Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Look, the animation was absolutely gorgeous — they used the odyssey as an excuse to explore different climates, and there were some just standout moments where the color just pops on screen. Maybe the dragons could look a lil less like furry art? But man, the music was emotional (I’m a sucker for modulating to minor in ‘The New World’) and the voice acting was sick! Awkwafina felt a bit out of place; I dunno I got a bit of the Mushu vibes, but nothing bad.
The story is great too. I think the one gripe I would level is that Sisu sort of just acts the therapist for Raya and faces no insecurities of her own. She is confident that being a good person and trusting others is always correct, despite sharing early on that she doesn’t feel like she was the powerful dragon. It’s not deal-breaking, but it makes the last moment where Raya saves the world the tiniest bit less meaningful. How much more powerful could it be if they had to grow into the confidence and love to trust. But I mean, it was still powerful. Besides that, though, this is the perfectly planned adventure story.
I hate myself for even writing this paragraph, but it probably has to do with me spending so much time listening to political scientists. What I like most about it is that despite the magical antagonists being explicit metaphors for human conflict and strife, you get a healthy dose of realism from the Fang chief. You get the sense, especially by the end, that human conflict is not some inherent evil in people, which is just a super lame state of nature argument anyway. Instead, it’s people trying to do the best for each other, and the people they care most about. That is the root of evil, this political drive to benefit some, that leads to the conflict in the film. And I love the resolution: the cure is trust and love for each other, trust that they will do right by you and the ones you love and the world will be a better place for trusting each other. We can learn to live with human conflict (read: the magical bad guys), or we can say fuck that and create a better world.
At the very end, I was already sobbing, and then Raya hits her ba with the “Welcome to Kumandra” and that really got me. I had to rewatch that scene like 10 times. Everything about it is perfect — the tear rolling down his cheek, the sun shining through the light rain. I think most of all, though, I was crying thinking about how there’s a whole generation of kids watching movies about how love and family transcend borders, and how our humanity transcends our differences. Her ba’s vision of a world without borders finally comes to pass. Sometimes I think just maybe we’re gonna get there.
After reading a bunch of Chinese philosophy for class this quarter and the textual focus on historical authority, I’m also reminded of this as the right type of conservatism. Where we look to the past for the things that make us people, the things that are universal to us. Not sure how often in reality the past is a good guide for wisdom, but it was nice to see that in a film. The other thing I always have to remind myself is that even if your average white philosopher thinks that people are inherently selfish and evil there have always been people and societies practicing community that is worth learning from.
For all the criticisms I can levy against Disney, against corporations, against a propagandistic film industry, sometimes man, they get the message damn right.
