On our website and social media platforms, many fans responded with passionate gestures of approval and happiness upon reading Tran’s comments regarding Raya’s sexuality as on-screen representation is incredibly important to many people. Related: Pixar’s “Out” Will Feature Disney’s First Animated Gay Main Character What are fans saying about Tran’s comments? Now, some fans of Raya and the Last Dragon and Tran have expressed support for the actress and the potential inclusion of an LGBTQ+ Disney princess. “I think it might get me in trouble for saying that, but whatever.”
“I think if you’re a person watching this movie and you see representation in a way that feels really real and authentic to you, then it is real and authentic,” Tran said in her Vanity Fair interview.
If only Disney dare to take more risks with its classic tale and adapt to an ever changing world will it truly start to create something entirely new.It was long ago, we reported that actor Kelly Marie Tran suggested that she intentionally included flirtatious undertones in her performance in Raya and the Last Dragon, in scenes involving Gemma Chan’s Princess Namaari, seemingly confirming that Raya is gay, or at least a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Overall, Raya and the Last Dragon is a beautifully animated film with a strong princess lead that is a sure step towards changing the face of Disney forever. The film’s message becomes muddied along the way, the story failing to properly reveal the moral of the film without excessive exposition. However, for a movie about trust, it really gave me more reasons not to trust people that it did to trust them. It is only through bonding over this shared experience, learning from each other, and building a global community through trust, that the world of the film seeks to find peace and unity once again. Every character in the film has experienced loss at the hands of the all-consuming Druun – a creature born of hate. In 2021, as the pandemic continues, Raya and the Last Dragon is a very fitting film for this time. The tension brushed off too quickly, never allowing any emotional weight to linger between these friends turned enemies. While there is so much tension between the two, the film seems reluctant to make them do any more than dance around each other occasionally. The film really works to reveal the power of, not just their fighting abilities, but their intellectual and emotional strengths against each other. The fight sequences are so beautifully crafted, as we see two warriors, both of equal skill, equal ambition, and equal strength.
The dynamic between Raya and Namaari is by far the greatest aspect of the film. It reads a classic Hollywood western tale, but the film becomes too preoccupied with maintaining our attention that it abruptly loses this aesthetic in favour for the punchier heist story. Just as much as Namaari, who was equally involved in the shattering of the Gem. She is both the heroic lone ranger and outcast outlaw. Following Raya’s journey to find the pieces of the fractured Dragon Gem, she’s on a mission of redemption to right her wrongs as she feels guilty for being part of the reason why the Gem fractured in the first place, unleashing the Druun on the world again. But the western aesthetic the figure of the outlaw, the lone ranger, and the wide open plains of nothingness, this is where I think Raya and the Last Dragon could have really let its story shine. The heist film aesthetic leans too heavily towards contemporary influences that they appear to be quite jarring, as if they shouldn’t exist within the beautiful world of the film. Its pacing is far too fast that we get lost along the way as we are plunged into the next scene. Its style switches from a classic western to a heist film in a matter of minutes. This results in the film itself seeming a little confused. Her character perfectly balances these two realms creating a character that is entirely new, while still feeling warm and familiar.Īs the creative team behind Raya and the Last Dragon did change drastically during production, it’s evident that the final cut of the film reshaped much of what was initially intended. Raya’s character draws from a lot of the classic Disney princess trope, while also adapting to better suit today’s modern world.
She stands for what she sees right, and will stop at nothing to get there. She is strong, determined, aware of her own skill and abilities, and driven by her own will. Raya, a new Disney princess, forges the way alongside Elsa and Moana as a new kind of Disney princess for the modern era. I feel like “Disney Disney” is the only way to describe those films by Disney that are actually Disney and not somehow part of the fact they now own the rights to most major movies that get released. Raya and the Last Dragon is the latest Disney Disney movie to come from Disney.