Raya and the Last Dragon is Not Great (Quick Review)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มี.ค. 2021
- The Possum tells you about Disney's latest animated adventure film, Raya and the Last Dragon.
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The movie moral is about having trust in others.
The main character gets back stabbed every single time she trusts in someone.
I was going to ask if Meghan McCarthy had a writers credit for this movie, but then I instantly realized if she did, it would instead be the main character who did all the back-stabbing.
Ya know, if the countries didn’t trust each other, they wouldn’t be fighting each other they would simply shut up and mind there own business
I know, that is my main issue with the film.
SnowWhite did the moral better.
To me, this is the moral of the film: "There is no real evil, only misunderstood people". That is an INCREDIBLY dangerous moral, and it seems Disney's done it a lot lately.
Finally, someone calls out the fact that it has nothing to do with Southeast Asian mythology. There are plenty of Vietnamese, Filipino, and Indonesian fairy tales that would have made lovely films, but we just got some half-assed vaguely "Asiatic" story.
That's modern disney for you :/
Bear in mind, the writer who wrote the movie is a malaysian. I felt ashamed as a malaysian myself
still cool seeing an environment we never saw specially with asian dragons i only remember mushu.
@@Cosmiichu The environment’s cool, but it’s disrespectful for Disney to place a story in Southeast Asia and not actually use any of the region’s cultures for the story.
They wanted the brownie points and needed an animated movie before cruella comes out
I thought Raya's lack of trust vs Sisu's naivety was the perfect grounds for a story about knowing WHO to trust. But nope: trust good, discernment bad.
Who would've guessed?
I like the point of this comment but it feels unnecessarily sarcastic. I agree with the point but find myself trying not to retort in some hypocritically sarcastic regard rather than simply saying "Exactly!"
There's a right and a wrong way to do things and I feel like you have the right idea but voiced it poorly.
@@laughingmask3118 why tf do u care gimp
Honestly it feels like Disney isn't even trying anymore when making movies about other cultures it feels like they're just making these for fast cash.
they very clearly are tbh. they don't actually care about representing other cultures, or anything really. they just want the money
Besides that dragon and it's powers there was a lot of thai foods and thai words plus places shown
Disney's hurting for cash so no wonder they're just churning out cash grabs
Isn´t something new.
Duh. That's why your watching TH-cam right now and not disney plus.
As an south asian, that's bad dragon design, our dragon not a furry, they're have scales, lizard eyes, no eyelashes.
That's Elsa's fursona
@@arsen2506 i know, that is the worst thing
Have you seen the concept designs? Theyre so much better compared to what we got
@@cubriffic172 Wait where did you see the concept designs?
Some have the beard though
4:14 Actually, China in general praised Kung Fu Panda for it’s accurate and tasteful representation of Chinese culture. Each film is ranked as the highest animated films at the Chinese box office. And it apparently pushed Chinese 3D animation to improve because apparently the Chinese were embarrassed that an American made movie was one of the best animated depictions of their culture. The more you know.
I like this.
I've heard in an interview that the team behind the film went to China for 6 years before making the film, so that tells you something
Dreamworks actually did some research unlike whoever made this movie.
And also the fact that this movie(Kung Fu Panda obviously) had many characters that were already anthropomorphic in the first place.
And then you have the latest Mulan...
I'm Southeast Asian. Imagine a movie where the main character wears cheongsam, wields katana, eats kimchi, and speaks a few mongolian words. That's what Raya felt like to me. Honestly i would rather see a movie with a setting fully inspired by one country like Vietnam (i heard it was inspired by vietnamese folklore) than a mish-mash of all these cultures.
I mean Raya is not from Earth.
@Doofus There's a ton of worlds based on Earth that are a mixture of several cultures put together.
I kinda agree but Avatar: The Last Airbender also mishmashed cultures, yet they got higher approval anyway. I guess it's because each nation had almost just one country or their story was actually good (I mean, it is).
@@pooing6649 I did not see a hint of Filipino there at all so in my opinion that's not true. No offense tho. We all have our own opinions and this doesn't harm others so I'll let it be:)
that would never exist
Where did they even get the dragon's design? Most SEA dragons are protrayed as huge monstrous beasts with scales. They're also mostly wise, all-knowing and serious, not naive and comical.
I don’t know much about Southeast Asian culture. But I have seen images of SEA dragons, and they look really majestic. It would’ve been cool to see one in animated form, but they went with Elsa mixed with a worm on a string instead. Also I despise Sisu’s personality. When I saw her original design that was shown at D23, I figured she would be wise and grumpy, but with a soft side to her. But no, instead she’s loud, annoying, naive, and hardly says anything thought provoking or funny. I know some people don’t like the fact that she can speak, but her speaking isn’t the problem, it’s what she says that bothers me.
@@CandyApples4ever this represents disney as whole in fact. making something cutesy and safe rather than something actually good
Their main target are kids. Not college students.
Well, are they not allowed to make up their own thing, in the land that they made up?
@@aellasky3082 well, then, they don't need to promoted it as a "representation" of SEA culture if they aren't gonna stay true to it. The dragon design and personality don't reflect actual SEA mythology and it's extremely frustrating to watch as a Southeast Asian. I expect myself to be dissapointed since Disney revealed Sisu's design and here I am...
Actually this movie represents east Asia far worse than kung fu panda represents China. Chinese people love Po to death. Its one of the most successful foreign animated movies to release in China.
Probably because kung fu panda and by extension dreamworks respects the culture, Disney is just trying to make money off of it
@@osets2117 Yep. Kung Fu Panda's got the Chinese philosophies to play a part in the story, of course- because (duh) set in China. But Raya and the Last Dragon's story can be used anywhere else, instead of creating a story loosely based off an SEA folktale, overall makes it heckuva lot disappointing.
@@ihateindices its sad they could've made something really cool.
aye bro, southesast asia and east asia are pretty different if you didn't know. Not every just because you read asia doesn't mean China, Korea and Japan
@@j.t.0145 yes but I was comparing how china was represented in kung fu panda vs how this movie went at Asian culture as a whole. Because the dragon in it is a Chinese dragon
Kung Fu Panda actually represents Chinese culture quite well. Besides the anthro animals of course.
Didn't the Chinese Government convene to discuss why an American movie was portraying Chinese culture better than Chinese movies were or something
@@xenomorph6599 lmao
@@xenomorph6599 Bruh
Orrww muy peynis is sew swmall compweard to yew amwewecum swuper mwan! Hahahahaha (Laughs in famine)
@@BrickfallOfficial Are you okay
I miss hand-drawn animation. This CGI animation style is just so damn boring.
@Crane What about Flash? Not all computer animation has to be 3D. According to Wikipedia, My Little Pony the Movie, Steven Universe the Movie, and the Princess and the Frog were all animated through Flash and most animated shows use it because it is low cost and has the potential to be a variety of different styles. Hand-drawn films are unique works of art but at the same time are expensive and tedious to make compared to CGI. So the question is not should Disney bring back hand-drawn films but should they bring back 2D films?
@@javierfebronio8907 they should def bring back 2d. Tangled the series was 2d, and I thought the art style looked WAY better than the film. For one thing, Rapunzel had serious baby face in the movie, which she didn't for the show.
@Royah the knight don’t act like anime doesn’t have its flaws now
@Royah the knight nah I prefer western animation
Yeah wolf walkers was prob the best ever
"It didn't make me angry..."
Well that makes one of us. The line "Shisu's death is just as much your fault as it is mine." made me LIVID.
Oy shady was here!
Sup shady
Everyone says the dragon looks like Elsa but all I see is a stretched out My Little Pony.
They aren't mutually exclusive.
Elsa's Mary Sue MLP pony/dragon mix OC
It looks like Rainbow Dash as a dragon
So you see, the lesson in this film is that Friendship is indeed magic.
Discord looks way better than Misus
Wait, so this is a movie about finding crystal shards, using them to vanquish a mysterious dark evil force, while being joined by multiple characters that tag along for the whole adventure?
This is literally just Kirby 64; The Crystal Shards
Get that game's name out your fucking mouth when talking about this trash.
Oh, I thought you were gonna say "Darkstone", lol.
I'm going to assume you only know about that game because you actually played it when N64 was the hot console. I've played a few games on N64 but none of them were kirby games.
@@iraqifoodcart8447 It's a timeless masterpiece.
@@iraqifoodcart8447 Kirby 64 was rereleased on the Wii/Wii U virtual console and included in Kirby’s Dream Collection. It’s not a hard game to find
Kung Fu does represent China. They literally love the character over there and was the sole reason China realized "wait this is actually an amazing movie, why are their movies about china better than ours" To which sparked a boom in Chinese animations to try to catch up to pixar/west.
the main antagonist looks like a cyberpunk character
Oh my god
People told the truth. that dragon does look like Elsa.
It's the eyes I think, they have the same eyes.
@@Jormyyy no, she's furry elsa
@@Jormyyy Same eyes and same kind of 'smokey eyes' makeup, too.
reusing assets? it's the beginning of the end.
That explains why the dragon looks so hot--wide eyed. It looks wide eyed.
For people who 'didn't want to offend the Asian community', they sure don't show it. Then again, who am I kidding? They did the live action Mulan in a fucking concentration camp.
Everyone in China hated the live action Mulan
@@giuliacf4180 Everyone in general hated live action Mulan
Didn’t they do the ‘didn’t want to offend’ thing with Princess and the Frog? It had rehashed Aladdin and weak character development and plot all over it
at least a few Asian ppl helped to make it. But anyway, moana was better. this movie is so bland, ppl are too realistic, their designs are boring, they're too bland (look, a baby who's not so innocent, look a masculine female villain who kicks butts, look a gentle giant who kicks butts, look a funny boy, look a strong whamen who fights, look a quirky sidekick)
@@sweetbunnybun the dragon us just Elsa's fursona
I personally thought that it would be kinda cute if the dragon did not talk,
(I don't mean that in a mean way though, I just think that characters such as wall-e and eve are cute because they have a limited vocab)
and a little change in dragons design.
It would've been so much better if the dragon didn't talk but had dad humor/capabilities to fulfill Raya's needs after her lost
silent beasts are the most powerful in storytelling, to me at least. toothless in httyd 1&2 (we don’t speak of the trash that was 3) was a masterpiece. masterbeast? that rhymes!
Sisu and raya having no language barrier just kills a lot of the potential awe there could’ve been with this movie. Funny how this movie aims for trust, yet HTTYD intergrates trust into its first movie far better than raya ever could despite that not being the main premise of HTTYD. (which was fighting against the laws of nature, forbidden friendships and the relationship between beast and boy. ironically, that involves trust too.)
Mushu honestly would’ve been better if he didn’t talk but pantomimed or got across a lot of his words by his facial expressions. Plus, it would avoid making him too much like another Genie clone and making him his own unique comedic sidekick.
"Princess Celestia hair."
Ah, a man of culture.
Yeahh
raya is like that one kid who talks about the same thing the whole school year
“did you know i don’t trust people?” “hey speaking of, i don’t trust people.” “hey man! i just read something about not trusting people, i knew i was smart not to trust anyone!” *”I DON’T TRUST ANYONE!”*
Oh hi Carth from kotor
No one understands me! 😡
Like Katara constantly saying her mom was killed.
"I trust you enough to tell you I DON'T TRUST ANYONE!"
@@arikweaver4867 yes
I like to imagine possum going and watching a children’s movie at a theater, and just sitting there stonefaced for the majority of the run time, and the only times that stone faced expression changes is when the credits finally roll, and then he leaves the theater and sits in his car and cries because of the shit he just watched.
No he's crying cos he spent 80k to go to film school and now he reviews shit movies on TH-cam lol.
he just has a visage of pure grimace the entire time.
Heh, this reminds me of Nostalgia Critic´s christmas episode (I think Carebears), so I can almost see his expression xD Good one.
666
you give this simple man too much credit... I think He still doesn't know what He talking about... this Movie is amazing.
Honestly, I'm getting pretty sick of mythical/powerful beings in Disney movies being super upbeat or sassy, and only being serious in certain, short scenes.. It has happened so many times that I've lost count.
Not gonna lie, I’m getting tired of the whole warrior Princess thing. It was cool when Mulan did it but recently, it feels like Disney is afraid to make a Princess that can’t fight or isn’t trained in some kind fighting style. I’m ready for a different kind of Princess or even just the old kind of princesses
old kind princess are boring
Except for the ones that already exists, they are iconic but I could not digest a movie with an old kind of princess now. Times and media change wether we like it or not, is just that the media that appears now is not good enough, maybe in a couple of years.
Which ones exactly the prize trope or what?
the main character looks like Disney put Moana and Mulan into a bottle, shook it up, aged the result a few years, gave it Rey's personality and plot armor, than said "yep, this is original."
ZZAAAAA WWWUUUURRRRDDDDOOOOO!!!
And yes, something that is just derivative of other things is not original
@@CHKNSkratch The sky is up
@@enumaelish9193 ?
LOL🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
I remember a youtuber litreally said that Naamari is acting more like catra than zuko.
THANK YOU for acknowledging the moral of the story is so flawed. While I was watching it I was frustrated that Sisu was all like "oh you just have to trust people!". What's even greater is that she trusts people and they betray her CONSTANTLY. She just seemed like she was dumb and had no street-smarts. I really didn't like how the moral of the story is basically believe people at face-value when they say you can trust them and if they betray you, just trust them again! Really flawed logic here. Trust is important, but it has to be EARNED.
Honestly. If the only time Sisu put her foot down or went out on her own to trust an enemy was Namaari, it couldve had an actual impact and show her that people aren't always the best morally. But the fact that it happened before just makes Sisu feel like an idiot.
Such a bass-ackwards connector of portraying a moral through a dirty that I'm surprised Meghan McCarthy didn't write it.
Not to mention a bad message to teach kids.... no matter what someone does to you, touch you inappropriately, hurt the people you love, trick you, and lie, you must still trust them... like no. My kids are gonna know that if someone hurts them they dont have to trust that person ever again for the sake of their own mental health. If anyone backstabs me or betrays my trust they are erased from my life. Dont need that kind of toxicity in my life
We can't have actual antagonists with purpose and motivation anymore, so all the heroes are just gonna fight smoke and purple lights from now on.
The plot sounds like something I would write back in middle school, I couldn't think of other plots so I'd just use a videogame's way of progressing.
One of the things I really dislike about this movie is the people in it are basically western people wrapped in SEA skin and clothes. I can's see any of my people in the characters! They don't have SEA body languages, they don't talk like SEA people...
And the religious stuff? Don't get me started on the religious stuff. Savior dragons turned into statues... left unattended for centuries to grow moss and plants and erode? Please, if it's really based on SEA culture, they'd be CLEAN. Their surroundings will be places of worship! There will be offerings placed before them as THANKS! You can have beautiful palaces but can't get rid of the ivy wrapped around a mythical being? Ugh!
And OMG Raya's father!!! Sir, please... How can an adult be THAT naive? Like, I know this is a children's movie but??? *facepalm*
Hear, hear!! Originally, a part Filipino was the first voice actor for Raya. It irked me that they recasted her. :(
@@rosendofernandez7146 I'm still mad about that, and I'm white.
@@rosendofernandez7146 WHAT???? WHY???
@@monicad.2269 Honestly I dont have any idea about the changes. You can actually see a promotional video of the two lead voice actors, Awkwafina as Sisu and Cassie Steele as Raya, here in youtube. :(
Let's address the field of dragon statue story-wise.
The thing about the dragon statues not being worshipped and given offerings turns out to be more and more confusing to me. After watching it, I'd consider how the dragons aren't being taken care of a bit disrespectful for them cause the Kumandrans basically worshipped them, but they didn't bother to even take care of their remains for years?
Then again, an in-world mechanism actually addresses this issue, it being the Druuns. Iirc from the scene, there aren't any bodies of water surrounding the area-which makes it a place susceptible for Druun attacks. And since the tribes (? I'm gonna call then tribes) are at war between each other, they don't have any reason to gather together in the field to worship, else they'd be attacked. If you see closely, the tribes all live surrounded in waters, securing them from any Druun attacks.
It's a perfectly understandable reason why the dragon statues aren't worshipped or given offerings, given the Druuns could've shown up anywhere at any time, and Namaari was just lucky to be not attacked. If only the Druuns didn't existed, I'm pretty sure the people would've erected temples and such.
Is it weird that I value the opinion of a trash hunting rodent over the trash content produced by Disney?
Well to be fair, opossums aren't _really_ rodents-
@The_Jaguar_ Knight "Marsupial, to be exact," exactly.
Marsupial*
Possums are not rodents! You are closer to being a rodent than a possum (or opossum, makes no difference to this specific point) is; unless that is, you're an internet browsing kangaroo.
@@edmondantes4338 i'm actually just a giant rat in real life. but you'd never know.
4:17 that's funny considering China was jelaous of kung fu panda being better than most of their movies .
I don't think representing different groups or cultures is necessarily a bad thing. When done well, they can be really good. But I've been growing increasingly sick of this recent trend of putting representation first and writing good characters second.
True story: I myself am on the Autism Spectrum (specifically Asperger's/high functioning Autism), and while it definitely played a part in shaping who I am, I never considered it the core of my identity. A few years back, I remember Sesame Street introducing an autistic Muppet character named Julia. I was intrigued at first, but after watching her debut episode, I found myself a bit disappointed. She was okay as a representation, but I found her personality a bit lacking. I'm not expecting Shakespeare levels of depth from a Sesame Street character, but it seemed like "Autism" was the be all end all of her entire identity. I've related to numerous fictional characters over the years, but I related to them organically based on _who_ they were rather than _what_ they were. It's really frustrating when the media tells me I _should_ relate to a certain character that looks like me or has the same condition as me only to find I can't really relate to them at all.
I agree. Even tho a learning disability is different from ethnicity, as someone who's also on the spectrum, I hate when people try to pretend they're breaking ground by representing me. Because it's a learning disability and they're trying to portray us in a positive light despite using us for a pat on the back at the end of the day.
A note on Julia- ASAN partnered with Autism Speaks in order to make her character. So it's really no wonder that she doesn't feel quite right, considering the awful shitshow Autism Speaks actually is.
@@anathemat-002ha, autism speaks, more like autism.... Isn't... Speaking... (nailed it)
Moana didn't have a very unique story, but it made up for it with fantastic songs and fun and memorable characters and some decent comedy imo.
Ikr this movie doesnt even have a single song like bruh that is literally the bread and butter of disney
The ocean robbed the show in Moana
Meh. It was bland.
@@randomcatmeow1394 disney movies with songs are great but some of them could be better if they're musicals like Tarzan but other movies like lilo and stich doesn't need to be a musical to be amazing
@@Jose04537 Nah, Tamatoa did!
Is there a single Disney Asian character who isnt a martial artist? just sayin
Snow White
@@Prodmullefc Snow White wasn't Asian, she was Zimbabwean!
@@AnomalyINC she still kicked ass in Shrek the third
Mulan's grandma
Maybe the siamese cats from lady and the tramp?
Raya: The Last Dragon
Moana: The Cooler Last Dragon
In your opinion lolol
What happened to Disney Movies like Mulan, or The Little Mermaid, or Aladdin? I mean those are the ones I grew up with. All these new ones all look similar. I mean so did the old 2D Disney movies they looked similar too. But they also had distinct changes in character design. Like in Mulan all of the characters have a different overall artistic look compared to characters in Pocahontas. In Pocahontas all of the characters are very well defined and look very real. In Mulan there’s more cartoony characters that are silly and more eccentric. All the 3D Disney movies all follow the same basic layout of how their characters look. There are distinct differences in the 2D movies.
Funny enough those all got remade (except TLM). Also funny how all the remakes either suck, or are at least considered inferior to the originals.
@@camarokidbb4347 The Little Mermaid is on the way with a black Ariel. Fuck us redheads.
@A Zee Pretty much.
@A Zee Exactly. While a lot of the most popular mermaid myths come from around the Gulf of Mexico area, they're far from the only ones. Mermaids/sirens are on of the few universal myths between nearly every single coastal country. Even inland Russia had folk tales of the Selkie, who would sing songs to lure people in so she could drown and eat them in various rivers.
So it's not like Disney couldn't have dropped a pin anywhere else on the map and found a suitable non-white alternative to Ariel without just dropping some random dark skinned person into old timey Denmark, which is *still* a super white place to this day (98%). It's genuinely disrespectful to both parties.
The moral of the story? Never trust someone with an undercut.
Disney put labels on women with undercuts. They must be insensitive straight white males!!
Or that we probably shouldn’t trust Disney.
Undercut.
Definition: To diminish or destroy the province or effectiveness of; undermine.
The villain looks like very popular gay celebrity from the Philippines. Surely the woke would be mad about it?
"I like ya cut G."
For real, I'm getting sick of Disney's stagnant art style. Look at any of their old 2D movies and you can easily recognize it by a random screenshot. And this is especially annoying with Raya, who has such a generic face that you're more likely to think she's a background character from looking at a picture of her. I could put up with it if at least their storytelling was good enough, but it has gotten stagnant too. Frozen 2 was painfully forgettable. I literally cannot remember anything of the plot save that it has a ridiculously convenient ending where no one has to pay any kind of price and everything is perfectly solved, and I only remember that because it annoyed me to no end.
What about the artstyle was stagnant?
@@juanstrong3695 the fact that the majority of their recent films have the exact same art style and you could edit the characters into screenshots from a movie from 5 years ago and they wouldn’t look out of place?
@@coolnormalandwelladjusted This movie isn't the exact same art style as Zootopia, or the Frozen movies, of Wreck it Ralph, etc.
@@juanstrong3695 if you say so lol. idk what people get out of defending lifeless mega corporations that care only about making a profit
@@juanstrong3695 I think the way I look at it (from a gaming perspective) is that 3D art that leans towards realistic proportions tend to be too symmetrical and clean. I think it’s why Zootopia and Wreck-It-Ralph work well is because the animation isn’t bound by that constraint. Traditional works tend to be stylized and reflect the artists whereas computers not so much.
The whole “find this object in another setting and rinse and repeat” reminds me of that movie Onward, didn’t they do that in that movie? It was a fine movie but god there is so much stagnation in some places, and really needed a few more drafts
And also she does it too fast, I feel there should've been more challenge tbh :/
Onward was very weak, boring, and forgettable.
Some good scenes? Yes, but not enough IMO.
Ironically, that film I was planning to see before COVID shut down everything.
I eventually rented the DVD, and am glad I did.
@@RB01.10 Onward wasn't about the 'find the mcguffin' journey. It was about the bonding of two brothers over the only chance they have to see their dad one last time. It might be forgettable to people who haven't lost family members that are extremely close to them, but it hits home for those of us who did, and harder if it was the father.
Honestly I only watched this movie because James Newton Howard did the score, and I wanted to hear what he would do in this movie given his amazing work with Atlantis. He did not disappoint with scenes like the dragon graveyard and running on raindrops. Did not care for the story at all.
This is gonna flop and Disney is going to walk away saying. "Well people just don't like animated movies anymore"
No, no, they'll say we're racist cause it's about Asian people
It'll succeed because disney movie and maybey girl power because people are ignorant.
@@osets2117 Wait I didn't think Asians counted as poc's anymore.
@@riftvallance2087 This is a joke right?
@@LittleunlikelyGiant2222 I meant it ironically, but it really is a leftist talking point.
It looks like the epitome of those geniric, squeaky clean movies Disney loves to pump out.
It 100% looks too clean
Yeah, because being creative and original is too hard.
at least its not a live action remake
@@realamerican3282 True. It has THAT at least.
@@realamerican3282 don’t give them ideas
It’s really funny that everyone is going on about how ”representative blah blah” this movie is of SEA people and half of them can’t even watch it
Apparently SEA people don’t exist outside of SEA
I’m guessing the writers had that one rival girl betray Raya despite the lesson being “trust people” as a poor attempt to subvert expectations or to “show reality” in some way. But the thing is, doing that does not make your film more “mature” or “shocking.” It’s just poor writing.
As an Asian, I can say the one thing it represents Asians correctly is when everyone fighting over the dragon ball in the beginning. XD That said, maybe that's not an exclusive Asian thing. I honestly hate the message of trust people when she trusted the other girl very early and kinda got f*cked. If they wanted the message to be about trust then they should have made it that she never trusted them and her father not trusting the other countries too and that caused the issue. I think they were afraid to label Raya or her dad to have bad traits as can't have a female hero who isn't perfect. All-female heroes must be Ma ray sue. I hated the dragon character, the dialogue is so cringed bad especially in the beginning.
I wouldn’t say Raya is presented as perfect, just that her trust issues arc was executed poorly
Yeah the dragon sucked
100% agree
Sisu was really annoying and unfunny
@@iammar1159 ya
I wish we could go back in time to when kids movies and cartoons were genuinely entertaining and fun but still containing lessons of friendship, responsibilities, doing the right thing, learning from your mistakes and forgiveness. That's not going to happen anytime soon nor are we going to see any good movies or cartoons for kids ever again. To quote possum: "kids movies should be held to a higher standard than movies for adults, because kids are more impressionable than an adult" end quote.
Thats a little too cynical their are good cartoons still.
@@privatehere3324 Yes i am cynical.
Ugh of course......
@@privatehere3324 like clone wars was
There is good stuff out there it's just not new
The dragon is literally Elsa Fursona mixed with Shenron from DBZ but scaled down and neutered
To me, that dragon looks more like a character from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
This movie was ok. Main issue is it played it ridiculously safe. The story was predictable and meh, none of the jokes landed for me, there wasn't enough time spent on the father for us to care what happens to him, the skrillex-hair chick saying near the end "I don't have a choice" makes no sense, there is nothing provided to show that she doesn't have a choice, she very much does. The dragons all look like the same fckn model, and they probably are, just slightly modified versions of the same model with some different thing on their heads. The dragons are scarcely in the movie (besides one obviously) so I get spending time on a big variety of dragons is asking for a bit much... but it's disney... and they're asking for $30 to see this. They really dropped the ball on the dragon design, the males and females look identical and they all have elsa's face.
Things I do like however, it doesn't have singing, THANK YOU disney for making an animated flick without it being a musical, I'm sick of your garbage songs. The characters that were supposed to be likeable were pretty likeable (the boat kid was pretty great). The pacing is good, I didn't feel any parts in particular were dragging or felt too out of place, the scenes flowed from one to the next pretty solid. All-in-all, certainly can't consider it bad by any stretch, but it definitely isn't great. It's just a fun watch and i'll probably never see it again. $30? Big nope.
Definitely agree on your points.
Bruh we different the fucking pacing was too fast i didnt have enough time 5o care about anyone
I bet during the oscars this is gonna win best animated film -Because disney paid them-
There's a reason their ratings keep falling, that, and preachy politics from smug rich people.
I think we can't detrime the best animated film of 2021 because luca didn't come out yet
@@staringcorgi6475 oh boy, Luca was phenomenal!
@@jamssy3409 nope just another generic kids movie with a predictable plot at least vs the machines had a great presentation and had soul in it the movie felt like a discount coco with the oh no parents are strict or also special forms like skeletons the only difference is the unique setting but if it was in a small American third class town than nothing would change
@@staringcorgi6475 hm, I do have to agree with Mitchells vs the Machines. It had so much life to it and personality. It completely ignoring the "internet bad" movie trope I expected from it.
Dang, I can't believe I forgot about it!
But the reason I brought up Luca was how it hits close to home. I actually related to the characters. I guess that's just me
the movie is PAINFULLY unfunny. Not even in a family-friendly kind of way, because there are sooo many family friendly/kids movies that are genuinely funny. This isn't.
Their attempts at humor suck
It’s called being so out of touch with their core audience, that they just make up what they think would be funny.
My brain shuts off when I see a modern Disney movie. Makes it more enjoyable.
@GENESIS CUETO have you actually been on tumblr?? lmao its nothing like it. its more like facebook or reddit humor
@@tipsycat27 before TUMBLR banned porn I’ve seen posts on TUMBLR, and the humor in Raya isn’t any different than TUMBLR humor.
Honestly, it probably would've been better if the designs were different, different dragons, maybe change up the designs for the different lands, like their individual tribes could've had more design. The whole, "It only worked because they trusted her" thing kinda ruined the film for me, like you telling me that you're gonna leave the last pieces of Dragon magic to the girl that got your father turned to stone. I wouldn't even trust the girl with putting on my seat belt, let alone putting together a cosmic dragon EMP. Only thing I liked in the whole movie, was the baby and the Monkey, that had me laughing out of my chair almost.
I'm South East Asian, they literally just colored the characters darker smh.
Why is the dragon talking like a middle aged woman who frequents Starbucks, and everyone else has a serious and fantastical voice?
I hate it. Instantly disliked that about it because it's just so stupid. It'd be better if the characters addressed the dragon's weird voice, and the movie was self aware. But no.
The animation is high quality and gorgeous though, I have to admit. But yes it looks like everything else. XD
They're trying to do Mushu again.
Because the voice actor’s voice sounds like that
@@dragonheart1236 Mushu done wrong then XD
So basically everyone at Disney must’ve watched Eddie Murphy’s performance as Donkey in Shrek and said, “Yeah, the kids will love this type humor with this film’s tone.”
unrelated but i like ur pfp
"I'm not going to pretend that the movie is good just because it crosses off some demographic check box"
👏👏👏😢 that was beautiful.
Honestly his voice is perfect for complaining he could never leave a non sarcastic comment
Another thing about the dragon characters, every time I saw them using body language or just moving in general, it was so similar to Zootopia's animation that I swore Nick or Judy had the exact same body movement. It just seems Disney doesn't even want to try anymore.
Being honest that movie’s story sounds like a generic manga plot. Specially the part of “There’s a dragon which transforms into a human and stays that way most of the time”.
Aight don't insult miss Kobayashi's dragon maid like that, that is top tier compared to this movie
@@genocider9782 I didn't even think of that while writing this comment, I was thinking of generic isekais where a dragon transforms into a little girl and becomes a side character.
I also like Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, but I have to admit that technically it falls in this category (maybe not the "generic" part).
@@saquial oh lol k my bad 😅
She was actually a dragon most of the time. She was a human for a large chunk of the movie though.
@@MisterJang0 Wot?
I feel like this movie pandered to American Asians, not actual South East Asians.
Well it makes sense, Actual southeast asians barely even has access to disney+
ding ding ding
They should have focused on a specific country. Instead they did a disrespectful mashup of SEA cultures, as if it were a monolith
@@tiny2315 yeah SEA are pretty different, languages, people, religion, etc
I don’t think that “Asian Americans” should be called Asians. They’ve lived there for so long that they’re more called Americans than Asians. Just like how White,Black Americans are not Europeans or Africans
@@siegfried2k4 Whatever your background is, if you were born and raised in USA, you’re just american. Just because your parents were asian for example, doesn’t mean they will keep their culture to a T or that you will live through the same experiences an actual asian does.
0:25 Excatly! The originality has been thrown out of the window!
I think the dragon was purposely designed like this to sell toys of it. It’s safer and overly cute. They likely think having a properly designed Asian dragon animated or as a toy isn’t cute and children won’t buy it. I can smell the “buy my toys” coming from it.
Disney stop making shit movies challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
(GONE WRONG)
(GONE SEXUAL)
(DEMON EMOJI)
(ELSA CALLED!!)
(ALMOST ARRESTED)
The dragon's design is so crap that r34 and e621 can't make anything out of it
There's a reason it's Disney's "safe artstyle".
When your design is so bad, Rule 34 ignores your existence.
@Jaidon Brown make it athro
@@Zack-xv2yc bro if e621 can some how lewd a fucking ship but not the dragon that can tell alot
Honestly, that's impressive on Disney's part.
Additionally, I don't remember the Indonesian and Malaysian Keris and the Philippine Kalis swords can become a whip sword.
I must have missed that in history class!
It can also turned into a snake or demons, depend on how creative you can be. *Trust* is the greatest power.
Is it weird that the main protagonist blindly trust the main villain even when she has shown multiple times that she must not be trusted it seems more like a toxic friendship and it just seems like bad message for kids to take in .
4:13 Kung Fu Panda is actually quite beloved by the Chinese
No, he said how it represents china
@@PolskiKrajowa Which it does? Like I have heard nothing but praise about how it represents China?
@@Pelagion98 well I meant to say how he said it didn't
@@PolskiKrajowa He was incorrect there. Chinese officials had massive discussions about why they hadn't made a movie of that caliber; they were particularly impressed by the creatures chosen. (I like to think they've done so by now, but like most of the world for the past year I'm not leaving my house much and I don't have the $£€ etc. for 19 extra streaming services.) He can be wrong about one thing and still be taken seriously (nobody is flawless), and he can defend himself fine if he wants to. He's a smart guy.
@@McCammalot Ya I hate to just come onto the guys channel and smack talk him but...
He honestly gets a lot of shit wrong. I like some of his content, but he clearly is not that knowledge about what he is talking about.
This movie should’ve been about learning to trust people other than “I want to trust people constantly even though I was back stabbed in the beginning”
or better yet relearning to trust people
@@Steven9567 Like everyone else keeps saying, Avatar handled this better in the span of 2 episodes (40 mins) than this movie did in going on 2 hours. Katara forgives the man who killed her mom without trusting him, and trusts Zuko (a man who had constantly antagonized her group) without forgiving him. In all honesty, I wouldn’t even say she forgave her mom’s killer...she overcame him, which is something even more difficult to do. But Raya? Shows a stranger THE most important item in her group’s protection within the first few minutes of meeting her, gets betrayed, starts the literal apocalypse because she was betrayed, loses her dad, trusts the person who betrayed her again for no reason, gets betrayed again, loses her dragon and levels up the apocalypse, then chooses to trust the person who betrayed her AGAIN and even sacrifices her life (and her friend’s lives) to do it.
This movie’s message in a nutshell: “If you’re betrayed by someone, keep trusting them until they stop betraying you.”
@@6ixlxrd perfect cheff kiss
She doesn’t trust until the end, that’s the point
@@Steven9567 that’s what she does
The stone dragons look cooler than the actual Dragon design
One of Disneys best composers cane back for this movie, James Newton Howard, he last made the soundtrack for treasure planet and this movie had one of the best soundtracks of the 21st century! The asian instruments were very prominent, sometimes minutes were dedicated to a certain drum or flute, like during battle scenes. Not to say the movie wasn't bad, i kinda thought it was painfully average, but i kinda liked the world building and character design.
It was a dull movie with plotholes, unoriginal story done by 8 writers, a Mary Sue, a forced moral, poor jokes, and Awkwafina being terrible and annoying as the dragon. The only good things are the visuals, the one joke with the puppy, and the rest of the voice acting being decent. At least it's a little better than Frozen.
The only good movie Awkwafina has done is Crazy Rich Asians
Awkwafina? That’s her name? Awkwafina? You fucking kidding me?
@@tailfin6595 no, her birth name is Nora Lum. Awkwafina is a stage name
Sounds worst than Frozen to me.
@@RollingDodgeI at least gave this movie some credit. There was no redeeming qualities in Frozen
I think Disney is making their animation too realistic. Like, dude, animation was made to look and do things unrealistic.
Not necessarily. Animation is a form of art used to tell a story, making more realistic animation is a stylistic choice. This movie is supposed to have a bit of a darker theme, though it doesn’t exactly succeed. It takes place in a dystopian setting, with a somewhat saturated color palette and constant betrayal that contribute to the setting. Having a grittier animation style helps contribute to the arching story.
@@El-de6nj I would argue that making your animation realistic does nothing for it. As stated, animation was made to do unrealistic things and look unrealistic and I believe that making it realistic sort of just wastes that. Not to say I don't enjoy realistic animation, I just think it's more of a wasted opportunity.
As another note, although realistic animation could supposedly help stylistically to convey a more abstract tone my comment singled out disney because many of their projects now attempt this realistic animation which is weird in my opinion. Why confine yourself to that style?
@@El-de6nj yeah the best animation the kind that strays away from reality
Depends on the animation
@@kaiserproductions1278 Most Near-future themed animes tend to be realistic. Boy, Patlabor the Movie had Awesome cityscapes. Whisper of the Heart level but on a dark and rugged tone.
I feel like rango is one of the best kid's movies and more movies should try and learn from it.
"groundbreaking yet accessible" what's that even mean lol
It means it's amazing, yet mediocre
"We're telling you it's amazing, but you also need to come into this knowing our characters are of X minority group because we're banking on it. We also think you're all fucking idiots who are so tribal that anything with your group name on it will earn us millions."
Imagine the Unicorn/Amalthea from the "The Last Unicorn" declaring, "Look how close my head is to my butt!" after she was transformed.
Yeah... Disney cannot do that whole 'gravitas' thing anymore.
The Last Unicorn isn't Disney, but I agree. I don't even like The Last Unicorn and yet I think it did fantasy better than Disney does now. Growing up I saw a lot of fantasy movies that felt huge and impactful. Even the body humor in those older movies felt cleverer and more subtle that you could ignore it if you wanted to. Now we have...whatever this is. I really don't think Disney likes dragons very much. Between Sisu and Mushu, they are dead-set on portraying dragons as goofy, kind of dumb comic relief characters.
It's a motherfucking dragon. Couldn't it have been majestic or cool even once?
@@TheAtroxious that’s why I prefer Universal dragons!
I shudder at the thought of them getting so desperate for live action remake fodder that they dig up The Black Cauldron.
@@TheAtroxious Well in sleeping beauty, there's a villain who can turn herself into a dragon
Yet another soulless Disney movie that just appeared out of nowhere. I guarantee you if it wasn't for this video I would have never found out this movie existed.
same here.
I saw the toys at WalMart b4 hearing bout the film.
About as Soulless as the movie Soul...
@@jnoirj3124 Hol' up! If you think Soul doesn't have any soul, then you probably haven't seen it! One of Pixar better ones!
@@VigilanteLulu "If you think Soul doesn't have any soul, then you probably haven't seen it!"
What a weird strawman to make; mainly because you can't prove if I have or have not seen the movie; which I have. Sorry, I think it lacked "soul", which is pretty ironic. The other character, 22, was probably one of the worst characters in the movie to me. She/It reminded me of the "Meh" emoji from the Emoji movie. I think 22's existence was mainly for marketability...The main character was pretty good though.
Honestly, if they had focused more on the main character and the unfullfilling life he lead and that conceptual afterlife zone, or better yet, he could try to help one of his students who would end up the same way he had; unfullfilled and simply wondering "what could've been".
Seeing the movie, the character design and representation are the least of my quibbles, and I'm a Southeast Asian.
Just a few months back, we got a Pixar-made Soul on Disney+ for FREE, which is way deeper and thoughtful than this pricey, premier-access, it's-okay-to-normalize-and-sympathize-bad-and-selfish-people-because-trust-and-friendship-rulezz movie for smooth-brains.
I mean, the tribes are already problematic from the start where they still have a power struggle even when the Druuns are already vanquished. Seeing every tribe just doing a 180 at the end and suddenly get back together like best buds again is total unconvincing BS, esp when there are so many scenes which establish the Fang is already that selfish in the first place. The movie tried to convince us that deep down, everyone wants the good for the entire community and what we lack is trust and consensus, but, to quote from a masterpiece that is eons ahead of this basic movie known as Bojack Horseman, "I don't think I believe in deep down. I kinda think that all you are is just the things that you do."
I for one liked it, even though parts of it felt rushed. Sisu was an instant fav
That cursed frame of the dragon tho...
Which one lol
As a South East Asian (hello from Hong Kong :), when I first saw the advertisement, "asian" was not the first thing to come to mind at all. The fact that I required this review to make it a conscious thought that "oh, this is meant to be asian representation" is sad.
Frankly, it is a bit insulting that this movie was meant as Disney's way to virtue signal/check the demographic box by pretending they care about SEA culture, but treating it all as interchangeable symbols to be used as fancy decoration. Looking at the footage here, the visuals completely confused me because while I recognize some parts (her father with Ming Dynasty topknot hairstyle), but then it immediately shows Raya, who's hairstyle and design does not at all align.
It is jarring to look at, like someone made knock-off cursed Asia.Through trying to mash all SEA cultural aspects into one movie, they've created some terrible, nearly unrecognisable amalgamate of SEA symbols that fails to represents the very people they say they intend to portray.
as a fellow south east asian, i couldn't have said it better
As a confused Westerner, I'm glad you pointed that out.
They did the same with Moana and PI culture 😥 ...People assume it’s just Hawaiian which it definitely isn’t just that.
Makes me sad, really.
I agree with what you say. I'm also a SE asian, and it kinda weird that they try to make this morph between all the cultures. I appreciate they tried to make as many representations as they can, but it ended up looking forgein to me.
Disney, and the US in general, loves to generalize countries that aren’t from Europe. Look at Moana, it showed “Polynesian culture”. Look at Elena de Avalor, it shows “hispanic culture”. This movie, shows “SEA culture”. Also Wakanda from Marvel, is a mashup of various african cultures to portray “african culture”...Etc. On the other hand you have movies like Frozen, which are way more specific (scandinavian), Hercules (greek), all based on some european region or country. Then all who watch those movies have the perception that all SEA people are a monolith.
I’m from Chile and it’s so tiring to see them depict all latin americans as salsa dancers who eat tacos. I’ve literally never done either of that.
"Raya herself is a pretty bland protagonist. She doesn't have any wants or interests outside of finding the crystal shard so she could bring her father back." Hmmm sounds like another female protagonist I've seen... What's her name again? Oh yeah, Tessa Thompson
The big muscle guy doesn't look like Maui
He looks like the main villain in the original Mulan movie (God, I hate having to distinguish between "original" and "remake" now!)
Oh yeah, Shan Yu
I feel like Raya would have benefited far more from being a show instead of a movie, seeing as the plot would fit pretty well with that episodic format akin to Avatar. An episodic format would also likely help to flesh out the world and characters shown in the movie.
Shame that the movie was meh, but I'll take a meh movie to a garbage cash grab anyday.
This!!
Agree, the setting's scope is too far and wide for a single 2-hour movie to cover. Not even a single village got a nice enough screentime to be fleshed out! If they would do something similar to Tangled and turn Raya into a well-managed series, it'd be really wonderful
"Princess Celestia-hair" is one of the best things I've ever heard.
That one scene where sisu got shot by an arrow and fell off the cliff got me laughing so hard.
the movie is fine, but it could have used a more sophisticated tone, everything else is so maturely designed except the dragons, especially sisu. They could've chosen a better wording, like make it serious bc it is serious but the jokes and the words are not showing that. and it could've been longer, 1:50:00 is not enough for the movie, we visited five places and time was segregated unequally between them. the crew was too big, it would've been better they made them only 3 instead of 5 or if they made it only Raya.
Oof. I'm kinda sad to see this movie flopping because that's Disney's first original animated movie since Moana. I was hoping that it would be succesful enough for them to start making original movies again, but looks like they'll be going back to crappy live actions...
Their at a point where simply having the name "a Disney film" brings in lots of money,even if their work is half assed or mediocre.
They basically barely have to try now,and this movie is proof.
I could just tell by the trailers that the goofy marketable plushie dragon is going to be the weakest part of this film. Gods forbid Disney don't make a silly character that sells toys in their films.
Edit: oh lawd there are even worse characters, seriously a baby that knows kung fu??
Disney did dragons better with American Dragon Jake Long lol.
@@Gruntvc ah good times good times
Trying to make another Olaf
The shrimp boy Boun looks like the only amazing character they should have just made a movie about him*cough*cough*
WOAH!!! IS IT A BABY THAT KNOWS KUNG FU?? HAHAHA THATS SO FUNNY BECAUSE DID YOU KNOW THAT BABIES DON'T USUALLY KNOW THAT WOAHHHHHH I AM ROFLING RN
im glad i cruised the comments of a video on your old channel and found this one. im probably going to binge watch all these videos now, keep up the great work.
More reviews like this need to balance out the score for this movie, it really doesn't desserve that 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, not that RT was ever reliable.
This movie was such a let down. You compare it to Moana, but Moana was actually pretty solid and had good storytelling scenes, convincing main characters and represented the culture it was portraying pretty well, Raya was so hollow. It's similar to Moana in the most useless way: princess having to find a magic gem with the help of a mythical figure to stop a mindless dark force from corrupting the world, but done worse with less charismatic characters. This movie didn't even need to be amazing, just reach that same level as Moana and I'd be happy. Felt shortchanged as someone from South East Asia and this is what we got for our big-budget Disney movie. The marketing art looks more exciting and interesting than what the actual movie is.
I liked Namari's hair lol, I think the art is amazing with the exception of the dragon designs, so bland and generic. There's even scenes where you see a bunch of them together and they look so underwhelming. There's so much potential in this movie that's just underdeveloped. Why did they have so many side characters if they did nothing, that big burly guy was so pointless. It wastes screen time. The dialogue was trite and is so exposition-y when it's not jarringly modern. The weakest point in this movie was really the writing and it's a shame. It's like they don't understand that if they want room for all this they need more time like a TV series and didn't know how to cut back and tell a good story within the run time of a movie.
And yes so much on the dragon's character just being dumb but being framed as wise in her faith in humanity. I don't even dislike the moral, I can see with some reworking and polish it could have been a really good message, but they weren't smart enough to write it well or work out the kinks. And they built up Sisu's family so much but when they finally appear in the end they're like set props, no presence, not even dialogue.
The purple evil fog was so sloppy and lazy. South East Asia has very rich supernatural lore they could have taken from, but they came up with that instead.
This film was disappointing. It’s moral of trusting people is completely broken.
....
melons
@@bruhSaintJohn this made me wheeze
@@bruhSaintJohn LOL🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
It is a fact tho, who can you even trust on the current society we live in.
"This movie represents SEA as much as Kung Fu Panda does China"
China: "Why do we not make such great movies about our culture?"
SEA: "Why is this nothing like our culture at all?"
Not sure if that comparrison worked.
This movie comming out after Mulan liveaction give me a feeling like they have failed kissing China’s ass so now they switch into another one but no Asian country has big population as China so they go with the entire region
*cultures
SEA isn’t homogenous and even individual countries will have a wide array of languages of cultural subgroups
Ok so major spoilers here but the lesson of trusting people is further muddled in the climax when the dragon convinces Rhya to trust people again only to have that same person who betrayed her before attempt to betray her again. And then try to make it out that Rhya is in the wrong for getting pissed off enough to beat the crap out of this girl whose nation took everything from her not once but twice.
I can't watch a Disney movie without feeling insulted these days.
Disney Logic:İf I put generic asian stereotypes of chinese and asian people they will love it because they dont have induviduality
Movie:Flops
Disney:Try again
Yeah, Raya was one of the most terrible and lazy Disney movies I've seen, and I'm normally a pretty forgiving Disney fanboy. The dragon's face. Just why.
And the fur.
@@cauliflower9967 the fur isnt strange tho for asian dragons, just the face is too humanized as if shes elsa.
@@ThyWeepingWillow That too. The fur around the neck only would be acceptable but the whole body being furry is just ridiculous and I suspect they did that just to sell toys :')
@@ThyWeepingWillow Dude, they covered her entire body with fur even if she's leaning to be serpent. Even in Asia, serpents typically have scales. The fur was just so out of place
@@user-wn3wv5bx5e for the fact that it was supposed to be a naga, it shouldve had mane/neck fur mixed with scales yes. But there is asian dragons that are depicted with mostly fur
This is just the plot of Ori and the Will of the Wisp done bad.
haha. This gave me a good laugh
No this is correct
@@ruphite9521 I wasnt saying it was wrong, I was just laughing
True.
I'm scared for Disney's Hollow Knight...
I knew the Movie was gonna be Ass when I saw the Dragon Design...Like C’mon they could’ve done better
Your opinion lolololo make sure you say that next time.
Your entire summary of the MacGuffin story just reminded me of the Dark Crystal. When I first watched the trailer I am mediately thought that he ripped off Avatar the Last Airbender. And then when I watch the movie I thought that it took some inspiration from Moana, Frozen, and Mulan but I never noticed that it actually ripped off it’s entire plot off of Dark Crystal.
So glad everybody forgot about this movie
And yet another reason to not buy disney plus. Its really sad seeing disney this low. So low to the point where they just ignore incarceration camps in china. unbelievable.
They always have.
Well, that's Disney for you. Ignoring morals for profit, and making everything really basic to not offend the snowflakes known as "feminists", and so that China can view it, for profit, of course.
Man I hope lagiacres gets into rise he was always one of my favorite leviathan monsters
@@theonefreeman5284 It's more of south east asia, like Indoesnia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), etc
Dude I love lagiacris. Mh3 was my first monster hunter and one of the games that got me into gaming. I get alittle nostalgic thinking about it. Why did they ever remove water honestly.
I ended up accidentally getting tickets to see this movie, and I figured "eh, it's better than buying it on Disney+".
Looking back, I didn't even pay for those tickets and I still want my money back.
@The_Jaguar_ Knight DUDE FOR REAL XD
It was that bad?
@@alienbird5624 The other characters on the poster have a combined 15 or so minutes of screen time and the world is beautiful but is lacking depth or substance. They jump from location to location so quickly that it makes it hard to get invested in everything happening, as that’s not even counting the PLENTIFUL amount of cliches.
@@onhold1706 so basically it’s bad
@@alienbird5624 Yeah, pretty much. Not to mention, I don’t see why Onward and Soul were completely free on Disney+ but this wasn’t.
Fun fact: this film was writer by Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians), two people with Southeast Asian heritage. So either this was a passionless project for both of them, or they actually did write a respectful celebration of southeast Asian culture only for the soulless Disney corporation to sandblast all that respect and distinct Asian flavor away in an attempt to reach to as broad an audience as possible.
If the latter is the case, that's incredibly disrespectful to both Asians for the editing of their folklore, and to non-Asians for thinking they can't appreciate any culture(/race) they can't see reflections of themselves in.
Intersectionality is just a new weird for segregation.
Raya feels like Disney hired people to remake Avatar the best they could without having to buy Nickelodeon.
I think Avatar is undoubtedly inspired by Star wars, and it's somewhat similar, but that show creators actually fully fleshed out a unique world with deep diverse characters.