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Raya and the Last Dragon

- — Michael O’Sullivan/The Washington Post

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, adventure animation, rated PG, 90 minutes, Disney+ Premier Access.

3.5 chiles Trailer youtu.be/1VIZ89FEjY­I

Taking its core inspiratio­n from the naga of Asian folklore — semi-divine beings that shapeshift between serpent and human form, a la Nagini of the

Harry Potter universe — Disney’s gorgeously animated, entertaini­ngly told fantasia Raya and the Last

Dragon is a visual feast. If the ingredient­s of the story itself, which centers on a plucky warrior princess on a quest to unite five widely scattered pieces of a magical, broken gemstone, are a bit familiar, the stirring sweep of this adventure, set in the fictional Southeast Asian land of Kumandra and told with both cheeky humor and heart, is transporti­ng.

Its titular teen heroine (voice of Kelly Marie Tran) and her father Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) are guardians of the aforementi­oned power-stone: the sole remnant of a battle that took place some 500 years before the main action of the film begins. In response to an assault by sinister beings called Druun, we learn from a prologue that several benevolent dragons once sacrificed themselves to save Kumandra, leaving behind only that mystical crystal — and a legend that one of the dragons, a water spirit named Sisu, may have somehow survived.

In the aftermath, Kumandra has fragmented into five separate kingdoms, each maintainin­g a kind of cold war with the other four. When peace talks organized by Benja collapse, and an attempt to steal the stone causes it to break apart into chunks (each piece spirited away to different kingdoms), action must be taken.

That mission falls to Raya when the Druun — described as a plague “born of human discord” — return, transformi­ng Raya’s father and many others into stone statuary. (The textures of this world are vividly rendered. But be advised. The Druun are the scariest: Dementor-like swarms of swirling, dark, destructiv­e evil. They’re an effective, and chillingly relevant metaphor for human divisivene­ss.) Armed with a sword, a piece of the Druun-repelling stone, and riding a giant pill bug named Tuk Tuk (Alan Tudyk, making, um, giant pill bug sounds), Raya sets out to find Sisu, steal back the other bits of crystal, and save the world.

As with many a heist film before it, this film’s protagonis­t accumulate­s a few accomplice­s along the way: an orphaned boy-chef (Izaac Wang), a gentle man-mountain (Benedict Wong), a baby con artist (Thalia Tran), and several adorably acrobatic, monkey-like sidekicks. Oh, and a dragon. Raya finds and resuscitat­es Sisu (Awkwafina) early on, which is great because the character is a gem herself. Morphing between dragon and somewhat goofy adolescent human with a mop of blue hair and oversize clothing that makes her look like a cartoon cousin of Billie Eilish, Sisu brings spunk and comedy to the dark tale. Awkwafina’s raspy, endearingl­y dim-bulb performanc­e adds enormous, quirky charm to the film.

Of course, besides the Druun, there’s also a human nemesis: Namaari (Gemma Chan), a warrior princess from another kingdom who’s a complicate­d foil to Raya: part Sisu fangirl, part frenemy.

In its broadest contours, Raya isn’t all that different from stories we’ve seen before, echoing the

Lord of the Rings cycle and the Infinity Stone plotline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it also evokes a world — one of sight, sound, and even, at times, of smells and tastes — that we haven’t seen before. Kumandra feels vibrantly real, even in, say, scenes in which we watch, with awe, a dragon prance on raindrops. Its overarchin­g theme of sacrifice is also a powerful one.

In that sense, it’s an aspiration­al movie with its feet planted firmly in the soil of the real world: one in which the plague of human discord is sorely in need of a little magic right now.

 ??  ?? A dragon and a warrior princess are on a mission to save the world in Raya and the Last Dragon
A dragon and a warrior princess are on a mission to save the world in Raya and the Last Dragon

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