Raya and the Last Dragon ( ) is a 2021 American animated fantasy action comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was directed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, and written by Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim, and stars the voices of Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wang, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, and Benedict Wong. The film's plot follows the warrior princess Raya (Tran) as she seeks the fabled last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina), to save her father (Kim) and the land of Kumandra from evil spirits that are known as Druun.
Development of the project began in October 2018, and it was officially announced in August 2019, and the title and voice cast were revealed. During production, Disney replaced several cast and crew members, including the initially announced lead actor Cassie Steele, who was replaced with Tran to conform with changes in character and plot. The film is inspired by traditional Southeast Asian cultures. During design and animation, the filmmakers focused on diverse environments and characters while maintaining authentic cultural representation. James Newton Howard composed the film's score.
Raya and the Last Dragon was released in theaters in the United States on March 5, 2021, and simultaneously on the streaming platform Disney+ for customers with Premier Access. The film was twice delayed from its November 2020 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film became the third-most-streamed film of 2021 and grossed $130.4million worldwide. The film received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for several accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.
Plot Kumandra, a prosperous Southeast Asian land where humans live alongside dragons, is ravaged by the Druun, mindless spirits that petrify every living being in their path. Sisu, the last surviving dragon, concentrates her magic into a gem and vanquishes the Druun, reviving Kumandra's people, but not its dragons. A power struggle for the gem divides Kumandra's people into five chiefdoms called Fang, Heart, Spine, Talon, and Tail, corresponding to their placement along a gigantic dragon-shaped river.
500 years later, Chief Benja of the Heart tribe retains possession of the gem and trains his young daughter Raya, a warrior princess, to protect it. Benja, believing Kumandra can be reunited, holds a feast for all five tribes. During the feast, Raya befriends Namaari, princess of the Fang tribe, who gives Raya a dragon pendant. Raya trusts Namaari and shows her the gem's chamber, but Namaari betrays her as part of a plot to help Fang steal the gem. After being alerted to the attack, Benja and the other tribes arrive and start fighting over the gem, breaking it into five pieces. The gem's destruction creates a fissure that releases the Druun, who quickly overrun the Land of Heart. The tribe leaders each steal a piece of the gem and flee. Benja notices water repels the Druun, and throws Raya into a river to save her before being petrified, resulting in his demise.
Six years later, Raya treks across Kumandra along with her steed and friend Tuk Tuk in order to find Sisu, hoping she will create another gem and vanquish the Druun. In Tail, Raya summons Sisu, who reveals she did not create the gem but wielded it on behalf of her four siblings, all of whom contributed their magic to the gem. Raya and Sisu, who disguises herself as a human, resolve to reclaim the four pieces of the gem, reassemble it, and use it to vanquish the Druun and restore the petrified. Along the way, they meet Boun, a young restaurateur from Tail; Little Noi, an infant con artist from Talon; and Tong, a warrior from Spine; all of whom have lost loved ones to the Druun. Namaari, hoping to gain the gem shards for the Fang tribe, pursues Raya. Since each gem shard they acquire blesses Sisu with one of her siblings' magical powers, Raya, cautious of their new companions, insists Sisu remain disguised. However, when Namaari is about to kill Raya in Spine, Sisu explosively reveals herself to save her.
In Fang, Sisu persuades Raya to propose an alliance with Namaari rather than steal the final shard. As a gesture of trust, Raya returns the pendant Namaari gave her years before. Namaari, torn between her responsibility to Fang and her wish to help defeat the Druun, threatens the party with a crossbow. Sisu tries to calm Namaari down, but Raya attacks with her whip sword after seeing Namaari's finger move on the trigger, causing the crossbow to misfire and kill Sisu. With Sisu gone, all of the water drains away, allowing the Druun to overrun the realm. Enraged, Raya pursues Namaari, and they fight while the others use the gem pieces to help the people of Fang evacuate, even while their power fades. Raya prepares to kill Namaari, but calms down when Namaari reminds her that her inability to trust others led to Sisu's death, and they go to aid the others.
As the gem pieces' power begins to run out and the Druun near her group, Raya remembers how trust allowed Sisu to save the world. She urges the others to unite and reassemble the gem, showing her faith in Namaari by handing over her gem piece and allowing the Druun to petrify her. Boun, Tong, Noi, and her ongis follow suit, and Namaari reassembles the gem before also being petrified. This action unleashes a shockwave that spreads throughout Kumandra, vanquishing the Druun and conjuring up a magical rainstorm that restores the waters and revives everyone, including the dragons, who later revive Sisu. After the group reunites with their loved ones, Sisu follows Raya home to find Chief Benja restored, lauds his daughter's bravery, and the tribes and dragons gather at Heart to unite as Kumandra once again.
Voice cast Kelly Marie Tran as Raya, a fierce and virtuous warrior princess of Heart who has been training to become a Guardian of the Dragon Gem. To save her father from petrification and restore peace to Kumandra, Raya embarks on a search for the last dragon. Canadian actress Cassie Steele was originally cast to voice Raya, but was replaced by Tran. Awkwafina as Sisu, the last dragon in existence. Sisu has a goofy and somewhat unstable personality but is also brave, kind, wise, and fiercely loyal. Gemma Chan as Namaari, a warrior princess of Fang and Raya's rival. Jona Xiao as young Namaari. Daniel Dae Kim as Chief Benja, Raya's father and the chief of Heart. Benedict Wong as Tong, a formidable, exceptionally large, kind-hearted warrior from Spine who lost his family and fellow villagers to the Druun. Izaac Wang as Boun, a charismatic 10-year-old entrepreneur from Tail who lost his family to the Druun. His floating restaurant becomes Raya and Sisu's transport from Tail back to the other lands. Sandra Oh as Virana, Namaari's mother and the chieftess of Fang. Thalia Tran as Little Noi, a toddler con artist from Talon who lost her mother to the Druun. She was raised by the ongis, creatures that resemble monkeys with catfish whiskers. Lucille Soong as Dang Hu, the chieftess of Talon. Alan Tudyk as Tuk Tuk, Raya's best friend and trusty steed who is a mix of an armadillo and a pill bug who joins her journey to find Sisu. His name is a reference to a Thai dialect word for auto rickshaws.
The film also features the voices of Dichen Lachman as General Atitaya of Fang and a Spine warrior, Patti Harrison as the chief of Tail, Dumbfoundead as a flower guy called Chai, Sung Kang as former chief of Talon Dang Hai, Sierra Katow as both a Talon merchant and a Fang officer; Ross Butler as the chief of Spine, François Chau as a Fang soldier named Wahn, and Gordon Ip and Paul Yen as Talon merchants.
Production In October 2018, Deadline Hollywood reported Disney was developing a fantasy animated film that was being produced by Osnat Shurer from a screenplay by Adele Lim, and directed by Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins. Most of the filmmakers had been involved in other Disney films, including Frozen (2013), Zootopia (2016), and Moana (2016). In August 2019, Disney announced the film during its D23 Expo Walt Disney Animation Studios' presentation; Cassie Steele had been cast as Raya and Awkwafina was to play Sisu.
In August 2020, Disney announced the replacement of several cast and crew members. Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada replaced Briggs and Wellins as directors, and the latter two were demoted to co-directors. Story writer John Ripa later also replaced Wellins as a co-director, and Wellins was only credited as a contributing writer in the final film. Kiel Murray, who had co-written the screenplays for Pixar's Cars (2006), Cars 2 (2011) and Cars 3 (2017), also contributed to the story for Raya. Qui Nguyen joined Lim as co-writer and Peter Del Vecho joined Shurer as producer. Kelly Marie Tran replaced Steele to conform to character and plot changes; Shurer said the cast must embody the same spirit as the character and that Tran was better suited to the role.
According to Hall, Disney recast the role because Raya was originally conceived as a "stoic loner" but the team began to infuse her with "levity" and "swagger", characteristics similar to those of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Star-Lord. Tran had unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Raya but in January 2020, when Tran replaced Steele as Raya, she assumed Disney had already rejected her but was now hiring her to replace the lead actor. Disney separately hired each cast member and individually recorded their lines, keeping the actors' identities secret from each other until they accidentally discovered the others' involvement in the film before Disney revealed them to the cast. Despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the film industry, the cast worked and successfully completed the project from their homes. The film's budget was at least $100million.
Development and design Raya and the Last Dragon is inspired by traditional Southeast Asian cultures. The production team consulted experts from Southeast Asia Story Trust to ensure an accurate cultural representation in the film, and they emphasized the importance of avoiding stereotypical portrayals of Asian characters. To conduct background research, the production team traveled to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines; they were inspired by the local sense of acceptance, unity, and trust, which they adopted as themes for the film. The production team explored ways to express Kumandra's characteristics; they designed its five fractured lands with unique climates and characteristics to reflect the diverse beliefs and culture of their people, and each land and its people represent a mandala icon revolving around Kumandra. This is inspired by the local religious teaching that everything is centered around a common belief system or cosmology. They used unconventional shapes, experimented with scale and color, and placed objects in unexpected locations to convey Kumandra's expression of fantasy. Kumandra's Dragon River is inspired by the Mekong. Dynamic colors in each land indicate Raya's location in the film.
According to character art director Shiyoon Kim:
The production team focused the film on Raya and Sisu, and their conflicting characteristics of trust issues and over-trusting are the basis for the film's humor and emotion. The team initially separately designed the characters, drawing several designs of Raya and Sisu but they felt that something was lacking and their designs were incomplete, prompting them to design the characters together, which helped them better understand how they visually and thematically complemented each other.