Raya and the Last Dragon
A magical world with dragons
This is another great animation film by Disney after “Soul”. While “Soul” focuses on “life”, “Raya and the Last Dragon” focuses on “trust”.
Plot
(Spoiler Alert!)
Five hundred years ago, on Kumandra, an evil force called the Druun broke the kingdom’s peace, turning people to stone. The dragons that protect the people were all turned to stone too, except Sisu — the last dragon. Before all the dragons died, Sisu’s siblings put all their power into a gemstone called “The Dragon gem”. And with that, Sisu banishes the Druun. But it also made the people of Kumandra split into five tribes with names based on their placement along with the dragon-shaped river.
And now, the leader of Heart — Chief Benja protects the Dragon gem and hopes to reunite the five lands and restore Kumandra. But when he invited the other four tribes to Heart, his daughter Raya befriends the princess of Fang — Namaari. But Namaari betrayed Raya after she helped her locate the Dragon gem, she alerted the Fang soldiers nearby and tried to steal the Dragon gem but was stopped by Raya’s father who arrived with the other tribes. Then everyone started to fight over the gem, which was broken into five pieces. Each tribe stole a piece and scuffled away as the Drunn reappears after five hundred years. Chief Benja was engulfed by the Drunn and turned into stone during their escape.
For six years, Raya was trying to find the last dragon — Sisu, believing she is still alive and can help her save her dad. After discovering a shipwreck in Tail, Raya finally manages to find Sisu. The dragon agreed to help Raya restore the gem pieces and destroy the Drunn once and for all.
So, Raya and Sisu started their journey to steal back the gem pieces from other tribes, it is later discovered that each piece contains power from one of her siblings. And on their search for the gems, they recruit new members to their team — Boun, Tong, Little Noi, and three Ongis.
After reclaiming three other gem pieces, the group started off to Fang, where the last gem piece lies. During the journey there, Sisu convinced Raya to ally with Namaari, and not to steal the gem piece. But eventually, Namaari tried to capture Raya and Sisu but accidentally killed Sisu.
Sisu’s death caused all the water to disappear since she was the dragon of water, which made the Drunn fearless and turned more people into stone. Raya, remembering how “trust” allowed Sisu to succeed before, realized that they must team up and trust each other to beat the Drunn. So, the team handed the four gem pieces to Namaari before they turned into stone.
Namaari then put the pieces back together and join the others as stone statues. With the gem restored by trust, the Drunn vanished once and for all with everyone back, even the dragons that are petrified five hundred years ago.
The movie ends with the five tribes reunited as Kumandra.
Trust
Raya is a girl that trusted everyone when she was little, but after being betrayed by Namaari, she doesn’t trust anyone anymore. But personally, I think if she can relax a little, and trust others, maybe she will come to success a lot earlier.
On the other hand, Sisu believed that it takes “trust” to succeed with a team. If you don’t trust each other, there will be lots of obstacles in your way. But Sisu overtrusts people, ending up being conned all the time. Therefore, people need to have trust in others, but we can’t let our guard down in order to protect ourselves.
“Trust”, is the base of this story. Chief Benji trusted the other tribes, Sisu trusted everyone, and in contrast, Raya doesn’t trust anyone. In my opinion, when we don’t trust someone, keep our guard up, or it will hurt if we got tricked.
At the end of the movie, Raya finally learned how to work with her enemy — Namaari, and it takes trust to do that. Another thing is that not everyone has good intentions, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t trust them, take the con baby Noi for example, she tricked Raya in Talon, but she and the Ongis are still a great help to the team.
But wanting to trust someone you don’t trust isn’t always easy, and it takes more than trust to do it, it also takes courage and a firm heart with a clear mind to do that.
Trusting people is like an investment, maybe you will succeed, but there is also a great risk of losing something.
So my advice is to think twice before you trust a person you don’t know or trust.
Movie Quotes
It may feel impossible but sometimes you just have to take the first step, even before you’re ready. — Sisu
If you want to get someone’s trust you have to give a little trust first. — Sisu
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. — Cheif Benja
Someone has to take the first step. — Cheif Benja
We have a choice. We can tear each other apart or we can come together and build a better world. It’s not too late. — Cheif Benja
Cool Facts
Some scenes in “Raya and the Last Dragon” are based on real places:
Tail — Mekong River
The desert-like tribe in the movie is actually an idea from the Mekong River that runs through Southeast Asia.
Spine — Sapa(Vietnam)
Spine — the cold place with lots of snow, takes place in a northern mountain city of Vietnam — Sapa.
Talon — Laos market
For the water market — Talon, the landscape is based on the markets in Laos, which is a country also in Southeast Asia.
Fang — Angkor Wat
The gorgeous palace of the tribe Fang, is inspired by the UNESCO World Heritage Site — Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Heart — Moon Hill(China)
Heart’s arched mountain looks almost exactly like Moon Hill in China.
I think that this movie is exactly the type I like — where there are divided lands and the main character will have to retrieve something from the lands to complete his/her mission.
“Raya and the Last Dragon” is another Disney film I like very much, and I recommend it to everyone of all ages!
