Introduction
I went in to this movie pretty skeptical. After all, Disney hasn’t had the best reputation around here as of late. I also read the Plugged In review before hand, which convinced me that, while this film seemed pretty clean content-wise, there were some serious spiritual things that needed addressed.
I came out of the movie only a bit dissatisfied, and that’s saying a lot. Care to see why? 😉
Raya & the Last Dragon by Disney
(As a warning, there might maybe be spoilers in here. So beware. I’ll make sure the spoilers are alerted, but just sayin’.😉)
Movies these days are failing more and more to appeal to me – the overused cuss words, devastating morals and themes, not to mention the homosexuality and all that junk that’s in movies these days have gotten me to the point where I’d almost rather write than watch a new movie.
BUT.
Raya (pronounced RIE-uh), for those of you who thought it was RAY-uh like me XD) was worth the watch.
Content
Pros:
Sexual–little to none that I noticed. *applauds*
Language–none (except “binturi”, which isn’t an English word – one source says it means “a traitor, a liar, or a thief”). Never thought I’d see the day. 😛
Drinking/drugs/etc–little to none. If anyone was drinking, I didn’t see it.
Violence–while this movie is indeed violent in the sense that there are numerous battles and even some deaths, we rarely (if ever) see blood or anything gory. Dead bodies in battle are seen lying there like they’re asleep, or frozen into stone statues (more on that later).
Cons:
Spiritual–this was the big problem of the movie. Honestly, if Disney had taken out the main belief that dragons are basically gods, I would totally buy this movie and watch it over and over and over again. BUT. They had to put it in. Grab some popcorn, y’all, it might take me some time to cover all of this.
Close to the beginning of the movie, we’re told of a legend about a paradise that was destroyed by Druun (the antagonists of the story – swirling purple and black clouds that devour anything living and turn them into stone. And no, I don’t actually know how that’s spelled XD). A dragon sacrifices herself to save her people, but the land still descends into chaos.
Sound familiar?
(SPOILER ALERT!!) Later, we find out that the dragon who sacrificed herself actually isn’t the hero the legends paint her to be. Her siblings, when they were fighting to the death, gave their magic to her and let themselves be consumed. The dragon (Susi) didn’t quite know what to do with the magic, but somehow, someway, she used it to defeat the Droon and save mankind. (SPOILER END!!)
Besides just that, the main character’s culture worships dragons – or, at least, they appear to. When they come across a dragon, they cup their hands in a circle and place them at their forehead. They kneel in front of, pray to, and treat dragons reverently, like gods. The worst part is that the dragons don’t do anything to stop it – they either ignore the worship or accept it as totally normal.🤔
In the beginning of the film, Raya’s family holds the last bit of dragon magic left (more on the magic later) in the form of a glowing blue gem. When the come into the presence of the gem, they kneel before it, do their ritual forehead-hand-bow-head thingy, and basically worship it. Yeah, not good.
Another thing worth mentioning is that, when a Druun turns a living being into stone, the statue is seen standing upright, eyes closed, and holding their hands out in front of them, palms up and cupped like they’re giving or receiving a gift. This may or may not be related to spiritual stuff. I honestly can’t tell. *shrugs* Your call.
On another note, when Raya reaches the last place she thinks Sisu could be, she begins a type of ritual that involves her building an altar, singing a song to summon Sisu, and, interestingly enough, taking off her shoes before constructing the alter and praying. Seem like Moses, anyone?
One more thing. As Namaari (the film’s main “villain”) leads a group of warriors through the place where the last dragons fell to the Druuns, she raises her hand and silences them. They proceed through the stone statues in silence, slowly and with reverence, almost as if that place is holy.
So… the religious end of things in this movie is a lot more prevalent than what I would expect from Disney. It’s got some parallels to Christian beliefs, though the fact that the culture worships dragons excludes our faith as the movie’s religion.
Bathroom humor–it’s there, but not especially blatant.
Magic–yep, there’s magic in here. Dragon magic is what keeps Druuns away, not to mention brings rain and all sorts of other things to the people of Kumandra. It’s not acquired by spells or incantations – rather, it seems that every dragon has been gifted with a certain natural ability that the humans call magic. Decide for yourself. 😉
Neutral:
For anyone out there who might be more sensitive to these things than I am, I will mention that several warriors (all male) strut around bare-chested. There’s also a brief flash of a naked baby bottom.
Messages
Pros:
One thing that made me very happy with this movie was the way Raya treated her dad. They loved each other (SPOILER ALERT!!), and her dad eventually gave his life to keep her safe. (SPOILER END!!) Raya treats him with love and respect, something you don’t often see in movies. *applauds*
Raya’s father teaches her many things, but one of them is that assumption leads to ruin. Raya assumes that the other clans of Kumandra are attending her dad’s peace conference just so they can swipe the dragon gem they hold. Her dad warns her not to jump to conclusions about it, and we see instances of Raya’s hasty judgement leading to not-so-great-things throughout the rest of the film.
On that note, yes, Raya’s dad does host a peace conference. His goal is to unite the peoples of Kumandra, and in the end (SPOILER ALERT!) we see his dream coming to fruition as people from Heart (Raya), Tail (Boun), Spine (Tong), Talon (Noi), and, eventually, Fang (Namaari) come together to fight against the Druun and, as the film closes, we see those turned to stone come back to life and gather at Heart for a feast. (SPOILER END!!) Unity is a very big theme in this movie, one I appreciated.
As already mentioned, Raya treats her dad with respect. The other children in the film do the same – Namaari listens to and obeys her mom, Boun obviously misses his family (even going so far as to say that his overly-annoying little sister is the one he misses the most), etc, etc. This was a refreshing change from the typical rebellious-children and stupid-or-wrong-parent thing we see these days. Learning from those older than you is something the Bible admonishes (read Proverbs if you don’t believe me), and I appreciated that the movie allowed that to be in.
Once, Sisu tells Raya that sometimes you just have to take the first step, and I agree with that. Yes, I am an impulsive and slightly reckless human being, so maybe you shouldn’t take my advice, but I believe that there is a time when you can’t let not having a solid plan stop you from doing what you know must be done. 😉
(SPOILER ALERT!!) Namaari, as the main antagonist of this film, constantly chases Raya around trying to stop her or get to the dragon first. But Namaari does have a redemption arc, and eventually Raya shows her mercy during the third one-on-one battle the two have, which Raya won that time. She could have killed her, and was certainly angry enough to, but she held back. (SPOILER END!!) Other instances before hinted at Raya’s and Namaari’s unmerciful natures, but this was the climax that brought the theme of mercy in a full arc.
Out of all of these, though, the overarching theme of this movie is trust. Yes, someone betrayed you in the past. Yes, you’re afraid of that happening again. But yes, you need to put that aside and trust once again, because how can you unify to defeat an enemy if you don’t trust each other? Sisu tells Raya to trust. Raya says she can’t. (SPOILER ALERT!!) But she does. And her final act of trust (giving her piece of the dragon gem to Namaari and letting the Druun turn her to stone so that Namaari can put the gem together and copy what Sisu did in the past) eventually saves Kumandra. (SPOILER END!!)
Cons:
I know I already did more than just touch on this, but the movie portrays worshiping something created rather than the Creator as a tolerable, even good thing. That was sad. 😦
Morals
Pros:
Courage–ok, there’s crazy creatures running around turning everyone to stone and you have to stop ’em. There’s also swords and knives and hostilities running rampant. Do the characters have courage? You bet. 😉
Hospitality–Raya’s dad is hospitable and kind to all his guests at his ill-fated peace conference. Raya also treats Namaari with kindness – taking her to get food, entertaining her, even showing her the dragon gem. Suspicions abounded, but that didn’t get in the way of hospitality.
Loyalty–whether or not they’re loyal to each other, each person seems unalterably loyal to his or her own clan – especially Namaari. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Fang safe and secure.
Sacrifice–so often in films we see characters being selfish – especially towards their enemies. And that’s understandable – after all, I’ve only ever heard the “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek” stuff taught by one Person. (SPOILER ALERT!!) But in the climax, we see Raya sacrifice herself and trust her enemy to save the day, shocking Namaari into near panic. (SPOILER END!!) Not your typical hero, but certainly one to be admired.
Cons:
Pride–one fault that was never really addressed was Raya and Namaari’s pride. Raya brags about her abilities (they are kind of impressive) and tends to strut when Namaari is around.
Rebellion–sadly enough, this one was never addressed either. It was treated flippantly, even casually, which annoyed me. One instance is at Raya’s dad’s peace conference, when Raya and Namaari are talking. Namaari brings out a map (at least, I think it was Namaari) and Raya asks, “Are you supposed to have that?” to which Namaari replies, “No!” and laughs like that’s obvious.
Techy Stuff
Pros:
Disney outdid itself with the animation here – everything is vibrant and realistic, making the film almost worth watching again just to see the graphics! XDDD
Awesome character development – especially when portraying women warriors. Sure, they can fight, but they’re also distinctly feminine. They’re not calloused, hard, basically-male warriors with “perfect hair, teeth, and nails”. They cry, they hurt, they lose.
The plot was very engaging, full of twists and perfectly foreshadowed events. *yells, “ENCORE!!”*
Cons:
The villains (Druuns) weren’t especially concerning. They can’t go near water, so if you stay in it, you’re fine, right? Then again, this is a kid’s movie, so you probably don’t want to have a Gollum prowling around scaring the living daylights out of people. 😉
Wrap Up
When we paused the movie once, I turned to my younger sibling and asked her about what was going on (it was the scene where Raya was trying to summon Sisu by praying to her and erecting an altar). My sibling didn’t realize what Raya was doing, nor that it was bad until I specifically asked if praying to a dragon was a good idea.
Be careful who you show this to.
Yes, the film is gorgeous, with awesome messages and morals. But the spiritual end of things is concerning, especially if you’re showing it to younger audiences. If you’re considering playing it for a kid under the age of… let’s say ten, you might want to pause it from time to time and make sure the kid realizes what’s going on and acknowledges it as wrong. Yeah, this depends on the kid – several of ’em are very discerning and could probably watch this movie no problem, while others wouldn’t understand what was going on until they were older than ten. So just be careful when you let someone younger watch it. 😉
Take courage, pursue God (not dragons!!), and smile while you still have teeth. 😉
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