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Mar 5, 2021 · Raya is voiced by Kelly Marie Tran, who is Vietnamese American. The film is inspired by diverse Southeast Asian cultures. The screenplay was written by Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim, who both...
- The animated fantasy film debuts March 5.
- Raya and the Last Dragon Visual Development
- Disney+ Spotlight: February 2021
- Raya and the Last Dragon Images
By Nicole Clark
Updated: Feb 4, 2021 11:44 pm
Posted: Jan 26, 2021 2:00 pm
Raya and the Last Dragon is Disney’s first animated feature starring characters of Southeast Asian descent. And the team behind the film did a significant amount of research to create a world that was at once vivid and fantastical — a world where dragons once roamed and where a fantasy villain could turn living beings into stone — while being realistically grounded in elements of Southeast Asian culture and geography.
Raya is set in the fantasy world of Kumandra, which is split into five distinct dragon-inspired regions: Fang, Heart, Talon, Spine, and Tail. Each region has its own topography, architecture, and personality, influenced by the countries of Southeast Asia. To bring this world to life, artists took trips throughout Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. “We committed ourselves and all of our collaborators to do deep, deep research, community engagement, and constant collaboration with our cultural departments,” said co-director Carlos López Estrada.
Disney also worked closely with their “Southeast Asia Story Trust,” a coalition of specialists in various fields, including visual anthropology, linguistics, botany, choreography, architecture, martial artists and others. Producer Osnat Shurer, who had previously worked with a team of Oceanic experts for Moana, described the creation of the Southeast Asia Story Trust as, “a really organic process. We met many people as we were preparing for the research trips, and we met some people on the research trips.”
“As a Southeast Asian woman, Raya’s character has special significance for me,” Lim said. “There's a history of strong female leaders and warriors in the region, and I personally grew up in a family of really amazing women who inspire me and also scare me a little bit every day. So it's important that Raya’s actions and attitude embody that same spirit. And you can see it in her leadership and her fearlessness, love of family, the sense of responsibility that she takes for other people.”
For script co-writer and martial arts consultant Qui Nguyen, Raya’s individuality and characterization were of special importance, given the stereotyping and tokenizing portrayals of Asian American characters in the past. “When characters that look like me show up in action movies they’re always depicted in one certain way: stoic, serious, oddly obsessed with bringing honor to our family,” Nguyen said. “Raya is an action star that actually sounds like us, too. She's fun. She's quippy. She's clever.”
Raya’s costuming also went through numerous iterations — including a sampot, a traditional Cambodian garment made from a rectangular textile tied at the waist — to ensure the final design fit with her character journey and was based on traditional Southeast Asian garments. Rather than putting her in the restrictive clothing styles that animated female stars have worn in the past, Raya’s attire, and even her hairstyle, were designed with her fighting prowess in mind. “Because she is a warrior, she really needs to be very agile,” said Amy Smeed, Head of Animation. Throughout the film Raya is seen fighting with swords, scaling dungeons, and dodging obstacles.
Raya’s hairstyle was kept streamlined and functional, with two braids that keep her sightline clear. It also helps the audience see her facial expressions more clearly. The animators also worked with Dr. Steve Arounsack, associate professor of Anthropology at California State University, Stanislaus — a visual anthropologist who was part of the Southeast Asia Story Trust, and heavily involved in many design elements of the film — to create Raya’s hat, the slope of which resembles a stūpa.
Both screenwriters, Lim and Nguyen, are thrilled to have added a Southeast Asian action star to the Disney canon. “As a writer and a parent, my goal is to create for my kids the superheroes that I never got to see,” said Nguyen. “So to finally be here, sharing with the world our wholly original hero that looks like my family, well, that's an absolute dream come true. It's a very powerful thing to know that my two Asian American boys will now always have Raya and her ragtag crew representing them in the greater Disney universe.”
Raya and the Last Dragon opens in theaters and on Disney+ with premier access on March 5th.
Mar 10, 2021 · With Kelly Marie Tran voicing Raya, Awkwafina as Sisu, the last dragon, and Gemma Chan as Raya’s unrelenting nemesis Namaari, Raya and the Last Dragon is now in theaters or order it on Disney+ with Premier Access.
- Kari Koeppel
Mar 3, 2021 · At a news conference for the film last week, Kelly Marie Tran said “Raya” made her think of the recent wave of violence against Asian Americans and how to find hope in a world that seems...
1h 30min. Release Date: March 5, 2021. Genre: Action-Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Raya and the Last Dragon travels to the fantasy world of Kumandra, where humans and dragons lived together in harmony long ago.
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Mar 6, 2021 · Raya and the Last Dragon offers a tableau of cultural references inspired by the whole of Southeast Asia. But there is a trade-off to casting a wider net.
