A Writer's What Not To Do or Raya and the Last Dragon Review

Where do you start?

I saw this as more of a youtube video on plot disasters and how to fix them. Well, let’s start from the beginning.

The movie is beautiful. In 4K, it is a wonder to behold, very well done. You could watch it with the sound off, and you’d probably have a better experience—perhaps with some Kitaro music playing as you watched.

Plot-wise, it’s a real mess, and a disappointment for all the hype this film received. I would be annoyed if I paid $30 for this. The movie stats say it is a 2-hour film. It’s not. It’s 90 minutes with literally 20 minutes of end credits. The issue here is the size of the story they are trying to tell - it’s not happening in 90 minutes. This a sprawling epic that requires time to develop, but no, it’s cram and rush right up to the end.

Know when your story starts we are taught as authors. This is a key example of not knowing when the story starts as the beginning gives you the sparks notes of a crash course in this world’s mythology and cultural relations. You learn so much in a huge force-feed that you’re left wondering when the story is going to start. Also, the tone here is very weird. They are trying to strike a ye olde worlde Asian-lite atmosphere but the kids are all Disney Channel hyperactive dorks using modern words that are out of place as they attempt to set up the story.

The story begins in the desert with older Raya riding her giant pill-bug roly-poly creature. You don’t need any of that backstory. You can learn it as you go along with the characters. The rule here: TRUST YOUR READERS. Drop them in at the beginning of the action and let them learn as the character does.

A better start: The later scene of the dragons giving Sisu the dragon gem and being wiped out as the ‘cold open.’ Titles. Smash cut to Raya rolling in the desert. She doesn’t have to know anything except that she lost her father and the rest of the world in the blip… I mean… in the ‘drin’ or whatever attack. She doesn’t have to be a trained protector. She can learn all that history as she goes along. In this opening scene she could be following up on the last rumor of a rumor about bringing her father… and the world… back… she has an old map and her roly-poly bug comic relief and off we go.

Do not info-dump in giant huge walls of text and telling we are taught as authors. The opening ‘prologue’ here includes all the world history, mythology, and maps in one giant dump. They show a map over and over and over. They might as well have said, ”Get it? The map looks like a dragon and the tribes are named after its parts… get it? get it? get it? She’s gonna follow the map from point to point like a giant video game… get it? get it?

Don’t do this. Sure, some kids are dumb… but hey, that’s American schools for you. They could have explained in dialog and in experiences all the important info while we followed Raya on an Indiana Jones-style quest for the dragon gem parts.

A consistent tone is important we are taught as authors. The dialog and pacing switches on a dime between hyperactive Disney Channel kids with super cringe modern anachronisms and being a more sedate and straightforward speech pattern typical for the setting and style of such an adventure film. This tone flip-flopping pulls you out of the film and makes you dislike the characters more than finding them endearing.

Your world needs consistent rules on the types of creatures who inhabit it and their cultures we are taught as authors. There is a “con-baby” in this film. Yes - a creature that looks like a baby but is capable of working the streets like an experienced adult street tough, who also possesses sweet ninja skills. Not only that, but the “con-baby” can communicate telepathically with animals. This mutant baby also has a fairly young mother that is glad to see it after it had been away from her so long on this adventure with Raya. A boy of 8 or 9 is captain of a ship for hire and is a first-class cook. He says he remembers his sister nurturing him before the blip. That would have made him only 1 or 2 years old unless he too is a mutant of some kind. He also talks super cringe - like all the other kids would bully him for being such a dork.

Kill your precious we are taught as authors, or, how many comic relief characters does this cookie-cutter, by committee plot need? The roly-poly bug is comic relief. The boy captain is comic relief. The con-baby is comic relief. The con-baby’s monkeys are comic relief. Sisu is comic relief. Know when enough is enough. The roly-poly bug is the comic relief. Sisu is the fish out of water sidekick. The boy and the baby and the monkeys all need to go.

Was this film watchable? Sure. It’s beautiful. Well worth a stream if you’re already paying for Disney+. The animation is state of the art, but with the sound on, it’s a real letdown. A real test of patience. A pair of fresh eyes looking at the plot and story before the final script lockdown would have seen at least a couple of these holes and would have been able to say, ‘hold on a minute,’ or perhaps ‘нэг минут хүлээ,’ and they could have chartered them on a better path.