Raya and the Last Dragon

Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada took over a project that had already changed shape: the directing team was reshuffled late and the lead voice moved from Cassie Steele to Kelly Marie Tran. Production designer Paul Felix has said the Southeast Asian direction only entered about two years into development, after research trips to Bali, Cambodia and Laos and a session with Joe Rohde of Imagineering on building a culture from scratch. That history shows in the shape of the film. Kumandra’s five lands were designed separately, so Talon is a trading city on stilts, Spine a bamboo mountain settlement and Tail a desert. The plot becomes a collecting tour of five stops rather than one rising line, and each stop seals itself off as a small heist or chase before the next begins from the same threat. Sisu comes from the Naga, a water deity, rather than the fire breathing Western dragon, which makes the last dragon a negotiator instead of a weapon. Raya fights unarmed in Pencak Silat and Namaari in Muay Thai, choreographed and filmed with live performers first as animation reference. A good fit if you accept an ending settled by handing over the piece you are holding rather than by combat. Less so if collecting five fragments in turn starts to feel like counting.