Ranking the Disney Animated Canon, Part 10

Spencer Smith

START WITH PART 1

PART 2 HERE

PART 3 HERE

PART 4 HERE

PART 5 HERE

PART 6 HERE

PART 7 HERE

PART 8 HERE

PART 9 HERE

#27: Raya and the Last Dragon

Raya_and_the_Last_Dragon

After being delayed a few months due to the pandemic Disney released this film. It’s a pretty solid entry doing quite well critically (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), though its financial performance was hindered by the pandemic. It’s worth noticing this is the first film in the canon not to be a sequel since Moana was released back in 2016!

The story follows titular Raya (Kelly Marie Tran, Rose Tico from Star Wars) daughter of Benja, the chief of Heart (Daniel Dae Kim) in her quest to reunite the divided land of Kumandra with the help of Sisu (Awkwafina, Katy in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), the titular last dragon. When her father invites the leaders of the other tribes (Fang, Spine, Talon, and Tail) to a great feast hoping to reunify Kumandra, Raya attempts to make friends with Namaari (Gemma Chan, Minn-Erva from Captain Marvel, and Sersi from Eternals, young Namaari is voiced by Jona Xiao) the daughter of the chiefess of Fang (Sandra Oh). Raya shows Namaari the dragon gem to impress her new friend. Namaari attempts to steal the dragon gem and all out brawl erupts. During the fight the Kumandrans accidentally break the dragon gem and in doing so release the Druun, ancient evil spirits that turn people to stone. Each tribe takes a fragment to protect themselves from the Druun and Benja is turned to stone.

Raya spends the next six years trying to find and awaken Sisu. She finally does and the two trek across Kumandra avoiding Namaari and gathering the fragments of the dragon gem. With each fragment gathered Sisu gains the power of one of her siblings that helped create the gem. After numerous entertaining events only Fang’s fragment is left. Sisu convinces Raya to ally with Namaari against the greater threat of the Druun. During the attempted meeting Raya’s distrust of Namaari spooks the later into firing her crossbow and killing Sisu. A final showdown with the Druun ensues and the Raya, honoring Sisu, puts aside her differences as she and the other fragment wielders, including Namaari, sacrifice themselves to restore the gem and defeat the Druun. Doing so revives Sisu and the other dragons, who bring the rain the restores everyone turned to stone back to normal, including Raya, Namaari, and Benja. Fang, Spine, Talon, Tail, and Heart reunite as Kumandra again.

The story is quite good. I enjoyed how each region was unique. It was interesting to see such geographic diversity over the area and how that affected the culture of each of the tribes. It does a nice job tackling humans’ inherent difficulty of dealing with those that are different. The action is great and there is a good deal of humor too. Sisu disguising herself as a human and attempting to act like one provides the best comic relief.

The characters are likable enough. Sisu’s innocence and child-like optimism that borders on naïveté is surprisingly endearing. Raya does the “tough protagonist that learns to accept help from others” trope very well. Namaari being the rival that comes around to help stop a greater threat is almost Dragon Ball good. All the side characters that we meet on our journey through Kumandra add their own enjoyable part as well.

The animation is amazing, as has become the WDAS standard by this point. As for music, the score is quite good and fits what’s happening on screen. There is only one song, but it plays during the end credits, and as you should know by now, I do not evaluate those ones. Overall, the movie is pretty good. It may not have wowed me like some of the other more recent entries, but it’s still enjoyable. I’m also wondering how much of that can attributed to the fact that I didn’t get to see this one in a theatre. Still, it’s a lot fun and worth checking out.

Here is the updated list:

  1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  2. The Lion King
  3. Frozen
  4. Aladdin
  5. The Jungle Book
  6. Robin Hood
  7. Fantasia
  8. Beauty and the Beast
  9. The Little Mermaid
  10. Mulan
  11. Big Hero 6
  12. Frozen II
  13. Hercules
  14. Peter Pan
  15. Tarzan
  16. Moana
  17. Pinocchio
  18. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
  19. Lady and the Tramp
  20. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  21. Sleeping Beauty
  22. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
  23. Cinderella
  24. Wreck-It Ralph
  25. Lilo & Stitch
  26. Ralph Breaks the Internet
  27. Raya and the Last Dragon
  28. Zootopia
  29. The Rescuers Down Under
  30. The Great Mouse Detective
  31. The Fox and the Hound
  32. The Princess and the Frog
  33. Tangled
  34. Fantasia 2000
  35. The Rescuers
  36. Meet the Robinsons
  37. Bolt
  38. The Emperor’s New Groove
  39. The Sword in the Stone
  40. The Aristocats
  41. Winnie the Pooh
  42. Oliver & Company
  43. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
  44. Alice in Wonderland
  45. Dinosaur
  46. Brother Bear
  47. Pocahontas
  48. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
  49. Bambi
  50. Dumbo
  51. Saludos Amigos
  52. Melody Time
  53. Make Mine Music
  54. Fun and Fancy Free
  55. The Three Caballeros
  56. Treasure Planet
  57. The Black Cauldron
  58. Home on the Range
  59. Chicken Little

 

Ranking the Disney Animated Canon, Part 10