If comes from Pixar or Disney Animation, a Disney animated feature film is never the same in the end as it is in the beginning. The production model is such that, in the years it takes to make a movie like Raya and the Last Dragon, nothing and it all can change – as long as that change makes you better. During production in Raya, that was true, with one particularly important exception.
“We knew we wanted to tell a story that reflected what we are seeing in the world,” producer Osnat Shurer told io9. “The biggest problem, which is the sense of division, of division, of using our differences against each other instead of uniting for the greater good of this lovely planet that we call home. So, we started to work on the idea. “
It is an understatement to say that things have been more tense in the world in recent years – it seems that everything gives people a reason to be angry with each other. It is the same in Raya and the Last Dragon, wherein five tribes of Kumandra —Heart, Talon, Fang, Spine and Tail — are all at odds over the possession of the magical Dragon Gem. But, through the actions of Raya and the last titular dragon Sisu, perhaps that has a chance to change.
“When you make a film like this, it takes a long time to make it, you can’t really plan when it will come out in terms of everything that is going on in the world,” Kelly Marie Tran, Raya’s voice, told io9. “So, the fact that it’s coming out now and the message seems so relevant, I think it says a lot more about our filmmakers and just knowing that there’s one thing that Disney animation films do very well and is a kind of contact with this humanity universal and humanity that can be identified through generations. ”
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Tran continued: “It is a very difficult thing to do, but specifically with this film and what is happening in the world today … I think the lessons that Raya has learned are lessons that we can all take with us. I know it is a lesson that I want to learn personally because I am able to interpret it. “
According to Shurer, apart from the general characters of Raya, the dragon and the idea of a divided world, the message of trust and unity was the other main element that came out from the beginning. It is what has become the backbone of everything that has developed.
“Almost everything changed in the film in the five years I was in it,” said Shurer. “But not some of the main ideas, [such as] We always wanted it to be a film about how to be together. But you get deeper and deeper, as we make projections and as we work and refine, and we start to ask ourselves, ‘What does it take to be together?’ It is not so simple … What we found was trust. That you need to learn to trust each other … So that has deepened and many other things have also changed. “
What things exactly? “The characters of each of the lands, who they are and how they act in the history that developed [changed], ”Shurer continued. “There was a time when they were from different places. Boun [a young boy who helps Raya on the journey, voiced by Izaac Wang] was from Talon and we reorganized some of them as we got deeper into the understanding of each land and its psychology and social posture towards the world. So there was a major reorganization of that. “
According to Tran, there were also changes in the main relationship of the film. “The relationship between Sisu and Raya has changed a little bit because we just wanted to make sure it was the right one,” said Tran. “And I don’t think we even knew what that meant. But I think that after we have had a few more sessions and we are able to really discover its dynamics, it is so wonderful now. But that was certainly something that was constantly changing over the sessions. “
Another thing that changed, because everyone was doing Raya it was, well, the real world. The past five years have been very stressful for all of us, and although the filmmakers did not set out to make a film that looked so right now, when they put it on the news, they foresaw it.
“Certainly there were times during the making of the film when we were aware of how incredibly timeless this film was,” said director Don Hall. “I think it encouraged us to keep going, because we felt that we had something to say.”
Raya and the Last Dragon is now in theaters and in Disney + with Premier Access.
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