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Raya and the Last Dragon (Don Hall / Carlos López Estrada / Paul Briggs / John Ripa)
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Exactly the film we all assumed Estrada would make as his follow-up to Blindspotting...
But seriously, I liked this a lot. Feels like just the right mix of what's worked best with classic and modern Disney animation as well as incorporating elements from all sorts of other action, fantasy and adventure stories and films into one big joyful buffet. It may feel a bit too breezy and fast-paced to exactly feel like the types of Disney works that leave the biggest and most emotional impression, but it's also so potent and airtight and that it barely gives you moments to take a breath to want to nitpick, and sometimes it's just outright breathtaking. It's crafted in such a way that it feels modern and mythical all at once, and sometimes that's done perfectly with it gorgeous design, pointed storytelling, and often purely visual moments that evoke so much, but it also does falter into feeling a little more off-key with things like a dragon making anachronistic / anatopistic jokes, where the film is inconsistently making fish-out-of-water jokes one second and then having that same character reference something from our society they couldn't possibly be aware of (and not just because the movie doesn't seem to take place on our planet) a few scenes later.
Also, for this being the studio's first non-sequel since Moana (5 years ago!), it definitely feels like it shares a lot of visual, characterizational and thematic DNA, and if it had chosen to be a musical (here instead seemingly employing Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim philosophy of every time it would feel like a character would break into song, they break into a fight) the comparisons would likely have felt even more inescapable, but hey, when the studio can create two universes this beautiful, rich, exciting and inclusive back to back, it's hard to want to complain at all.
So minor quibbles asides, I was thrilled by it, aside from the continued dreaded context of having to watch another would-be event film with potentially great cultural crossover moments (or even just a lovely evening at the movies with friends and/or family) stuck at home on my TV instead.
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I agree with pretty much everything you said. It isn't super deep thematically (and the need for trust bit was a bit on the nose), but it doesn't really need to. It's just a very fun, well paced and compelling movie. And the action is really good.
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My standard -- and seemingly, increasingly alone -- "Disney late-period 3D films lacking or overly obvious in purely dramatic mode/storytelling" complaint (with the usual exception of Ralph films' comedy and Tangled's classical throwback), this time compounded by one of their weaker, broader stories than usual. It seems like the focus is on creating this world first, with the story designed later to run through it.
Also, as a Thai watching this, I get distracted from time to time by its SEA culture-blender approach, in which I recognize so many familiar traces (names like Noi and Boun, and especially the food) but then dissociate from the depiction with stuff like this world's gesture of greeting/respect, which bizarrely feels like it incorporates more martial art element into our still-recognizable gestures.
Still, there are enjoyable moments sprinkled throughout (I liked the friendship between Raya and Sisu), and this may be WDAS's most gorgeous, best-looking film in... ever? 6.5/10
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Better directed action scenes than anything Marvel has ever done. Lovely animation. Has a nice, safe message. Pity the humor mostly falls flat.
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Awkwafina had some shining moments with her character but I was mostly bored to tears with this. It might have been Disney overkill for the moment.
