An honest review of Raya and The Last Dragon
Plot-wise, it was well done. Sure, there were some cliche tropes that my autistic pattern recognition skills could spot a mile away, but the plot flowed smoothly with no noticeable holes. Things did move very quickly, but it's a kids' movie. It's not supposed to drag on.
Character development? Well done. Each character had a very realistic personality and set of motivations.
Character design? Really good when it comes to human designs. It's the perfect blend of cartoonish and realistic. Also I like the outfits. The dragons on the other hand look like My Little Pony heads slapped onto very graceful dragon bodies. I had to laugh at the moment when Sisu roars at Namaari. That did not look one bit menacing.
Worldbuilding? Beautiful. I'm no expert on Southeast Asian culture and architecture by any means, so I'm not sure how much research the team actually did. And I am a little iffy about Disney creating yet another fictional world based on a conglomeration of several real cultures like they did with Moana instead of just having the movie take place in a real-world location, but hey, nothing about it seemed offensive on the surface. Southeast Asians, please elaborate for me in the comments: how was the worldbuilding?
Music? Same deal. See above. It did sound pretty, but again, I know nothing about the culture.
