While Raya and the Last Dragon is a crowd-pleasing film for viewers of all ages, there are some
parts of the film that younger viewers may miss. From romantic subtext to religious parallels,
here are the things only adults notice in Raya and the Last Dragon.
As Raya and the Last Dragon opens, we see Raya riding her giant roly-poly companion
Tuk Tuk through a barren wasteland dotted with human statues. As we learn, 500 years
before the events of the movie, dragons and humans lived together peacefully in a paradise
called Kumandra. But their harmonious way of life was destroyed when malevolent spirits
called the Druun invaded, turning everyone they touched to stone. The dragons fought
to protect the humans, and finally prevailed over the Druun — but all of the dragons
were turned to stone in the process save the last one, Sisu, who disappeared.
It's a beautiful story, but adult viewers are going to realize that it seems to have
glossed over a few important parts. While Raya presents Kumandra as "paradise" and its
people living in perfect harmony, Sisu later explains that the Druun were born of human
discord. If that's the case, then Kumandra must not have been the idyllic, conflict-free
world that Raya made it out to be.
Adults will probably not miss that the story of the dragons that Raya tells at the beginning
of Raya and the Last Dragon holds a lot of parallels to a religious creation story.
Raya's story begins with humanity living in an idyllic world, watched over by benevolent
magical creatures who served as the source of water and rain, and thus all life. It is
even implied that the humans worshipped the dragons in the reverent way they bow and raise
their hands to their foreheads whenever they're in their presence.
When the Druun arrive, it's the dragons who sacrifice themselves in order to give humanity
another chance, and dragons who ultimately return centuries later to restore the world
to its former glory. Even during the 500 years that dragons are gone, human civilization
and conflict all centers around vying for the favor they perceive as being bestowed
by the last bit of dragon magic. Kids will likely take it all at face value, but for
many adults, the religious parallels will be too strong to miss.
When Raya and Namaari first meet as children, the two instantly bond over their shared interest
in dragons. Later in the film, Namaari acts as an antagonist until Raya realizes that
the key to defeating the Druun is trust, and literally puts her fate in Namaari's hands
by giving her Heart's piece of the dragon gem.
It's a moving arc for both characters, and could hold additional significance, from a
certain point of view. Some adult viewers may notice that while Raya never gets an explicit
love interest in the film, her relationship with Namaari hits many of the same beats often
reserved for romantic relationships.
The way they meet closely mirrors Anna and Hans' first encounter in Frozen, when Hans
is explicitly set up as Anna's love interest, and their interactions throughout the film
can easily be interpreted as flirtatious. Even Raya's voice actor, Kelly Marie Tran,
sees their relationship as being potentially romantic. She shared in an interview with
Vanity Fair that while Disney's official stance says nothing about Raya's romantic inclinations,
"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."
When the terrifying Druun show up in Kumandra, they take the form of smoky monsters giving
off an ominous purple glow that overtakes people and turns them into stone. Yet for
most of the people the Druun transforms into statues, they don't freeze in the position
they were in when the Druun first wrapped around them. Rather, most of the time, the
statues end up standing with their hands cupped in front of them, as if offering up an invisible
gift to a recipient only they can see.
While the position of the people affected by the Druun is never explicitly addressed
in the film, their cupped hands are actually a subtle way at foreshadowing the eventual
solution that will be found by Raya and her friends. Not only does the cupping motion
hint at the involvement of Sisu, a water dragon, but it also seems to indicate an action of
offering up something important to someone else. This is what Raya eventually realizes
she has to do, putting her trust in Namaari and giving her the Heart tribe's fragment
of the dragon gem. This is also what the dragons did 500 years before, when they gave the gem
to Sisu in the first place. It turns out that the only way to defeat the Druun is with an
act of unity and trust — which the Druun was subtly telling its victims all along.
In the story Raya tells of the history of Kumandra, after Sisu sacrificed herself, the
surviving human tribes went to war with one another over possession of the dragon gem,
which held the last remnants of dragon magic. However, at some point along the way, someone
had to have noticed that Sisu's body was missing. Unlike the rest of the dragons, who had been
turned to stone, Sisu just vanished. What's more, somehow, a legend began that Sisu had
been washed away down the river, and that her body lay at one of its many ends. This
is the story Namaari tells Raya early in the movie — which turns out to be true, since
it leads Raya to find Sisu six years later.
And yet even though none of these stories would have existed without someone having
an idea about Sisu's fate and making a record of it, it appears that no one ever thought
to go looking for the heroic dragon. Even while all of the tribes of Kumandra were at
each other's throats over the final scrap of dragon magic, it didn't seem to occur to
anyone to seek out the real live dragon that was very much within reach. It seems bizarre
that Raya was the first to go searching for Sisu, but every indication points to the conclusion
that she was. Kids may not think to ask why, but adults will likely wonder what kept anyone
else from seeking out Sisu's resting place.
After Raya locates Sisu, she is understandably wary of letting anyone find out that her travel
companion is a real live dragon. Even after making friends with young Boun and the formidable
Tong, she is reluctant to let either of them know her friend's true nature. And yet, for
some reason, early in the film, Raya doesn't hesitate before telling Namaari that she's
found the dragon Sisu. Unlike Boun and Tong, who understandably don't think twice about
a human named Sisu, Raya introduces her to Namaari in direct response to Namaari's question
about whether Raya was looking for the dragon.
If anyone was going to realize that Raya's "human" friend Sisu was actually a dragon
in disguise, it should've been Namaari. That she doesn't is lucky for Raya, but you have
to wonder why Raya risked her realizing the truth in the first place.
During Raya's visit to Talon Tribe to locate their piece of the dragon gem, she comes across
a seemingly abandoned baby — only to realize the baby is a con artist.
"Really? A con baby?"
Despite their dishonest beginnings, the baby and her monkey-like companions throw in their
lot with Raya, and wind up being indispensable in the adventure that follows. Eventually,
we learn that the baby's name is Noi, and it quickly becomes clear that she's uniquely
precocious, able to both move and think on the level of someone many times her age.
But while Noi mostly serves to provide comic relief, adults will likely realize the profound
tragedy of a baby who has had to learn the skills of someone much older and fend for
herself because she lost her entire family. In the real world, such a child would've likely
perished if they weren't taken in by an older caretaker; the option to be adopted by a trio
of benevolent sticky-fingered primates wouldn't really exist. In Raya and the Last Dragon's
fantasy world, Noi is able to forge a new path for herself as a street-smart trickster
and thief, but adults won't be able to ignore the deep sadness of a small child forced to
grow up too fast because if she didn't take care of herself, no one would.
Numerous times throughout Raya and the Last Dragon, characters question Raya's quest to
collect the fragments of the broken dragon gem. She's always elusive in her answers,
not wanting to give away the secret that she's located Sisu, the last dragon, and is trying
to reassemble the gem in order to defeat the Druun and bring back all the people they've
locked in stone. Raya's fear is that after centuries of conflict, the other tribes would
probably short-sightedly attempt to seize Sisu's power for themselves rather than work
together for the betterment of all.
However, while Raya's reluctance to reveal the nature of her quest to anyone else is
understandable, why is she the only one hunting gem pieces in the first place? After all,
the catalyst for all of the conflict is that each of the tribes wanted the original dragon
gem for themselves, and that after it was broken, they all took whatever they could
get in the hopes of claiming some of its power. Rather than everyone wondering why Raya is
collecting gem pieces, isn't the bigger question why no one else is? It seems that rather than
being mystified by her actions, the other tribe leaders should assume that Raya's goal
is to amass more power for the Heart tribe. Kids will likely take the constant questions
about Raya's motivations in stride, but adults will wonder why no one else thought to do
the exact same thing.
At the end of Raya and the Last Dragon, after all of the last representatives of each of
the five tribes have given their dragon gem pieces to Namaari, their combined trust and
cooperativeness revives the dragon gem, which in turn erupts with magic, wipes out the Druun,
and revives all of the people and dragons who have been turned to stone. Raya and her
companions are reunited with their lost loved ones, and Kumandra is once again restored
to the paradise it once was.
Except... it may not actually be that simple. Just as Raya probably glossed over some less-than-shiny
bits in her account of history, the ending of Raya and the Last Dragon may not be quite
as happily ever after as it appears. It's implied that the Druun are a part of the world
and that although the people of Kumandra may drive off the Druun for a time, they're never
truly gone; they just go dormant until a new opportunity arises for them to strike. For
the dragons, it took 500 years until the five tribes could come together and bring them
back. Hopefully it will take even longer for them to fall apart enough for the Druun to
find their way back, but adults will realize that as rosy as the ending appears, the threat
of the Druun always remains.
Imagine this: a group of gems, each imbued with immense magical power, fall into the
wrong hands, and as a result, vast numbers of people are supernaturally wiped out in
the blink of an eye. Half a decade later, a group of survivors come together, determined
to locate all of the scattered gems and use them to bring back all the people they've
lost. The effort involves some tricky heist work, but despite some bumps along the road,
they're finally able to reassemble all of the gems. Ultimately, through their teamwork
— and the heroic sacrifice of their leader — they're able to reverse the dark magic
of the past and bring back everyone they've lost.
Sound familiar? Obviously, that's a broad summary of the plot of Raya and the Last Dragon,
but it's also the basic storyline of 2019's Avengers: Endgame, the massive climax to a
decade's worth of Marvel Cinematic Universe adventures. Obviously the two aren't exactly
the same, but it's still hard to ignore the parallels. Kids may not notice some of the
big picture similarities, but if their parents are superhero fans, they may get a kick out
of just how much overlap there is.
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