Raya and the Last Dragon (Dir Don Hall & Carlos López Estrada, 1h 47m)

Animated action movies are an intriguing breed. On the one hand you have films like The Incredibles and Into the Spider-Verse which hark back to silver or bronze age comic books, animation lending them the visual style, the impact, the visual adaptibility to tell an action-packed story that feels like comics have leapt off the page and onto the screen. On the other, buddy-action comedies that riff off decades-old formulas like Road to El Dorado and its overlooked ilk. This goes without mentioning the colossal number of action adventure anime, the sterling work of multiple Cartoon Network, Netflix and other studios in cinematic spin-offs or one offs, and of course, the work of Aardman Animations in both Wallace and Gromit, which matches plasticine with Ealing-esque adventures, and beyond.

One studio, though, never seems to have quite got the knack for them. Of Disney's nearly 60 strong, 70+ year filmography, only Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire can really be described as true action movies-Moana, Tangled, even the butchered The Black Cauldron have their moments of action, but they steer far closer to the typical princess fare. It also goes without saying that, up to this point, Disney's ventures into pure-action-adventure have, to put it mildly, ended in abject failure, with Atlantis and Treasure Planet two of Disney's lowest grossing films. But never fear, for appearing on the horizon as 2020 turned to 2021 was not only the herald of the return of cinema, but proof that Disney could finally have nailed the action-adventure format, in the form of a girl and a dragon.

Raya and the Last Dragon, though, is more than simply Disney finally making an action-adventure movie that works (or, at least, makes its budget back-I'm of the firm belief that the "Boys-Own" ripping yarns of both of the films were simply in the wrong place in the wrong time, at a period where Disney's Princess films made it a more female-aimed company). Indeed, in almost every place it feels like Disney have, for the first time, tried to make a film that is genuinely progressive, with an almost entirely Asian/Asian American cast, two strong and driven female protagonists in a cast dominated by strong female characters, in a superbly fresh if fantastical rendering of South East Asia, with the film's action, dialogue and concepts informed and inspired by the mythology of the region in what may be the studio's boldest bit of character-and-world-building since 2016's Moana.

We begin with Raya, and here, we undeniably have to turn to Kelly Marie Tran; few actresses have had to deal with the backlash of an ever-more venomous, ever-more cornered "boys-only" sensibility to cinema like Tran, and undeniably, one cannot help but regard this triumph against adversity, against the baying crowd that forced her off social media, as part of the triumph of the film itself. Raya, though, is the sort of character we've not seen as a Disney protagonist since, well, Aladdin himself, a cocksure and world-wise adventurer searching for the pieces of the shattered orb that could fix the land and reunite its scattered kingdoms. This introduction to the world's mythos, as with a couple of the film's sequence, changes animation style, with this section rendered in a remarkably done representation of South East Asian shadow puppets, as we are introduced to the fracturing of the kingdom of Kumandra into several kingdom, are introduced to the Druun, monsters that turn people to stone, and the dragons, including the last survivor, Sisu.

It's here that the film nimbly flashes back, and we're introduced to the film's other major protagonist, Namaari, the daughter of the rival kingdom of Fang, whose mutual interest in the long-disappeared Sisu and friendship with Raya quickly turns sour once her alterior motive (and seemingly that of the other kingdoms' visit) becomes apparent, the gem is broken in five, with each kingdom taking a piece, and Raya's home kingdom of Heart is overrun with the loss of her father. Now fiercely independent, and with her trust in other people, let alone Namaari, who becomes the film's main anatagonist, trailing Raya for much of it seemingly irrepairable, Raya wanders the land in search of the remaining pieces of the gem, with her trusty steed, Tuk Tuk (the obligatory talismanic Alan Tudyk). Indeed, it's the relationship-whether their friendship or something more is left up to fans-that drives much of the film, with both Raya and Namaari's sudden change of heart not only changing their relationship but the entire direction of the final act, to a moment of understanding that ultimately changes the world for the better.

And its here, following an encounter with a Druum that the film picks up, with Raya stumbling across a shipwreck in the parched land of Tail, and discovering the dragon, Sisu. Sisu is the best thing about this already excellent film. Awkwafina by now is no stranger to this column; her snub at the Oscars for my film of 2019, The Farewell still rankles, but she has subsequently gone from strength to strength, not only through her own comedy series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens being one of the highlights of the abbreviated 2020, but clearly, from her upcoming appearance in the long-awaited Shang-Chi and a voice role in the live-action adaption The Little Mermaid, something of a fixture in Disney schedules for at least the next couple of years. If the rivalry between Raya and Namaari is the tension, the narrative driving force of Raya, Sisu is its comedic heart, giving Raya's adventure a buddy-comedy or road-trip quality, as the sweet innocence of Sisu, her belief in people in a broken world that only grows as she learns more about herself from the recovered gem pieces, butting up against Raya's world-weary cynicism.

It's this energy that much of the rest of the film runs on, as our two heroines run from spill to spill, picking up a strange selection of comrades from this damaged land, from the young Boun (Izaac Wang, last seen in the surprisingly good Good Boys), who runs a boat restaurant and acts as the group's transport, to the utterly brilliantly bizarre Little Noi (Thalia Tran), a babbling infant who runs a street gang comprising entirely of monkeys that at one point manages to steal Raya's pieces of the Dragon Gem, and the gruff, but well meaning Spine warrior, Tong (Benedict Wong). Interspersed with these introductions and the gathering of the gems, the film storms through superb action sequences.

No sooner has Raya discovered Sisu, that they're traversing deep into a Tail kingdom temple, in a sequence that knowingly riffos off Raiders of the Lost Ark before being chased all the way from the temple to the nearby docks, where the mismatched duo meet up with Boun and set off on their adventure proper. No sooner have they arrived in Talon than the duo come across Noi, and a superbly choreographed chase, straight out of South East Asian cinema takes place as Raya dodges through stalls and out of windows, before finally catching up with the baby and her accomplices.
Whilst this frenetic pace occasionally feels a tad tiring, none of the action sequences outstay their welcome, and interspersed with quiet moments of reflection, especially once our heroes arrive in Tong's village, balance out perfectly. That the film ends both with an action sequence and a moment that ends the film not on a moment of forgiveness, but also catharsis only emphasies how well the film manages this balancing act.

And at the centre of this balancing act is the culture this film celebrates; whilst it could be argued, as some critics have indicated, that this film's hodgepodge of SEA cultures and largely non SEA actors does the culture a disservice, or dilutes it, or, as has happened to other cultures in the course of the last eighty years of Disney's existence, essentially bolts the classic Disney formula itself onto a culture. But Raya, in a year that has seen the Asian American community persecuted by bigoted forces, featuring an actress essentially hounded off the internet, with its message of forgiveness and healing divided communities, feels important. It feels like a step forward, an important step at that,  from a studio that has long dawdled around portraying anything other than a reflection of the white audience.

Raya, thus, feels like something new, not just in terms of Disney finally getting the action movie formula down, but a major step forward in how one of the most powerful media organisations on earth depict cultures outside of the European canon. All in all, it is a sterling addition to the Disney canon, its twin heroines, and superb supporting cast, and lavish, faithfully rendered world all adding to a rollicking action movie that proves that animation may well still be the best single medium for fantastical action and that, finally, Disney may finally have stuck the landing on it.

Rating: Highly Recommended

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