Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Director: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada

In a realm known as Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.

I was so looking forward to a good, new, original animated film. Unfortunately, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ is not what I was looking for.

‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ is a great movie to keep children occupied. Kids surely will love this film. As for a mature audience, though, I have my doubts. Yes, this movie looks incredible on screen. The animation is great. The adventure element will appeal to a mature audience. But sadly the overbearing silly humor deem this a kids’ movie. The most annoying part about the movie was Sisu – the dragon who supposedly saved the world. She is an idiotic, stupid character with the most annoying voicing and ‘what the hell’ dialogue.

Furthermore, its not clear who – or what – the antagonist is. Is it the Druun? Is it Namaari? And who is the protagonist? Since the film is called ‘ Raya and the Last Dragon’, who assume it to be Raya, but then again Raya doesn’t save the day, does she? So is it Sisu? Or Namaari? Yup, again, Namaari. I’m not sure whether she’s meant to be good or bad…protagonist or antagonist…

There are also so many plot holes and incoherent story line. Having just met Namaari, Raya shows her where Sisu’s gem is kept. What??!! She shows her one of the most guarded ‘treasures’ within minutes having met her!!?? Towards the end Namaari’s actions are also questionable, as well as Raya’s. On more than one occasion did the question arise: how did they know to do that? How did they know what the outcome of there actions would be with so much uncertainty and little knowledge of what they were up against? It simply wasn’t believable. Then again – as mentioned previously – if intended for a young demographic, these issues wouldn’t bother them. And then there’s the baby who reminded me of Boss Baby, and her sidekicks who reminded me of Kung Fu Panda. There actually were so many references to other animated characters that this hardly felt original.

The film sends out a powerful message about trust, but maybe also focuses so much on this that it feels like they’re spoon feeding the audience. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t get into this film.

Would I watch it again? No.