Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

There's a moment in Raya and the Last Dragon where the water animation is so staggeringly beautiful that I genuinely had to remind myself I was watching an animated film. The way light bends through it, the way the magic ripples and flows, the sheer craftsmanship of every frame. Disney's technical team absolutely knocked it out of the park. I just wish the story underneath all that stunning imagery had done the same.

The world of Kumandra is a genuine achievement. Southeast Asian cultures are woven into the landscapes, the costumes, the architecture, the fighting styles, and it all feels considered and richly imagined rather than superficially borrowed. There's a real sense of place here, of a world with history and texture. For a studio that has sometimes leaned on a very narrow vision of what animated worlds should look like, this feels like a genuinely exciting shift, and the action sequences are fluid and dynamic in a way that kept me leaning forward. On a purely visual level, this is one of Disney's finest.

Awkwafina as Sisu, the last surviving dragon, brings a scrappy, warm energy that I enjoyed. She's goofy and optimistic and a little oblivious, and she gives the film most of its genuine laughs. There's a lightness to her that stops the whole thing from becoming too po-faced, which it easily could have, given how seriously it takes its themes of fractured nations, broken trust, and the long shadow of collective trauma.

And those themes matter. A story about a world torn apart by division, about the difficulty of trusting people who have hurt you, about whether one act of faith can start to heal generations of damage. That's worthwhile territory, and in the right hands it could have been genuinely moving. The problem is that Raya never quite gets there. It maps those ideas onto a quest structure that feels very familiar: chosen hero, magical MacGuffins scattered across the land, a band of misfit companions accumulated along the way. The beats arrive more or less when you expect them, and the emotional punches don't land with the weight they should.

Kelly Marie Tran is sincere as Raya, and I don't want to be too hard on her, because I think she's working with material that doesn't fully serve her. The dialogue is often flat, and Raya's most earnest speeches about trust and unity come across as more dutiful than heartfelt. You believe in her as an action heroine. You believe in her competence and her toughness. What you don't quite feel is her grief, or her fear, or the specific loneliness of carrying this particular burden. The film tells you she's wounded. It doesn't quite make you feel it.

That gap between visual ambition and emotional execution is what keeps Raya from joining Disney's very best. I think about The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a film that swung hard for genuine darkness and moral complexity, that didn't always stick the landing but at least took real risks. Raya is braver than its screenplay lets it be. It has the bones of something truly special, and it settles for being solid. The themes are important. The visuals are award-worthy. But a film about learning to trust again, about the courage of opening your hand when you've been burned before, should leave you feeling something stronger than mild satisfaction.

Three stars.

Worth watching, especially on the biggest screen you can find. The craft deserves that. Just go in knowing you're getting something beautiful and enjoyable rather than something that'll sit with you for days. It's a missed opportunity wrapped in dazzling animation, and that's genuinely a shame, because you can see the film it almost was in every single frame.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2021  | Watched: 2025-10-10

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Don Hall: Winnie the Pooh (2011)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)