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Awkwafina roars for her ‘Raya’ dragon
collaboration on this 2019 comedic biopic about Rudy Ray Moore, the raunchy “party record” raconteur who reinvented himself as the self-mocking blaxploitation icon “Dolemite” in a cycle of selfproduced low-budget action comedies in the 1970s. Other “Dolemite Is My Name” veterans who reunited with Brewer and Murphy on “America” include Wesley Snipes; the comic actress Luenell; and — crucially — costume designer Ruth E. Carter (an Oscar-winner for “Black Panther”), whose outrageous but plausible 1970s “Dolemite” creations appear almost conservative next to the Africa-meets-oz imaginativeness of “Coming 2 America.” (Netflix.)
‘Kirikou and the Sorceress’
Although “Coming 2 America” is not a “kids’ film” per se, it seems likely kids will watch it alongside parents and other oldsters (including many who saw the first “Coming to America” in a movie theater in 1988). Families that want to follow this experience with another fanciful Africa-set movie — one that is aimed more directly at young people but can be appreciated just as well by adults — may want to seek out French director Michael Ocelot’s striking “Kirikou,” a 1998 animated film from France. Inspired by West African folk legend, the story tells of a strange little boy — he can walk and talk at birth — who saves his village from an evil witch. (Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel.)
‘The Blues Brothers’
Young Craig Brewer became a huge John Landis fan after watching the director at work, over and over again, in
his VHS copy of “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller,” the documentary about the 1983 music video that capped a run of Landis hits that included “Animal House,” “An American Werewolf in London” and “Trading Places.” Perhaps no Landis film had a bigger influence on Brewer than “The Blues Brothers,” the 1980 musical comedy in which Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi lead a host of from-memphis-and-elsewhere musicians — including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and James Brown, to name a few — through a series of musical interludes and escapade. Music has played a major role in all Brewer’s movies (sometimes directly, as in the hip-hopthemed “Hustle & Flow”), but “Coming 2 America” is the closest to “The Blues Brothers” in spirit, as the plotline occasionally hits the pause button in favor of elaborate production numbers featur
ing such guest stars as Salt-n-pepa and Gladys Knight (who reimagines her signature hit as “Midnight Train to Zamunda”). (Available for free on several sites and for rental on numerous sites.)
‘Hyenas’
If “Coming 2 America” nips playfully at various satirical targets, “Hyenas” — a different sort of politically themed comedy, shot in authentic Africa — draws blood when it bites (what else would one expect from a film named for a beast with bone-crushing jaws?). Restored in 2019 for its first U.S. release, this 1992 comic masterpiece from Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty finds both tragedy and farce in the addiction to consumerism that colonialism injected into modern Africa. (Free on Kanopy and Mubi, available for rental Amazon, Apple TV and Google Play.)
‘Purple Rain’
Craig Brewer frequently has cited Prince’s debut movie — arguably the most significant pop-music fiction film since “A Hard Day’s Night” 20 years earlier — as a key movie experience. “Coming 2 America” includes a lengthy production number that covers one of Prince’s post-”purple” classics, but perhaps the 1984 movie’s most significant influence is in the way Brewer’s new film presents the friction between Murphy’s proud King Akeem of Zamunda and Wesley Snipes’ preening upstart General Izzi, from the neighboring nation of Nexdoria. In Akeem and Izzi, do we find echoes of the classic “Purple Rain” rivalry between Prince and Morris Day? (Free on HBO Max, and available for rental on numerous sites.)
There comes a time when any actor asked by Walt Disney Studios to voice a legendary dragon for a major animated film would hit a creative snag.
For Awkwafina, 32, that moment came when she was asked to growl as Sisu in “Raya and the Last Dragon” (streaming on Disney+ premium and in theaters March 5). The “Crazy Rich Asians” star has many skills, but dragon growl was not one of them. She warned directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada.
“I was a little bit nervous about that,” Awkwafina says, speaking over Zoom from her New York City home. “It was like, ‘Guys, I just want you to know before I do the growl, I don’t know what this is going to sound like. I’m just preparing you.’ ”
After a few game snarls, the filmmakers were impressed. “They were like, ‘It wasn’t that bad.’ ” she recalls. Not that it was essential. The key to casting Awkwafina (born Nora Lum) for Disney’s animated Southeast Asian adventure alongside princess Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) is that this blue fur-covered dragon turns out to be not so fearsome.
“The idea was to portray the legend that Sisu is this amazing, mythical super-dragon, and Raya finds this to be a little bit of an embellishment through the years,” says Hall. “Instead, Sisu is a funny, self-deprecating dragon who sees herself as the perennial C student.”
The food-obsessed, clumsy dragon (born Sisudatu) even concedes onscreen, “I’m not, like, the best dragon.” That makes the casting pure genius, even if nailing it requires Awkwafina to kick her self-deprecation skills into overdrive.
Awkwafina’s movie success is an ever-expanding universe since her fanfavorite turn in “Crazy Rich Asians” and her dramatic breakthrough in 2019’s “The Farewell.” During the industry work stoppage of the COVID-19 pandemic alone, the Queens, New Yorkborn rapper and actress, who broke out with the rowdy 2014 video “My Vag,” performed her “Raya” voice role remotely and completed her unlikely entry into the Marvel Universe with the live-action “Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (due out July 9).
The concept blows her mind.
“Being in the Marvel universe and voicing a Disney animated movie, that’s insane,” she says. “And that’s been a big part of my life this year.”
Awkwafina felt like a certified big shot when “Raya” filmmakers sent her a special audio production tent for her home recording acoustics. Some would grumble about a 6-foot-tall tent dominating their living room. She made it an adventure.
“I put a lamp in there. And I was like, I want to spend the rest of my days here in this tent. I want to retire in here,” Awkwafina says. “I asked Disney afterwards, ‘Hey can I keep it?’ And it was like, “Absolutely not. We need that back immediately.’ ”
The voice work continued when Awkwafina was quarantined in an Australian hotel in August, required to finish “Shang-chi,” which had halted production due to the pandemic.
Playing the best friend Katy to Marvel’s first movie Asian superhero ShangChi (Simu Liu), the actress toes the company line and keeps mum. But don’t expect her to crush baddies in the style of Michelle Yeoh, who reunited with her “Crazy Rich Asians” co-star for the film – and continued to remind Awkwafina about her poor posture.
“Michelle Yeoh, still, to this day, is like, ‘Nora, back straight.’ And I can’t even do that right,” says Awkwafina, who relents to “Shang-chi” questioning with a Katy explanation of sorts, promising to come back with more. (She didn’t.)
“I can say this, there was training. For sure. Was it as intense as everyone else? No,” she says. “I was like, I’m not good, so they are not going to have me doing stuff like hanging off the side of a building. Cut to me hanging off the side of the building. So I was still doing things.”
Her Sisu, too, has satisfying “Raya” battle moments requiring those roars.
The strong water dragon swimming moments, however, are a Sisu thing.
“I’m not a good swimmer at all, dude. I can do a little bit of a doggie paddle from one end of the hot tub to the other,” she says, comically plugging up her nose. “When I do go underwater, I actually hold my nose like a child.”
Yet the character captures her seemingly boundless enthusiasm and affection. Awkwafina says it was an out-ofbody experience seeing Sisu onscreen with her voice coming out.
“Disney borrows really, really subtle things from you. I saw there were parts of the eyes, and my teeth. It was like, man, I should go to a dentist,” she cracks.
Add on her voice role of seagull Scuttle in director Rob Marshall’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” (due in November), the voice role made famous by Buddy Hackett, and 2021 has the makings of a real-life Awkwafina Disney fantasy.