'Raya and the Last Dragon' on Disney Plus finally made me trust their animated films again - SFGate

When Disney+ released “Raya and the Last Dragon” for premium access streaming on Friday, I had mixed feelings before watching it, given Disney’s track record with its treatment of women and world cultures in its animated features.

Would there be issues of consent, like in the early days of Disney’s animated movies, when Snow White and Sleeping Beauty were kissed while they were asleep to “save” them? Would someone be held prisoner only to see her captor’s heart of gold and fall in love with him, like Belle did with the Beast? Would white American actors provide voices of characters they have no cultural connection to, as happened with both child and adult Simba?

“Raya” takes place in a land that was once Kumaandra, a peaceful and prosperous country inspired by the countries of Southeast Asia. It was besieged by a plague, called the Druun, which is a faceless force that turns people to stone. The Druun overtakes so much of the world that with humanity at stake, the last dragon concentrates her magic, creating a dragon gem powerful enough to push the Druun back to wherever it came from.

“It should have been this big inspirational moment, where humanity united over her sacrifice, but instead, people being people, they all fought to possess the last remnant of dragon magic,” Raya says. “Borders were drawn, Kumaandra divided, we all became enemies.”

I don’t think Disney intended to release a movie about a pandemic that shatters a society into a world besieged by a pandemic and into an intensely divided people — but here we are, living with COVID-19, criticizing each other endlessly for everyone else handling the situation wrong.

The movie exists in a fantasy world, but it hits so closely on what we’re going through right now.

“If we don’t stop and learn to trust one another again, it’s only a matter of time before we tear each other apart,” Raya’s father says to her. “This isn’t the world I want you to live in.”

This world in its current state isn’t one I want to live in, and neither is the remains of Kumaandra, but there is something comforting about the movie. I used to watch the Disney animation made by Walt Disney’s team of “nine old men” and not question whether their content was harmful. I watched this movie the opposite way. But it does feel different than some of Disney’s other films.

“Raya” hired Kelly Marie Tran, a Vietnamese American, as its lead actress, and employed screenwriters who are part of the cultures the movie depicts. Disney also employed enough cultural experts that the credits have a “Southeast Asia Story Trust” section, and worked with groups like Laos Angeles, which describes itself as “a Los Angeles-based progressive and inclusive movement highlighting those who self-identify with any of the 160+ ethnic groups in Laos,” and the Khmer Arts Academy.

Early critics have pointed out that the film uses mostly East Asian actors from China and Korea, and not Southeast Asian ones. But some have also said that the representation they see in the film still feels like a good step.

“‘Raya and the Last Dragon" is so much more than just the latest Disney flick, at least for me,” Justine Calma wrote for the Verge on March 5. “Admittedly, I’m not even a huge Disney fan. But somehow because of Raya, there’s a little girl in me who finally feels seen.”

Watching this movie, I felt the joy of Disney animation in a way I haven’t since I was a kid. All I could think, watching it the morning of its release, was “this feels right.”

It doesn’t just look visually stunning, or simply have the right character mix of empowered women, empathetic men and adorable creatures. It doesn’t only have animation so lifelike that it sometimes looks real. More importantly, it has the kind of storyline that I really needed to hear after a year of living in a pandemic hellscape, where my own country seems more divided every day and good will toward one another is at what feels like an all-time low, at least in my lifetime.

What hit so hard for me is not just that Disney accidentally made the perfect pandemic movie. It’s also that it seems they’re doing right by Tran, who experienced intense backlash and scrutiny from the Star Wars fandom when she appeared as Rose Tico in “Star Wars VII: The Last Jedi.” The opening scene of “Raya and the Last Dragon” even echoes a kind of “galaxy far, far away” imagery, when all we see is a wasted landscape and Raya riding through it.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she says. “A lone rider. A dystopian world. A land that’s gone to waste.”

It’s almost as though the scene is a nod to Star Wars and Tran’s hellish experience, one which caused her to quit social media and write a powerful piece in the New York Times about what happened. One which Disney could have and should have protected her and the other actors of color in the movies from, as Star Wars co-star John Boyega told Variety.

Tran in this movie plays a powerful woman, not one who is handed special powers like the live-action Mulan, or one who needs a prince to save her. She’s just a regular person, with wits and heart, trying to make a difference. With, of course, a dragon by her side.

The quest is about saving the world, but it’s really about forgiving each other for what they see as unforgivable, and reaching across to the enemy, even with fear of danger or retaliation.

“There’s still light in this,” Raya’s dad says. “There’s still hope.” He’s talking about the dragon gem, but all I could think about was Amanda Gorman’s poem during President Joe Biden’s inauguration. “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it,” she read. “If only we’re brave enough to be it.”