying to be racist. But i wish Disney would give responsibility to write about my race to my race not other race. Thank you. And i'm sorry if my comment hurting someone feelings, SORRY!!!
No one said this movie was made to celebrate SEA cultures and its people, it merely took the design. And of course the movie would represent Chinese culture the most dominant culture in ALL Asia region. SEA region consist of a random bunch of people with random cultures and religious there's nothing that can represent them as a whole. And if you want thing to be represented correctly do it yourself, don't whine on other people. Seriously SEA is the worst region in the world their people is best at whining and complaining but cannot do anything meaningful. Look at Japan, Korea, other developed Asia countries...they are able to make their culture unique and stand out and separate themselves. SEA countries could not because they're simply not good enough, so they'll forever under the shadow of great China that's just how it is. Don't blame other people to not represent the "minority" enough blame yourself first for being minority and weaker that you get shadowed.
I actually felt that this movie only represent two countries thailand and vietnam its ashamed though they did clickbait us before the movie was released i was so so so hype because finally we people from the S.E.A will finally have our own movie but i was wrong i felt leftout i never see any of my own people in the movie i felt dissapointed.
I loved Sisu’s overall structure and movements but good lord that color scheme, and I really wish her voice was a lot calmer with a more polished script.
I think this is a WONDERFUL milestone for Disney, both in terms of their better and better representation of a culture into film, and of course, their animation. Also, Namaari is one of my new favourite Disney characters, not just because it's exciting to see a Disney character with a different build like mine🥰, but also because she has that wonderful character narrative that doesn't just write her off as 'the villian'(even though she made a lot of stupid choices)but a convoluted character who is loyal to her people and was shown to actually care about the protagonist.
i liked this movie but i felt like someties they made references that shouldn't technically exist in their world. like when sisu made the comment about group projects. it totally broke my immersion. other than that though i liked it.
You know there's something wrong with Sisu's design when most of her fanarts are REDESIGNS cuz everyone was disappointed that they didn't kept the concept art design
I’m not sure how well this would work, since it’s just a quick thought I had that I haven’t had time to REALLY think about, but maybe the issue with the characters seeming underdeveloped could be fixed by making that a part of the plot- have Raya be uncomfortable with trusting them all too much, make her feel a little more guilty about not telling them about sisu, or just draw more attention to the fact that she didn’t- and have all of the others bond in the background, and SHOW IT in their dialogue. Have a slight disconnect between Raya, maybe there could be a bit of tension when she’s talking to the rest. You’d only have to add a few scenes and change a little dialogue, and it would put more emphasis on Raya’s “learn to trust people” arc This idea definitely has its flaws, but if it was fleshed out more I think it could m a y b e help?
The theme is terrible though. There's no reason for her to trust ANY of the individuals she meets, especially the girl that betrayed her in the 1st place. She consistently proves that she's untrustworthy, and her last act where she puts the pieces back together could easily have been done to save her own skin. To me, bad themes in a children's show (bc despite general audience appeal, the target is children) are a HUGE flaw. It looks good and the fights are good, and this movie COULD have been good, but that theme was absolutely trash.
We barley explored the beautiful world they barley touched it. Spine was on screen for like 5 minutes and most of it was in a house. They needed more. I feel like it would've been better as a show
Развлечения
That movie *begged* to be an animated series.
@CravyGravy Couldn't agree more. the movie went by so fast :( But i loved it sooo muchhh
Fr
@CravyGravy TRUE.... but its better that some new movie and it takes time to make animation and when they makes a long movie people hated it
So true. It had that Avatar the last air bender vibe with better action and animation but with less depth and SUPER rushed. Honestly, it was good. My biggest complaint is that Disney is the LAST to be in any position to preach the message the film conveys. They come across as massive hypocrites....and from r good reason.
Jip
i feel like the general consensus is that the dragon design is... uncomfy
south east asians don't think the dragon design looks authentic to the traditional mythology, everyone else thinks sisu looks like elsa's fursona or uncanny valley in the artstyle
(please correct me if i'm wrong, I haven't watched the movie yet)
My problem with Sisu is that she is furry and not scaly considering the fact that she is you know a DRAGON.
It's a movie, the dragons don't NEED to look "authentic" lmao, the entire point of movies is creative liberties but the issue is that everyone is so damn butthurt about everything these days.
If anything, the dragons designs were too *plain*
@@CaptainphoenixofficialYT Dragons are depicted as having fur, feathers, scales and everything inbetween. That's like having an issue with scientifically accurate feathered raptors because they're not feathered in Jurassic Park.
@@CaptainphoenixofficialYT she is a bit more furry than most eastern dragons but her mane makes sense as most Eastern dragons have a mane.
@@SaffronFire
I honestly don't have that much of a problem with her design. They got almost everything right about her. The mane, the serpent-like body even the horn. It's just the fur that really triggers me and I'm not even Asian.
Actually, the title "Southeast Asian Princess" is actually important. It shows that not all asians are Chinese
Unfortunate that this point has to be made but LMAO TRUE
@@quinnguyen4620 like right? We're not supposed to be explaining that anymore 🤷🏽♂️
@@halleluia2025 people will still call every Asian Chinese regardless 😭
@@Nick-uf3he did you forget about kpop?
@@galaxyin6663 people are stupid you know🤷🏽♂️
I agree I thought it was good overall, but lacked the depth and internal conflict of previous films. I also think they kinda messed up the overall message of trust, it would have been better if Namaari and Raya had to work together from the beginning and slowly build into trusting one another, typical butting head duo type thing for sure but it would have been better for the overall message. The film kinda says you just need to trust people, even people who have wronged you....multiple times. Which is more faith then trust.
It's also EXACTLY what Raya and her father was doing AT THE BEGINNING of the film. They already learned this lesson and were moral people. The fact that a betrayal doesn't happen the second time is just due to the world going up in flames already. It's not hard to trust people when you know you'll die in a minute even if you don't work together. The hard part is where you have something to lose, where you take a risk by trusting someone, but you want to better the world and take that risk.
It also rubbed me the wrong way that Namaari blamed Raya for Sisu's death too. Like, girl, you were the one who still fired the crossbow. If she didn't do that, Raya wouldn't have had an arrow to accidentally deflect into Sisu. Raya DID give Namaari a second chance. She followed Sisu's plan and put her sword away even when Namaari brought out a crossbow and demanded Sisu and the pieces. She just reacted quickly to Namaari's trigger finger (and at that point, it's not a lack of trust that she won't hurt them because that's what she's doing). It was basically the Fang people's ambition and greed that nearly screwed the world over...twice.
@@sabrina21797 But Raya WAS wrong though, because it was clear from the moment she pulled out that crossbow that Namaari didn't want to hurt anyone. Least of all Sisu, who she revered and had absolutely NOTHING to gain by shooting in the first place. Raya didn't "react quickly", she _assumed_ Namaari didn't feel guilty for her part in unleashing the Druun, and would do something illogical instead of trusting Sisu to handle the situation, and her reckless interference caused Namaari to block her strike with the bow, but unintentionally shoot Sisu in the process. That wouldn’t have happened if she hadn't of let her paranoia get the better of her. The only thing Namaari is at fault for is bringing the loaded weapon in the first place, but it's their mutual distrust that ultimately killed Sisu. Raya is NOT innocent.
Also, while I'm not defending Fang's attempt to steal the gem in the beginning, their reason for wanting to save the world with Sisu themselves actually made sense. They weren't being "greedy" (wealth and status isn't even apart of the equation once they find out Sisu is alive), so much as they didn't want to endanger their people by letting Raya restore victims who could attack Fang civilians seeking retribution for their sins. Their whole goal, by the time Namaari nearly gave up the gem peice, was to be forgiven by the rest of the world and save it at the same time. Hence why Namaari said she "didn't have a choice", and why the absolute last thing she would want is Sisu dying or being hurt.
Yeah, like I liked it too but it often had me feeling like ok it’s another Disney movie 😐 Also maybe it’s just me but I low-key feel like it was overhyped. But the visuals are amazing 🥺💜
@@sabrina21797 Namaari didn't fire the crossbow. Raya flicked her sword and that caused the trigger to go off. Raya thought Namaari is going to shoot Sisu.
My biggest problem with this film is that the pay off is “the power of trust” but the entire movie everyone who tries to trust someone gets stabbed in the back
This movie had some pretty cool world building ideas I really liked tho
I agree. I like the message of this movie but for some reason it wasn't portraied as well as I had hoped for.
Well, I agree and don’t agree at the same time. Because yeah, if you’re talking about Raya and Namarii (and maybe Sisu) you are right, there’s clearly a problem with the way Disney chose to portray the trust between them. BUT I don’t know if I am the only who saw that but every character of their group (Boun, Noi, Raya and this guy that I don’t remember the name) come from different part of their country: Spine, Tail, Heart and Talon. They trust each other in order to save the world even if their countries were in war since hundred of years.
Let me describe this movie in 7 words "garbage" dreams works and anime makes batter story then this shit
I really enjoyed everything about it but the overly modern dialogue sucked for me and took me out of this awesome world every time I heard it.
yea it had me wondering what time period this was in
I would say it was more about the fact every single sentence had to have the word trust. Use synonyms. Also show don’t tell, could they have made the message louder
right like the whole credit thing
Same. They're supposed to be in a post-apocalytiptic kinda like Endgame era yet there's tons of modern references thrown at us.
Yea, "Dragon nerd" just felt like too much. The dragons were real and you clearly revere them(more so then everyone else for what ever reason). Calling yourself a nerd is like calling a Catholic a Mary Nerd or a christian a Jesus nerd, or buddest a a budda nerd it just sounds weird.
part of me sort of does think this should have been a series as oppose to a movie. I mean come on, 5 nations at war/brink of war while our protagonist recruits people from these 5 nations to try to end the conflict? It just screams that is has all the elements to make something akin to Avatar but with its own tone/style.
That was actually a common fear most people had when watching the trailers for the film. It's an awesome premise with some great world building and really charming characters, but a series format would've allowed them to delve deeper and explore the characters more thoroughly (not that the characters weren't great, because they were).
@@DLxxx maybe Disney will make a series out of it ala Tangled. The characters were all awesome. Heck even the secondary villain, Virana, was given a realistic motivation.
@@emperium108 That's exactly what I'm thinking! Tangled the Series was easily one of the best (and my personal favorite) continuation of an animated Disney film I've ever seen, and they didn't have nearly as much ground to work with as Raya does. Imagine if those same writers, or writers of their quality were allowed to handle a high budget, multi season Raya animated series on Disney Plus! That'd be perfect 👌
Maybe they could title it something like: "Raya and the Fate of Kumandra".
Also yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one who ended up liking Virana. She has a surprising amount of human layers the film did not need to give her, which was very much appreciated.
I kept saying "this should have been a tv show" all while watching the movie. An episodic story would have given the viewer more time with the characters and antagonists because I feel like the themes the writers were trying to convey is to complex and that the way its show it in the movie isn't that good (its serviceable). I don't feel like everyone on Raya's team had a reason to be there other then they were each a member of one of the clans, heck one is a freak'n baby! Why do they trust each other. Why do they TRUST each other. We dont really see them bond with each other.
Sisu was the only one I liked without issue, I think because she was such a wholesome but simple character.
If this was a tv show, everyone would be calling this a Avatar rip-off.
The Elsa dragon looks like the over priced plushy cheaply made toy that Disney is going to sell to your kids
That's exactly what it is in the long run tbh
Pretty sure that's what Disney was going for tho
Dragon is a fantasy creature and yes they can design it however they like but Sisu literally looks like a fursona.
I swear the last time I saw a Disney toy, the plastic fell cheap enough to be something straight out of Dollar tree. I don't know what is up with Disney making super cheap expensive toys, but it's irritating to feel. like... The touch feel of many of their toys is just absolutely disgusting.
This is exactly what it is. They designed the dragon with merchandise and kids in mind.
- Characters felt generic but should not
- Humor not landing
- Too much 'trust'
- Needed some songs (places)
At the very least in the beginning and end.
Disney has movies that aren’t musicals, but they have music sprinkled in. And those movies are great.
I actually really liked that there were no songs.
It didn't need songs lol are you a kid or something?
Trust was literally the theme of the movie, what are you on
I’m gonna be honest, namarri and her mother pissed me off even till the end of the movie. I really don’t understand how everyone forgave them at the end. I understand that all the tribes played a part but fang started the whole thing and acted like they were the ones who were wronged!?!? Idk it just pisses me off 😩
True. All of this could have been avoided if Fang trusted the Heart tribe to protect the dragon gem. In fact, all of the tribes were greedy and took pieces of the gem. They are all to blame.
@@liahtru1644 yeah but fang was the one who started going after the Gem and the other tribes were just enjoying the party until namrri started fighting raya for the gem
Uhmm... sorry for said this do you have brains? Everyone start fighting over the gem because they think it will bring power and well-being , so do Fang . I don't think they do wrong when you react at them Pov , forgive not mean forgot what they do . U.s , France and China they used to invade my country ( Vietnam) but do we do ? We forgive and live happy together :))
For me the real problem was that there were too many characters. They should have cut all that “recruiting people” part to focus on Raya, Namaari and Sisu. This could have been an awesome “enemies to friends” movie if it just focused on the right characters and changed its message from “trust each other” to “forgive each other and build something together”.
EXACTLY
you mean,... friends to enemies to lovers 😏
The recruiting people part isn't as bad as you think. They were actually recruiting people from each of the colonies. Raya is from Heart, Namaari is from Fang, the young boy (can't remember his name) was from Tail, the baby was from Talon, and Tong was from Spine. So the recruiting characters part of the movie was to show how they've been starting to trust eacother even though they were from each of the different colonies. So pay attention to that before complaining.
If you can’t even remember their name, it means the movies failed to create enticing characters. They should have cut all the recruiting part and focus on the two female leads only.
@@virginia905 I guess you're right. I just wanted to tell you why they recruited so many characters. And I honestly think that they should've just focused on Raya and Namaari's relationship and Sisu.
My only problem with Raya and the last dragon, is the dragon
Man, everyone is talking shit about the Dragon, I'm so greatful for being from another country cuz the dubbed version is great.
WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE A TALKING DRAGON
My problem is the lacing and repetitiveness
I’m mixed on her to be honest, she was kind of annoying in parts but also kind of funny in others
@@lochiness. Its nit that she's a dragon, is just the way she talks and looks
Biggest Fault:
not being a series.
terrible moral.
If Raya and The Last Dragon came out before Frozen everyone will be saying, "Elsa is just a human version of Sisu"
That would happen in an alternate universe
lkr
Random Opinion:
I just felt like some of the dialogue felt way too unnatural and forced and unrealistic, that and some of the “twists” were so over the top cliche that it was eye rolling. If it were up to me, just a couple subtle changes to the film, not necessarily the story, would’ve made it much better. That was the only real problem I had with it. I do wish that Sisu was a bit more of a “serious” character? Maybe even intimidating? Idk that’s also just probably me.
as long its not a "remake" they do make a good movie... most of the time
but if its a remake or a version of a saga... its not
Also, i already saw the movie... not on disney plus, maTES!
or a sequel.
@@tyrant-den884 cinderella 3 is a great sequel
@@cartoonfreak9635 and there are the Toy Story Movies and Lion King 1 1/2; still not enough to overturn a rule of thumb.
Yarrrr
@@cartoonfreak9635 Same with live action Cinderella, it was fairly decent
I actually like Sisu's human design quite a lot. Makes me think of one of my friends.
The dragons are too MLP.
I think I know what you mean. In a way, Sisu looks like an Asian and more fluffy version of Princess Ember
Yeah, Sisu looks a bit like a weird combination of the Kirins, normal ponies, and dragons.
Although to me I just see her overall design as an attempt to bring East Asian traditional dragons into the typical Disney 'art style'.
The more i look at her human design the more she resembles Awkwafina💀
I remember someone said that Sisu's human form has Celestia's hair color lmao.
I like Sisu's human design too. She has the most distinguishable Disney face. Her face looks so og ASEAN mainly in Indonesia and Malaysia.
the movie was fine but my two issues with it are:
1. The story moves way too fast, jumping through different places.
2. Lack of a main villain, its getting a bit boring that recent disney movies lack a main villain, frozen 2, wreck it ralph 2, raya & last dragon follow same path when it comes to lack of villains. Also when they do have a main villain they use them as a plot twist near the end of the movie which is getting a bit too old.
I just miss when Disney had great villains because it makes the story more interesting, more impactful. Lets not forget the disney makes the villains more memorable than the heroes and more iconic. I just hope Disney stop doing plot twist villains or a movie where an event is the main threat. But I got a feeling Luca (pixar) and Encanto wont have main villains.
thats a problem with character driven stories vs story driven stories. there's more emphasis on the hero and their character so villains get less interesting or cut all together so all the focus can be on this character journey. it's a general shift in story telling, not just disney specifically. lots of interesting videos about the topic and why we started shifting our focus
Ya I loved Ursula lol
,.,|kr
1:41 "A title that's completely unnecessary"
Me as a Southeast Asian: EXCUSE ME!?
but seriously, especially at this current time of Asian discrimination in America, YES, It's completely necessary
not really
I agree. It's so fuckin wacked up, but in my opinion as another southeast Asian, the representation itself was too much of a boiling pot of different countries, and it felt lack luster. Good on you if you enjoyed it though, not gonna try to overshadow your opinion
I'm hearing mixed things about it. Most agree that the animation was good, but there is a lot of debate over how good the story and characters are. It seems split down the middle with people liking it.
Eh at the end of the day im not paying 30 dollars for it.
@@privatehere3324 im a little ashamed but I got it off a website
@@privatehere3324 i downloaded it for free lmfao
@@privatehere3324 you can find it for free online
even the animation wasn't that great honestly. i mean, it was, but compared to other disney features it wasn kinda wonky in some scenes
80% of the words that came out the dragon’s mouth was cringe. This movie wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. They overused modern dialogue and slang. How can Disney make good new movies like moana, zootopia, brave, etc, and then make this movie that’s all over the place with so much forced comedy. Ik all Disney movies have comedy in them to maintain the family friendly rating, but at least the jokes in the other ones felt natural most of the time and were funny. This one has a bad plot and and should’ve been a series. Also I feel like all those good reviews I see on the internet are probably fake since Disney has connections or deals with a lot of review companies and people
Yeah
Because that is sisu's personality
Goofy and silly
Also the extra characters annoyed me, at least the dragon had some funny lines the extras were just unbearable for me. Like that ninja baby, seriously the movie would have been so much better without that ninja baby.
When I noticed the dragon has big bushy human eyelashes..and what looks like drawn-on eyebrows..
I can never unsee it, omg it bothers me so much now. :,) It’s like looking at a fish dragon thing..with the manicured face of a human disney princess from the 2010’s.
Either that, or the design gives me big My Little Pony vibes.
Just doesn’t feel like it fits in the same universe as Raya’s pretty rustic and grounded-looking character designs and environment.
It’s literally just an animated plushy for Disney to stock their shelves with later. It’s so blatantly obvious. :,)
The human design is literally based on Awkwafina (the actress).
@@reet7060 I can tell..just as uncanny feeling.
I was hoping youd end the "They dont make kids movies, or adult movies" with "they make money". This movie was a disappointment. "Trust will save the world" when trust almost ended it? Hmm.
The message was “both parties should give trust”, the only reason it almost ended it is because it was one-sided.
to summarize: needs less Akwafina, and more Catradora.
Catradora had warped my brain so much that when the female characters that are trying to kill each other dont kiss in severly disappoint. However between this fim and wonderwoman 1984 its probably a improvment.
@@privatehere3324 enormous compared to Mulan; another movie which could have been VASTLY improved by giving more focus to the relationship between its main women.
Agreed more catradora
HDJDKDKJD yes we need more of that for sure:))))
MoreCatradora!MoreCatradora!MoreCatradora! That’s all. Catradora.
“They have lost neighbors, friends, loved ones and that shared pain defines them”
Wish I had to wonder how that feels like
Yeah...
Go ask the native Americans thats how they felt when they were colonized
So edgy
Apparently this story had a lot of rewrites and 6 writers, so that’s probably why there’s a few problems with the character development.
Yeah that would do it.
Is EVERY film from Disney in production chaos these days?! That's like the fourth one this has happened with in the last several years!
how many writer does mulan 2020 have? 0?
@@angelabby2379 Apparently, 4
I didn’t like the design of the dragon. It looked like something a socially awkward furry girl would draw during lunch time 🗿 but other than that, I enjoyed the film
I agree, I kinda liked her old design cause in my opinion the old one really looks like if Elsa was a furry
I liked it. I think it looks majestic and beautiful in some moments, and really fierce in the Spine battle scene, while keeping her ungainly/overly cheerful personality really well in the rest of the movie.
@Tyler Ton no its just my opinion on the dragon I thought the movie was decent actually
The original design was better & she even had whiskers, a longer tail, slimmer limps & looked better over all. They could had change just the colors but I think the bright colors looked like reefs or corals.
@@lagopusvulpuz1571 They actually did a pretty good job. The dragon, Sisu, is based off of mystical Naga, which are brightly colored serpents with massive horns on their four heads. If they made it a little-less human, I would have liked it a lot more (the dragon design)
My 2-3 big problems
1) the stakes are really low. Everyone who is lost is turned to stone and is turned back, the impact of the story is reversed. Frozen felt Way more darker than this with characters experiencing and facing death, and Moana was fighting for the physical sustenance of her village.
2) There wasn't enough time to let the characters breath but they wasted like 10 minutes on whimsical scenes of dragons flying that added barely anything to the story. Actually nothing.
3) Alot of cheesy lines
but holy lord was this amazing to look at.
I kind of liked how weird she looked in her human form, it was clear that this wasn’t her first form
I don't know why no one is talking about the pacing in the movie I feel like it was so easy for raya to get each stone besides the last one
I feel like the movie was trying to get us to focus on the character development and the different people she comes in contacts with rather than the pacing to get each stone. For me I knew in the back of my head she’d get each stone eventually but I was focused on the lessons and insights she gained along the way that empowers her as well as looking forward to seeing how it’ll all work together, plus this is a family film so probably not great to drag things out too much.
I'm glad someone else appreciated the back muscles.
How about the fact that the moral of the movie is that you can’t bring your dad back from the dead until you trust your abuser and vow to enable them even if it means your death?
More like how broken their nation was and how people are divided by mistrust and hatred for one another. The dragon gem is a good representation of that when it shattered. And that nearly brought them all to ruin. The same could apply to us in the real world how divided we are which is what I feel it was trying to get at
Damn, DavidMalcolm, you don't have to go getting rational and unpleasantly truthful with us :(
i think this would work better as a series. Something like 'The Dragon Prince' is doing. every season you learn more about the magic system and the different nations/tribes
Raya's title as the first southeast Asian princess is completely NECESSARY!
Why?
@@Perrier_enjoyer to prevent people from lumping ALL Asians in one category.
At one point we need to move past everything being the first and just let these stories be their own thing. These films don’t have to be amazing, they just have to be given a chance to be made.
Although the Dragon was human for too long. Just be a dragon.
Uhh was it just me or did this movie seem more “indo-Chinese” than actually the rest of Southeast Asia?
I see a lot of maritime south-east Asia references but yeah it kinda easily gets overshadowed with the mainland South-east Asia, it's not obvious enough, everything is too blended that you don't know which is which
its actually pretty important that she's a "south-east asian" princess cos its culture is very different to that of the majority of asia so its pretty cool they recognise that, as someone from Thailand i feel very connected to my fellow SE asian neighbours such as Burma or Cambodia. But Japan, China Korea etc are completely foreign to me. If a Chinese dude went up to me and was like "wassup my fellow asian" i wouldnt feel the same way back since we are so completely different whereas if someone from like Laos said the same thing i'd feel much more connected since our cultures, history, geography, climate EVERYTHING! is much more intertwined compared to other asian countries outside of south-east asia.
kinda like how syria for example is actually in asia (its in western asia) yet people dont really consider syria an asian country (or syrian people asians) they consider it a middle eastern / arabic country.
It's the same with South-east asia yet many westerners (not all!) think its just the same as the rest of asia and "unnecessary", so to point out if a character is south-east asian and NOT just "asian", for me and fellow SE Asians its awesome to get that recognition that we're a unique set of countries that differ completely from anywhere else in asia and defs the rest of the world.
thanks for listening to my tedtalk lol (also rant aside great review defs agreed with your rating and comments on the film, highly recommend for peeps who haven't seen it)
“I’m not talking about the scenery... I’m talking about the *scenery* ”
It's severely underdeveloped but i enjoyed it
I paid for the $30 on Disney+ since theaters are still close here and kids wanna watch it. I really liked the movie. It's kinda hard to adjust seeing a princess movie without a musical number but at the end I didn't regret paying the 30 bucks. We will spend more than that anyways if we all went to see it in the theaters.
The Movie is well maybe just about right albeit I have to say again *The Naga* well referred to as Dragons *real* and *Original* design had such a great potential and unique style and yet they Elsafied the design unfortunately and the movies most impressive character is the female clan leader whose the antagonist thought
i think another gripe i've seen fellow SEAsians have with the movie is how touch-and-go the culture felt. the only thing they seemed to bring out is the cultural aesthetics, and even so lumped together a bunch of different SEAsian countries together :/ not to mention the primarily east-asian cast for the southeast asian movie ... i still wanna give the movie a try but how the rep was done irks me a bit.
Welcome. I love how Disney's representation of other cultures is...PUT AS MANY THINGS THAT FEEL OF A CERTAIN CULTURE AND CALL IT A DAY. Our representation that Disney gave my people is Elena of Avalor. She represents ALL hispanic/latino culture...and it's a TV show spinoff of Sofia...and everything just...feels...mexican. because we are all the same no?
Those things don't bog down the story and narrative of the film, nor does it really negatively affect the characters themselves, so I'd definitely give it a try if you just want experience a good story. Also, the film is GORGEOUS, and the music is surprisingly good in parts.
japanese animated film starring all white cast. kaguya hime starring chloe grace moretz, kubo starring hugh jackman
chinese kungfu panda boom suprise starring all white main cast jack black, angelina jolie
and you wanna complain because its starring east ASIAN!!!! its not like you have southeast asian actor lying around in hollywood...
@@angelabby2379 You don't need to invalidate OP's comment because their statement is as true as your complaint about previous movies not even having an Asian cast despite being Asian stories. Those concerns and criticisms are valid and they should be pointed out in order for things to move forward. If no one mentioned how it's not right for Asians to just be grouped together and be thought that it's acceptable for East Asians to represent South East Asians in a movie about South East Asians, a movie that's being heavily promoted to represent strictly the South East Asian cultures, then everyone would think it's okay. There are PLENTY of South East Asians in the film industry and the fact that you claim otherwise shows even more so how under represented they are. Disney could have easily looked for actors within this culture and done an open call casting, but they clearly decided it would be easier to use East Asians who are already famous and probably didn't care since it's still within the Asian title. All these comments about the lack of proper representation are valid and you don't need to put them down but trying to say another thing was worse. People are allowed to be mad at more than one issue.
As a SEAsian, I love how Disney combined and represent our culture together though I can see it's mainly Thailand. Some of y'all are just too overanalyz, overall culture design is great
This kind of movie should have been series or at least longer to build up everything and everyone.
I agree this is a good movie with great animation, but I felt like it was rushed
My standards are so low im just glad its not a live action remake or sequel
@@privatehere3324 Don’t jinx it.
The dragon was basically a combination of Elsa and Finn's girl.
That con ninja baby should get her own spinoff.
Please no more minions.
This was the boss baby movie we all wanted but didn’t get.
her and the monkeys reminded me of the penguins of Madagascar
Maybe not a spin-off per say but a short
I pirated the movie, and I'm glad I did. I thought it was just okay, maybe a 6.5 out of 10. I think they were good, but the action scenes sometimes felt a bit weird to me? Like the rest of the movie felt like an animated summary of a movie I'd love, but then it'd slow down for a cool action scene. I never got attached to any of the characters and I always wanted the damn dragon to shut the fuck up. I only remember the names of Raya and Sisu, and the rest of characters only felt surface level (if that makes sense.) There's the big guy with the dead village, but I never really saw him take much impact from it other than the one scene, and I didn't care enough about him at the time to think much of it. Same pretty much goes for other characters.
and you're proud of yourself Pirating? If you can't afford to watch then don't watch it. cheeeaappp
@@readmydescription8240 no
@@readmydescription8240 Pfft Disney will survive
@@evak5673 that doesn't give you the rights to do illegal action.
Yeah they did Tong injustice, he might have an interesting background on how he survived being alone.
He is nobody just a soldiers who survived. I wonder how he got part of the crystal. It would be interesting if he stole it from his leader. Then he was kinda divinely punished, surviving alone, that would be a great side story and still fitting the theme. By being selfish he was alone and theres a character progression when he did help. I feel raya need at least 2 hours, more focus towards the character and exploration of the world.
In my opinion, the movie is good. like I'd give it a 7.8/10. Don't get me wrong it's a great movie with an emotional and raw story(seriously this movie deals with very mature topic for a kids film) Disney has done better, but it's not bad. Not as good as coco, zootopia, soul. On the level of tangled or frozen. I think the pacing had a big deal with the problems in this movie, they travel so many places so fast(also a nit pick but I swear they all must travel at light speed, like this is an entire country and they travel across the entire thing in like 3 days) , I feel we don't get a chance to absorb the scenery(especially spine)and side characters. It's also a bit repetitive until the end, go to a new land, find the gem shard, run into fang, escape, argue about trust, then rinse and repeat.
The ties to Asian culture are very good aswell. I'm black though so I don't know much about the culture lol
Yeh. I'm ok with the leveling with Tangled cuz that's a good movie too. Such a bummer it hasn't been that great
I honestly can set the whole Elsa furry thing aside and say this movie is SO GOOOODDD. it would've been GOD TIER if it was a mini series tho. It felt like there was almost TOO much to explore in a movie under 2 hours.
was gonna watch the movie and then the dragon talked
Yeah but if it didn't, it probably would've been rumored to copy off of the last dragon
Was anyone else rooting for Raya to kiss Namaari or was it just me
I thought that was where it was going but was glad it didn't. Inclusion is good, but not everyone needs to exist solely for the sake of it.
Wouldn't have made sense. It also would have felt like a lazy representation.
I wanted that too
Raya is a lesbian so i was hoping too
Kind of but also kind of not. The first scene with them is so cute and I can see first relationship material there. For the rest of the movie though there’d have to be quite a few scenes to bring them closer before I feel a kiss would make sense.
I feel like people want to like this movie that they arent being honest if its good or not.
Eh, most people jump on the bandwagon of hating things they have no knowledge of all the time. This could be the opposite of that...or people will just say they hate it just because everyone else likes it, or like it because everyone else does.
@@enderlove2794 Yeah, that's the vibe I've been getting too. There are many things in Raya that are usually worth serious praise (stunning visuals, great world building, strong leading character, great action choreography, strong message, etc.), but everyone's just weirdly understating them. There were MANY solid original ideas and twist in the story Disney has genuinely never done before, but no one's talking about them. All people seem to care about is Sisu looking like an "Elsa furry", even though the design actually looks really good in motion, and it's really unfortunate. I feel like if this came out a couple years ago in threaters, without the pandemic, Disney Plus, and the 30$ premium access, everyone would be far less unenthused here.
@@DLxxx for some reason people only focus on the negatives nowadays. Like, yeah, there are some things which I understand why people are upset about it, but the whole movie shouldnt be written off like that. The same thing happend with ghost in the shell. So many people wrote off the movie becuase kept saying an asian actress should have been casted as the main even though the whole point of the character was that she was her shell. And, the creators of the original manga and anime movie didnt give a fuck that the person who played her was white.
Man, I'm not one of those people who think everyone is sensitive and shit, but I see why people say this now. Everyone finds a problem where one isnt and gets pissed for other people instead of actually listening to the people within the demographic.
One of the main complaints of this movie was that the dragon wasnt accurate, but I'm pretty sure that was a stylistic choice. Disney went deep like they always do, and I dont think they would've purposefully overlooked such a detail. It's okay if people who are part that culture don't like it, but they cant say that they're misrepresenting or anything like that.
I personally enjoyed it I just felt like it had a lot more potential to be something greater and could've used more worldbuilding.
personally it’s was a ehhh movie like a 6/10 the visuals was amazing but everything else I kinda have a problem with.
the thing about the dragons design is that how obvious Disney wanted their own my little ponies series. lol honestly though i feel Awkwafinas voice made it work.
I thought Raya blaming Namaari for Sisu’s death instead of herself was a VERY realistic and human reaction.
she bring a crossbow, she was pulling the trigger, SHE SHOT THE FRICKING ARROW
@@david4rancibia34 Yeah, but Raya should've trusted Sisu could've handled it since she's basically a god.
"You brought a crossbow to a peaceful negotiation, and ill just go blame myself for sisus death even tho i wasnt the one who pulled the trigger" totally see your logic there 🙄
@@harmonetheanimationaddict4419 i disagree. Throughout the film, Sisu showed herself to be a horrible judge of character. Every time Sisu decided to trust someone, they backstabbed her. Raya had literally no reason to trust Sisu could rightly judge the situation.
@@hannahscholtzz7355 Except if you recall, Namaari was different since this time Raya had actual past and experience with Namaari backstabbing her as a child and bascially costing her everything; it'll be common sense for anyone to NOT trust someone who previously betrayed them and is the reason why she have trust issues in the first place.
When you’re in the middle of watching a movie review and then you get an ad for said movie
My god, i'm so sorry, i'm very sorry, but i can't stop cringing at some comments saying things like 'East Asian dragon' or 'South Asian'
Like, bro tf ... It's SOUTH-EAST Asian, not East Asian or South Asian, please differentiate it, it's necessary 😭 do you guys need another geography lesson???
East Asia: China, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan,
South Asia: India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan (probably)
South-east Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Timor Leste, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam,
Even their dragons also differ for each regions, three of these regions has snake/serpent-like dragon, for the South-east Asia though, their dragons don't have whiskers, they usually have big scary bulging eyes with scales and fangs, plus a lot of cool golden ornaments and optional stuffs like legs and wings. (Yes legs are optional, because they're supposed to look like a giant snake)
Raya and the last dragon:
*Ha ha pay wall go brrrrrr*
Raya and naamari gives me catradora vibes
Totally
That’s what I was thinking
I was getting complete She ra vibes the entire movie
@@Juno._bus in the brazilian version raya and adora have the same voice
it was so accurate
Yikes, that’s not good
I don't care if everyone likes this movie or not. I'm just glad a major movie company finally took some time to create a movie based on Southeast Asian culture/people. That's worth celebrating the movie alone.
I agree with your opinions. I guess Raya and The Last Dragon should’ve been a full blown animated series instead of mushing it all together into just one single movie. Graphics in the movie are phenomenal, though, not gonna lie.
If you didn’t say that it wasn’t a musical I honestly wouldn’t have noticed, but I’m bias because I don’t really like musicals 😅😬 I still really liked the film
It should've been longer to focus on the side character's backstories, changed the Dragon's designs, and made the Dragons mute
I feel like if they took the humor and just made it like dad jokes or just dry humor that would have been better. It wasn’t terrible though.
I just wish Sisu dragon appearance looked more like her human one. I swear it’s like two different faces
I don’t like how this being south east Asia theme film some how the dragon has fur . Climate being hot as fuck it should be scale .
I only disagree on you saying that the streak was still on.......yeaaahhh no, Frozen 2 and the abomination name Ralph Breaks the Internet, dropped the streak Disney had and please not count Pixar those are a separate catalogue, but I will say Raya SAFE Disney after their embarrassment that was Mulan 2020, and is the best animated film they had done since MOANA (again no Frozen 2 sucks also Ralph 2, which is a shame I love Wreck it Ralph). Raya might not the great but I think is still a solid film and have the best action on ANY DISNEY film ever (I agree on even Marvel and any other Disney property), I just wish they developed more Raya and Namaari, I really wanted a lot more with these 2, maybe if there was less characters would have develeped all better, but the ending need it to work so I understand, still, beautiful animation, good story, bit exposition heavy but not too much as many point, and the visuals always help, also I wish they fleshed out a bit more all tribes,show more of their culture and world, but the little we got was good still, over all I'll give it a solid 8 out of 10..................also I ship Namaari and Raya...yes I have a ship problem XD.
to me, this movies was kind of a rogue one situation, where you meet a cast of characters you really like (except for that bloody dragon) and want to know more about them, but they just get towed around for plot purposes. raya would've been great as a longer, more seriously toned, action film, while they could still lace it with humour. and the gayer side of me was _really_ enjoying namaari's, well, everything
and let's talk about sisu. this movie was good and could run pretty well, but i feel like it could've soared had it taken a route like what dreamworks did with how to train your dragon. keep the dragon actually looking like it was from south eastern asia, like its source material, and maybe don't make it so... idk, humourous? when i first heard about this film i'll admit i was expecting something more... dignified.
also, raya and namaari should've gotten together, thank you for coming to my tedtalk ✌️
The dragon screwed up the whole movie! There I said it!
Facts
I see no lie
nah, the story outsold prr
Hello I have question will you ever do a video about Hazbin hotel or Helluva boss?
Jokes on you imma go to a theater and pay 10$ then rewatch it when its free
I don't know where you guys live but I would love to find even a single movie theater that lets you watch their movies for less than 15$
@@Yohannai my theater is like 8$
I think that the “same face syndrome” of the dragons is a bit forgivable because they have so many more design liberties that show personality and composition like eye shape, their crests, and their overall body language. I feel like the same-faces isn’t that severe of a sacrifice in the animation budget
They made that way so they can easily sell the dragon plushy merchandise afterwards.
The original design was better & she even had whiskers, a longer tail, slimmer limps & looked better over all. They could had change just the colors but I think the bright colors looked like reefs or corals.
I absolutely loved it, it was so beautiful, cinematically, and story wise. It made me cry...and I don’t cry easily
Still can't understand how you only have 50k subs, awesome content hope you get out of algorithm hell one day.
I agree it would have been probably better as a tv show. The relationship between Namaari and Raya somewhat reminded me of that of Catra and Adora, which worked really well because we were able to spend much longer with them
I also think there were several moments that were just so incredibly done. Like when the Fang people ride through the stone dragons land and Namaari pauses to look back and salute them👌
the only scene I didn’t think need to be there was the shopping scene... it was a bit awkward
It was nice, it shows a tradition that Southeast Asian usuaaly do. Go to night markets, then also the credit stuff. unless you are a SE Asian, you wouldn't understand it.
@@readmydescription8240 ah, I did not know that- my apologies. I did not mean to offend anyone.
@@readmydescription8240 in Malaysia there's the 555 notebook.
I was thinking, if this was a book, it would be awesome because there you would have time to build up characters, but this way we barely meet them at all
I just came across your channel and man! You have an amazing voice! Have you ever done any voice acting?
I actually like the art and the way the dragon was made-
For this movie, from storyline in the eye of common people, it must be the best. But, for who live in real Southeast Asia, 5 tribes in Kumandra doesnt represent all Southeast Asia aboriginal race such as the big five which is :
1-Malay(Malay Peninsular/Sumatra/part of Borneo/Sulawesi/Brunei/Singapore).
2-Siam(Thailand/Myanmar/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam).
3-Dayak(Philippines/Whole Borneo).
4-Java(Java Island/Bali/Timor Leste).
5-And the last is the real native or aboriginal race, Orang Asli/Orang Darat/Orang Laut(Papua/Sumatra/Malay Peninsular).
I never think this movie will effect Southeast Asian a lot when i see the storyline more describe the power of dragon which is more refer to China and the other country in Eastern Asia. Why Disney made this story? I Don't know. But for me, Disney always trying to whitewash the other race movie that they made. In this movie, they trying to chinese-ing the Southeast Asian. It's also means like Disney support China to pull Southeast Asia under their hegemony while represent the great dragon Sisu (more to chinese culture)who save Kumandra (Southeast Asia). In addition, this story is written by Chinese. I'm not trying to be racist. But i wish Disney would give responsibility to write about my race to my race not other race. Thank you. And i'm sorry if my comment hurting someone feelings, SORRY!!!
No one said this movie was made to celebrate SEA cultures and its people, it merely took the design. And of course the movie would represent Chinese culture the most dominant culture in ALL Asia region. SEA region consist of a random bunch of people with random cultures and religious there's nothing that can represent them as a whole. And if you want thing to be represented correctly do it yourself, don't whine on other people. Seriously SEA is the worst region in the world their people is best at whining and complaining but cannot do anything meaningful. Look at Japan, Korea, other developed Asia countries...they are able to make their culture unique and stand out and separate themselves. SEA countries could not because they're simply not good enough, so they'll forever under the shadow of great China that's just how it is. Don't blame other people to not represent the "minority" enough blame yourself first for being minority and weaker that you get shadowed.
@@aoyaibaba3090 oh my. I'm not sure this comment could be considered criticism or racist
Edit:I'm leaning on more racist
There are dragons in SEA cultures.
I am tired of people saying about China.
DRAGONS EXIST IN SOUTHEAST ASIA NOT JUST CHINA, KOREA, JAPAN. JSNIBUSFBIASNOASHNFIUKEFSJMDL
I actually felt that this movie only represent two countries thailand and vietnam its ashamed though they did clickbait us before the movie was released i was so so so hype because finally we people from the S.E.A will finally have our own movie but i was wrong i felt leftout i never see any of my own people in the movie i felt dissapointed.
I loved Sisu’s overall structure and movements but good lord that color scheme, and I really wish her voice was a lot calmer with a more polished script.
I think this is a WONDERFUL milestone for Disney, both in terms of their better and better representation of a culture into film, and of course, their animation. Also, Namaari is one of my new favourite Disney characters, not just because it's exciting to see a Disney character with a different build like mine🥰, but also because she has that wonderful character narrative that doesn't just write her off as 'the villian'(even though she made a lot of stupid choices)but a convoluted character who is loyal to her people and was shown to actually care about the protagonist.
I'll wait for the free to watch on June.
i liked this movie but i felt like someties they made references that shouldn't technically exist in their world. like when sisu made the comment about group projects. it totally broke my immersion. other than that though i liked it.
Disney really missed the chance to have a group called “Eyes”.
You know there's something wrong with Sisu's design when most of her fanarts are REDESIGNS cuz everyone was disappointed that they didn't kept the concept art design
The movie constantly remind us that IT IS A MOVIE ABOUT TRUST AND WE SHOULD TRUST PEOPLE
You need to TRUST the movie about TRUST because TRUST is the answer to the apocalypse.
The only thing I really dislike was that the movie moved to fast
Yh it moved really fast
@Mystic Dream Lmao
I’m not sure how well this would work, since it’s just a quick thought I had that I haven’t had time to REALLY think about, but maybe the issue with the characters seeming underdeveloped could be fixed by making that a part of the plot- have Raya be uncomfortable with trusting them all too much, make her feel a little more guilty about not telling them about sisu, or just draw more attention to the fact that she didn’t- and have all of the others bond in the background, and SHOW IT in their dialogue. Have a slight disconnect between Raya, maybe there could be a bit of tension when she’s talking to the rest. You’d only have to add a few scenes and change a little dialogue, and it would put more emphasis on Raya’s “learn to trust people” arc
This idea definitely has its flaws, but if it was fleshed out more I think it could m a y b e help?
You'd think a great wise dragon like Sisu - who have lived for 1000s for years - would be a little more... wiser than Sisu turns up to be like.
For some reason, the fact that this wasn't a musical really didn't surprise me that much. And I love musicals!
i feel like this movie wouldve been better if it had a longer runtime overall to give more room for more in depth things
YES that fight scene at the end was so good I haven't stopped thinking about it yet
I had this feeling that something was missing, but couldn't put my finger on it. When you said it's not a musical, that's when it hit me.
The theme is terrible though. There's no reason for her to trust ANY of the individuals she meets, especially the girl that betrayed her in the 1st place. She consistently proves that she's untrustworthy, and her last act where she puts the pieces back together could easily have been done to save her own skin. To me, bad themes in a children's show (bc despite general audience appeal, the target is children) are a HUGE flaw. It looks good and the fights are good, and this movie COULD have been good, but that theme was absolutely trash.
"and I'm including marvel in that statement" Is that a weird thing like 50% of marvel movies have no clue how to film action scenes.
My only problem was how fast paced it was, nothing was really fleshed out
Amazing video as always!!❤️
Animation was absolutely stunning. The world potential was up there.
Sisu's human form was based on awkwafina's actual appearance i think !
Ew
People disliking Sisu's human form: ...
... Well now, that's _awkward_ ...
;p
"not bad,,, but not good" was my feelings with this
We barley explored the beautiful world they barley touched it. Spine was on screen for like 5 minutes and most of it was in a house. They needed more. I feel like it would've been better as a show