‘DRAGON’ HAS WINGS
Disney's latest is a breath of fresh fire
THE latest in dragontertainment is Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon.” Hollywood loves a scaly scamp. There’s “Game of Thrones,” “Dragonheart,” 1977’s “Pete’s Dragon,” the much better 2016 remake of “Pete’s Dragon” and the gold standard of fire-breathers, “How to Train Your Dragon,” one of the best CGI family films ever made.
There’s something so whimsical about a pet that can destroy all your enemies without lifting a claw.
“Raya,” which has a lot going for it, is not as emotionally involving as any of those other films or TV shows. The title princess, Disney’s first from Southeast Asia, doesn’t bring on the tears during her moments of triumph, and the story gets lost in a geopolitical struggle of feuding nations that tries too hard to be relevant. At times, I wondered, “Are we supposed to think this one is the EU?”
All that said, Disney’s CGI work, independent from Pixar, has finally found consistency, and “Raya” joins “Frozen,” “Zootopia” and “Moana” on a roster of highquality, enjoyable films.
There’s a lot of plot. Those warring states were once part of the land of Kumandra, a collective surrounding a dragon-shaped lake. The territories are called Heart, where Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) is from, Talon, Fang, Tail and Spine. The map is the spitting image of the Revolutionary War “Join, or Die” flag, which every 8-year-old history buff will surely recognize.
Five hundred years earlier, all the peoples coexisted peacefully alongside colorful talking dragons whose magic brought prosperity.
Then, a pack of vicious smoke monsters called the Droon swooped in and turned many of the citizens (and dragons) into stone. But one dragon called Sisu (Awkwafina) created a powerful gem to save the world.
At the start of “Raya,” the enemy peoples feud over the stone and smash it into five pieces, releasing the Droon once more and dooming the Kumandrans. It’s up to Raya to travel to each faraway land, put the stone back together and rescue her dad.
The exposition is daunting — not to mention it’s pretty much bizarro “Lord of the Rings” — but once we get the long history lesson over with, the film settles into “find the rocks.” Anybody can understand “find the rocks.”
We skip to six years after the Droon disaster, when Raya summons Sisu to aid her on her heroic quest. Awkwafina voices the wisecracking lizard, who’s a lot like Eddie Murphy’s Mushu from “Mulan,” with a tad too much caffeine.
When Raya points out that Sisu’s skin is “glowing” with magic, she responds, “Thank you! I use aloe and river slime.” She’s here all night, folks.
The jokes stick out, too, because it’s really an action movie more than the usual Disney princess routine. Raya doesn’t have any coming-of-age experiences, she doesn’t sing, she’s not trying to please her father, there’s no romance subplot, no one helps her get dressed. But there’s plenty of crossbows and swords.
And on that front, it is a success. The battles and missions in each realm are visually exciting. One is a beautifully rendered Asianstyle floating market, while another is a “Mad Max” desert, with Charlize Theron haircuts to match.
While the sappy ending isn’t as satisfying as it thinks it is, at least you’re still high on adrenaline.