A magical Dragon Blade, humanoid villains controlled by Namaari, and a much darker ending
for Sisu are just some of the fascinating scenes and storylines Disney cut from Raya
and the Last Dragon.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm revealing and explaining all
the deleted scenes from Disney's Raya you never got to see!
We will, of course, be talking spoilers, so take care.
Before the Druun became the faceless swirling mists of purple that we see in the final film,
the villains were going to be very, very different – much more humanoid monsters a bit like
armoured giants, in fact.
And there's a great deleted scene from the home entertainment release with these alternate
versions of the Druun that would have appeared at the beginning of the movie in a chapter
called "Tail of the Dragon".
"For years we've been on our own, broken, losing hope, with no one to protect us from
the Druun."
"I don't have it."
"No one, but me."
In this story, Raya was a mysterious warrior known as "Dragon Blade" and her sword had
a dragon pendant from her father Benja.
"Oh!
Dragon Blade."
Because these villains had a specific form, they could be fought in a more conventional
manner than the more ethereal Druun we see in the final movie.
Ordinary weapons were still ineffective against them though and only Raya's magical sword
"Dragon Blade", which she created herself, could defeat these sentient villains.
Raya's weapon had the ability to pierce their armour and then a clicking device caused them
to melt while green goo exploded from their bodies.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm helping you."
"No I don't need your help.
Look out.
You need one of these... to do this."
As an extra twist, these Druun were originally controlled by Namaari who in early versions
of the movie was more of a traditional Disney villain in the vein of Maleficent or Cruella
de Vil.
The deleted scene goes on to show how Raya has to improvise against the Druun when she
keeps on losing her sword – and I especially like how she uses the
bell against them!
The scene also introduces Tuk Tuk as Raya's trusted and crucial side-kick who, in a change
from the final film, she didn't meet when he was a baby, but who helps her out of her
sticky situation when she's cornered by the Druun.
Which is intentionally kind of amusing given her earlier comment to the villager who wants
to help her fight: "I'm sorry, I have to do this alone.
I don't need a side-kick."
And that deleted line, of course, highlights Raya's evolution over the course of the film
from a lone fighter to someone willing to work with others.
These humanoid Druun also appear in another deleted scene where Raya rescues a group of
Kumandrans fighting each other on a bridge from a Druun who's about to attack them.
"Move your wagon."
"No you move your wagon, I was here first."
"Grandma.
Grandma, hurry, come on we gotta go."
We can also see from this cut scene that these early versions of the Druun turn objects to
stone by grabbing hold of them, as we see the monster try to do to Raya's sword;
of course, that’s something the Druun do to humans in the final film.
"Not this sword."
As we can see, Raya's original sword was magical and resistant to the Druun's powers but, like
her sword in the final film, this sword also had the ability to extend and attack from
afar with a grappling hook.
Now, despite their human-like form, these Druun were still very resilient with the ability
to regenerate limbs even after Raya breaks them off.
Another interesting detail from this deleted scene is that it looks like, rather than meeting
the Ongis in Talon as she does in the final movie,
Raya would have met them at this point in her journey, as we see the hilariously mischievous
monkeys stealing the fruit the two Kumandrans are throwing at each other.
"Move your wagon."
In the end, Disney decided to abandon the human-like take on the Druun in favour of
making the villains more of an amorphous, faceless evil.
Their connection to Namaari was also dropped in favour of making Raya's human antagonist
more nuanced and developing her relationship with Raya instead.
I can also see that, as cool as a magical sword would have been, dropping that idea
fits better with the final movie's theme of Raya having to cooperate with others and trust
in them in order to save the day.
And a deleted flashback scene to Raya's childhood shows how the original movie's main theme
was centred on the notion of how hope can inspire community.
"This is the Heart of the Dragon, a rare and very special flower.
Like the dragon, it's connected to water.
Watch.
And look.
Each flower responds to the light of the other."
"One flower made all of those light up?"
"Yes, one light can light a thousand more.
That's what the dragons did.
They inspired light and hope in all the people around them."
"I wish the whole world could see this."
"Maybe one day you'll show them."
Although this is a sweet scene, I wonder whether the implication that Raya
would be inspired to fix the world by the Heart of the Dragon could have felt too reminiscent
of Moana who used the Heart of Te Fiti to restore peace to her world.
The Heart of Te Fiti was the green gem the ocean gave to Moana who then lifted the curse
threatening her island when she returned the stone to the lava demon Te Ka.
Given there were already a number of similarities between the two movies such as shapeshifting
deuteragonists, the importance of water, and a faceless threat to the land,
the Heart of the Dragon concept could have made the comparisons with Moana a few too
many.
Some fans of the movie have pointed out the romantic tension between Raya and Namaari
in several scenes.
"Hey there, Princess Undercut."
And Raya's voice actress Kelly Marie Tran has said that's also how she interpreted it,
though she added that "wasn't the official Disney line".
And there seems to be a little more of that frisson in an alternate version of the scene
when Raya meets the grown-up Namaari for the first time.
"Oh, what's dripping, dewdrop?
Oh, I see you've finally made some friends.
It's good that you're reaching out.
So what are you up to?
You stole an ancient map and scrolls from the royal library."
"Correction.
I was just borrowing them, indefinitely."
In the final film, this encounter takes place in the Tail Temple where Sisu and Raya find
the second piece of the Dragon Gem; whereas in the deleted scene, it appears to
take place in the shipwreck, with Sisu donning a disguise rather than shapeshifting into
human form.
"Why are you making me wear this?"
"I'm doing this to protect you."
"From who?"
"From everyone.
We have to sneak into five different hostile nations."
"In my day there were no nations.
Kumandra was one large, happy.."
"Namaari."
And in contrast to the more Indiana Jones-style escape out of the cave we see in the final
film, in this alternate version Raya uses a trick from Tuk Tuk to clear a path through
Namaari's soldiers.
"Dinnertime!"
"What?
It's like three o'clock in the afternoon, why would you yell dinner.."
"Come on!"
During the alternate chase scene, Raya and Sisu also stop to recover a Dragon Gem piece
at the bottom of a well.
"I sense a gem piece.
There."
And Raya spills a catch of fish to distract Namaari's big cats so that she can go and
collect the stone.
"Oh!
What the binturi are you doing?"
"There!
That well.
Erm.
Raya?"
"Catch!"
"Aha!
Shapechange power, it's back!"
Although this looks like a fun scene, it seems to overcomplicate the getaway from Namaari
and also kind of crams in the shapeshifting power reveal giving it less importance, so
I can see why it was cut.
In the final movie, after Raya and Sisu escape from Namaari, they end up on the Shrimporium,
a boat restaurant run by Boun.
"Welcome to the world-famous Shrimp-orium.
My name is Boun.
I'll be your server today.
Would you like to hear our daily specials?"
"Yes, please!"
However, in an earlier version of the movie, Boun was "a Mr Fix-It who owned a scrapyard"
and Raya met him before she even met Sisu when she was looking for someone to fix a
crack on Tuk Tuk's plate after a piece of Druun arm got stuck inside.
"That mean I can get things fixed here?"
"Depends.
What needs fixing?"
"It's my pill bear here.
He's got a crack."
"Who doesn't?"
"That came out wrong."
In this deleted version of the story, we also discover that Boun is secretly hoping to team
up with the legendary Dragon Blade warrior to defeat Namaari.
"Nice target set up.
Not a lot of hits.
Is that Namaari?"
"Hey!
Nothing to see here.
It's part of a secret mission I'm working on.
If you have to know, I'm teaming up with Dragon Blade to take down Namaari and the Druun.
"Dragon Blade?"
"Yeah, Dragon Blade, Defender of the Five Lands, slays Druun with his deadly sword,
that has a dragon pendant swinging off of it."
"Nope, can't say I've heard of him."
As often happens in animation, and as we've seen with many Disney movies including Zootopia,
Frozen, and Moana, the studio often drastically shifts and changes storylines even relatively
late in a movie's production.
And at one point, Raya's filmmakers seriously considered a much darker, bittersweet ending
for the movie.
Disney always planned to have Sisu die so that Raya would come to understand that she
couldn't just rely on a magical dragon to save Kumandra.
However, in an alternate ending, Sisu would have remained dead, so she wouldn't have been
resurrected even after the rain fell and banished the Druun.
In that ending, none of the dragons were resurrected, making Sisu quite literally the Last Dragon.
That might have been more striking because it would have solidified the sacrifice the
dragons made for Kumandra and made the impact of human discord more long-lasting.
But the filmmakers wanted to go with a happy ending, so they resurrected Sisu together
with all the other dragons to create, in their words, "a big Disney moment that [makes] your
heart sing."
And if you want to learn about more amazing alternate endings and deleted scenes for animated
movies such as the deleted Mecha Furby from The Mitchells vs The Machines or how Elsa
nearly died in Frozen 2, then tap here to check out my full playlist.
Now, do you wish any of these deleted scenes had been included in the final movie?
Let me know in the comments below!
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!