Raya and the Last Dragon

Raya and the Last Dragon is inspired by traditional Southeast Asian cultures. The filmmakers consulted with Southeast Asia Story Trust experts to ensure an accurate cultural representation in the film.[29] During production, the filmmakers emphasized the importance of avoiding stereotypical portrayals of Asian characters.[30] To conduct background research, they traveled to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where they were inspired by the local sense of acceptance, unity, and trust which they adopted as themes for the film. The artists explored various ways to express Kumandra's distinct characteristics and personalities, before consulting with the Trust and integrating cultural elements in their designs.[29] Designing Kumandra's five fractured lands was challenging, and the team approached this by infusing them with unique climates and characteristics to reflect the diverse beliefs and culture of their people, with each land and its people representing a mandala icon revolving around Kumandra. This is inspired by the religious, cultural principles teaching that everything is centered around a common belief sys­tem or cosmology.[31] During the worldbuilding of Kumandra, the designers focused on the expression of fantasy through using unfamiliar shapes, playing with scale and color, and placing objects in unexpected locations. Kumandra's Dragon River is inspired by the Mekong, and its dynamic colors in different lands are used to illustrate Raya's location in the film.[32]

Raya and Sisu concept art

"At the core of our film are two characters, their arc, and their relationship, so I tried to imagine the two of them at different moments in their journey. [I] sketched the two as pals who hang out and share secrets, growing closer and opening up over time."

— Character art director Shiyoon Kim, The Art of Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

The filmmakers focused the core of the film on Raya and Sisu, and their conflicting characteristics of trust issues and over-trusting acted as the basis for the film's humor and emotion. They initially designed the characters separately, drawing various designs of Raya and Sisu. However, they felt that there was something lacking and incomplete in their designs, and they realized the importance of designing them together, helping them better understand how they complemented each other both visually and thematically.[33]

Raya was conceived as a serious swordswoman focusing on her goal to find Sisu, and Sisu was conceived as a dragon trapped in her human form who refused to help Raya. However, as the writing progressed, Raya softened and Sisu become more helpful; the writers approached Raya as a character who act flawlessly and Sisu who does everything sideways.[34] The designers ensured that Raya's observed quality would be culturally authentic, functional for her role as a swordswoman, and reflective of her emotional journey throughout the film. They designed her with feminine nose and strong, prominent cheekbones qualities. Her outfit is based on traditional sabai top and dhoti pants with cultural dragon references; her high-collar cape and large hat acted as protective layers that the filmmakers intended to remove as she emotionally evolves with the film.[35][36] They aimed to make Raya exceptionally expressive and emotionally diverse, focusing on her playful and comedic aspects.[37]

Sisu is inspired by the naga, mythical beings who can manifest as serpent or human and are usually associated with water. The designers were inspired by the naga's cultural influence and powerful presence in Southeast Asia that evokes a feeling that they "actually exist in an invisible world of which we are not a part", and they sought to explore this concept in the story where the dragons were revered and similarly reflected this effect.[38] They explored many silhouettes and attitudes of Sisu, ranging from ethereal and magical to the ferocious and skeptical, and they consulted with the Trust to help maintain her fantastical and unique characteristics while also addressing cultural customs and beliefs. Specific design elements in her dragon form were intentionally retained in her human attire to create a cohesive and recognizable character design.[39]

The poses of the dragon statues represent the designers' efforts to convey the same sense of grandeur, reverence, and awe-inspiring presence that dragons have in Southeast Asian culture.[40] The dragons' footsteps radiate colorful, refracted ripples of light to emphasize cultural association with water.[41] They designed the dragons with glowing characteristics and fluid grooms and textures, referencing various design elements such as scales and translucent fins.[42] Water is a central element in the story; it is used to illustrate Raya's emotional growth, where colored bodies of water represent moments in which Raya feels close to those around her while high contrast, dark-colored ones represent her distrust and insecurity.[4] The Druun were approached as embodiments of hopelessness and dread with a dynamic, cloudy form that is difficult to be perceived as one continuous form; their concepts include aquatic life, water boiling in reverse, dough folding in on itself, black holes, and parasitic behaviors.[43]

Dragons are a central aspect in Heart's design; they appear in its sacred fortress and palace and serve as cultural symbols. The dragons' design were influenced by water, which were reflected in Heart's rounded-shape architecture designs that form pattern of ripples.[44] The designers aimed to make Heart's pond a magical and sacred place because it represent an important character moment between Raya and her father, incorporating elements of flowers that only bloom at night. While researching these flowers, they were inspired by an art installation involving lamps that would grow stronger and dimmer based on a person's location to create the Kumandra flowers. Similarly, they light up when the Dragon Gem, symbol of hope, was near; this illustrated an important theme in the story.[45]

Tail is inspired by fantasy plateaus and sand waterfalls and was intended as the "wild west" of Kumandra.[46] Talon, the floating land that acted as a trading crossroad in the story, is inspired by Southeast Asia's cultural floating markets and night markets. The designers approached Talon's as a pier that had five different levels, envisioning the pier starting at the top level, and as the waterline lowered due to the drought, new platforms would be constructed underneath.[47] Spine's design was influenced by its cultural connection with bamboo and focused on natural forms and textures, consisting of a black bamboo frame and a colossal woolly mammoth-like tusked roofline with large stone foundations from the surrounding rocky mountain. Spine's snowy, black bamboos becomes deep blue with maroon hints and lit color schemes create a striking visual contrast that greatly enhances its grand atmosphere. The designers employed a "lost-and-found approach to [the] edges", playing with shadows and lighting to create a sense of mystery and drama for Spine.[48]

Fang's design aesthetic reflects its commitment to strict and stringent principles. They based their designs on brutalism and strong, monolithic, and rigid geometric shapes, reinforcing their rigid identifies. The designers explored stretching Fang buildings and incorporating repeated rooflines to evoke the ominous sensation of a large creature peering down. In the Fang Palace, tall, verti­cal banners and giant gold fang-like sculptures hang ominously from sky­ high ceilings. Their rectangu­lar with sharp edges and cold, sterile feel designs were designed to contrast the floral motifs and round, organic shapes those of Heart.[49]

Namaari is Raya's close friend before she betrayed her to steal the Dragon Gem for her people, the Fang, acting as one of the main antagonists and her rival. To express Namaari's strength and power, the designers focused on her facial expressions and physical­ity such as her aggressive nature and fierce stare. They adorned her with a hard-edge outfit with a predominantly­ off-white color palette to express her tough personality, reflecting Fang's geometric shapes of silhouette and patterning.[50] Young Namaari's attire is designed to contrast her from young Raya, with stark white and gold elements representing Fang's harsh lifestyle as opposed to Raya's draped, soft, and blue designs with an overall serene feel.[51]

Kelsey Hurley, Gabriela Hernandez, and Shweta Viswanathan supervised an all-female technical leadership team that oversaw the flow of animation tools and other technical resources.[52] Approximately 800 artists[53] worked on the film from multiple departments, using various software applications such as Autodesk Maya, Houdini, and Nuke.[54]

Raya and the Last Dragon employs partial traditional animation techniques, creating a unique style characterized by warmth, imperfection, and distinctiveness that distinguishes it from conventional CG animations. This approach incorporates a flattened look reminiscent of shadow puppets used in Chinese storytelling, imbuing the film with a human-touched quality and emotional resonance effects.[55] The animation team used intricate lighting and atmospheric designs to create Kumandra's diverse environments.[56] They skillfully draped the characters' garments by deftly folding long panels of cloth, minimizing reliance on seams to maintain the structure. This departure from the traditional standard pattern-based pipelines approach made the process exceptionally challenging.[57] To handle the challenge of casting and choreographing a wide array of diverse characters, the team enhanced their crowd system to efficiently manage the increasing diversity within the film. They meticulously studied and modified their workflows and pipelines to support this approach, adapting their tools and processes to handle the complexities. These adaptations were achieved through art-directed, simulated, and procedural approaches, utilizing Disney's Houdini-based Skeleton Library system.[58]

To depict the diverse tribes residing in different lands, an innovative modular approach was adopted, involving strategic element reuse and new techniques to introduce variation. A tracking system was implemented to validate assets and ensure their efficient use downstream. Collaborative efforts and an improved workflow between departments enabled the team to creatively and efficiently generate mass crowd assets.[59] Various animation techniques, including anisotropic distances in physical and Boids simulations, as well as procedural fish/dragon animation layers and distance integral invariants for detecting dragon foot contacts, were employed to handle complex shots. These shots included beetles crawling atop one another and intricate fish/dragon choreography.[60]

Creating Sisu in computer-generated imagery (CGI) was challenging; her unique, otherworldly form was exceptionally complex to rig, and her fluid shape needed to be done as both bipedal and quadrupedal.[61] Talon's exceptionally complex and intricate elements, assets, models, and char­acters with the added necessity to move them around water make it the most complex environment to produce.[47] Rendering Tail's minimalist landscape in CGI proved challenging due to the need for the camera to be extremely close to capture the desert floor. Added complexities arose from the manually modeling of cracks and the scattering of rocks and vegetation elements throughout the scene.[46]

Cinematography focused on emphasizing Raya's characterization and her distrust of the world. They create contrasts from various camera and lighting styles to illustrate trust and distrust, applying them sequence-to-sequence and shot-to-shot based on her story arc. For example, the distrustful Raya was shot with a wide lens, deep focus, and a narrow color palette, while the trusting Sisu was shot with a long lens, shallow focus, and a broader color palette.[62] To highlight the abrupt transition when Raya was thrown into the blue waters of the Dragon River in Heart to the scene six years later in Tail's harsh desert, the cinematographers employed light distortion techniques. These techniques were used to create a mirage effect, a shimmering illusion typical of hot environments, accentuating the dramatic shift in lighting, color, climate, and water in the film.[63]

James Newton Howard composed the score for Raya and the Last Dragon.[64] Jhené Aiko wrote and performed a song entitled "Lead the Way" in the end credits. The score was released on February 26, 2021.[65] Filipino singer KZ Tandingan was hired as the performer of "Gabay" (Guide), Disney's first-ever Filipino-language song, in March 2021.[66] The track, the Filipino version of "Lead the Way", was released as part of the film's soundtrack for the Filipino dub of the film. Allie Benedicto, studio marketing head of Disney Philippines, said that the song "demonstrates [their] commitment to work with local creative talents".[67]

Raya and the Last Dragon grossed $54.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $75.7 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $130.4 million.[92][93]

During its opening weekend in the US and Canada, Raya and the Last Dragon grossed $2.5 million on its first day and went on to debut to $8.5 million across 2,045 theaters, topping the box office.[94] Theater chains Cinemark and Harkins in the US, and Cineplex in Canada, did not initially run the film after declining Disney's rental terms,[95][lower-alpha 1] which led to Raya and the Last Dragon failing to match the opening-weekend grosses of family-centered The Croods: A New Age (2020) and Tom & Jerry (2021).[96] Raya and the Last Dragon's performance, however, improved in the following weeks, matching and eventually surpassing Tom & Jerry's box office numbers. The film grossed $5.5 million in its second weekend and $5.2 million in its third, remaining atop the box office.[97][98]

Worldwide, Raya and the Last Dragon debuted in 32 markets, grossing $26.2 million in its opening weekend;[99] the top countries were China ($8.6 million) and Russia ($2.8 million).[28] The film earned $11.5 million in its second weekend and $8 million in its third from 29 markets.[97][100]

In its first three days in the week of March 1, Raya And The Last Dragon was watched for 355 million minutes and placed fourth for the week among films.[101] The film was released on Disney+ without any additional cost on June 4, 2021, worldwide; it was the second-most-viewed streaming title after Netflix's Lucifer.[102] It was viewed for approximately 1.1 billion minutes from May 31 to June 6, a significant increase for the film and any streaming title, which previously had 115 million viewing minutes a week when it was only available as a premium title for $30.[101]

According to the official list of the most watched streaming titles of 2021 released on January 21, 2022, by Deadline Hollywood and Nielsen Holdings, Raya and the Last Dragon was ranked the third-most-streamed film of 2021 with 8.34 billion minutes watched, behind Luca (2021) and Moana with 10.5 billion and 8.9 billion minutes watched respectively.[103] In January 2022, tech firm Akamai reported that the film was the ninth-most-pirated film of 2021.[104]

Raya and the Last Dragon has an approval rating of 93% based on 303 professional reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The consensus reads; "Another gorgeously animated, skillfully voiced entry in the Disney canon, Raya and the Last Dragon continues the studio's increased representation while reaffirming that its classic formula is just as reliable as ever."[105] Metacritic (which uses a weighted average) assigned Raya and the Last Dragon a score of 74 out of 100 based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[106] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 92% of those gave it a positive score, with 78% said that they would recommend it.[94]

Critics including Shirley Li of The Atlantic and Brandon Katz of Observer praised the imagery and themes.[107][108] Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle, among others, said that the film expertly balances emotion, humor, and social politics against a backdrop of stunning visual beauty and captivating storyline.[lower-alpha 2] IndieWire noted its rich storytelling and emotional depth, complemented by humor and heartwarming moments. Rolling Stone and RogerEbert.com praised its masterful blend of imagery and cultural mythologies, creating a visually stunning and emotionally engaging narrative reminiscent of classic Disney animated repertoires.[113][114] Similarly, Vanity Fair and Vulture said that it expertly conveys the emotional depth and themes of the story through visually stunning animations and compelling characters.[115][116] In addition, praise was also directed to the strong cast choice.[109][110][117] and diverse characters.[109][110][118]

The story and limited Southeast Asian representation were criticized.[lower-alpha 3] Li criticized Raya's lack of depth, describing her as behaving more like a tourist than a genuine representation of the cultures depicted. She pointed out that unlike other successful fantasy films such as Black Panther (2018) and Moana, where cultural specificity is integral to the hero's journey, Raya struggles to seamlessly integrate its world into the narrative.[119] In The New York Times, Beatrice Loayza expressed that the film falls short of the familiar Disney princess formula, questioning its cultural representation and corporate strategy. She stated that while the story is engaging, it feels somewhat trite in its message.[2] In his Variety review, Peter Debruge criticized the dense and occasionally rushed story and world-building executions, which lacked an elegant and smooth narrative flow.[120] Reviewers for The Irish Times and Vox cited its unwieldy central conceit and indistinct and insensitive cultural representation, respectively.[121][122]

• Hurley, Kalikolehua; Shurer, Osnat (2021). The Art of Raya and the Last Dragon. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1-7972-0297-6.