film review

FILM
REVIEW
WRITTEN BY : MARIANA ALMEIDA

RAYA AND THE
LAST DRAGON
“Raya and the Last Dragon” (2021) is by far one of the most inspiring
movies that Disney has ever made. This movie as high qualifications all
around the internet with 7,4 out of 10 in IMBD and 85% of positive
responses in Google. I believe that this movie is something that can
improve the way of living in this world both for children’s and parents. But
why does this movie can be such an inspiration for young children as well
as for parents? What are the pros and the cons of the movie, and it is
something that you will want your children to watch?
Raya and the Last Dragon” is a movie that was produced at Walt Disney
Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
in 5 of March of 2021. This movie was directed by Don Hall and Carlos
López Estrada. It had the budget of $122.7 million and the duration of 1
hour and 54 minutes.
This inspiring story is about the fantasy world of Kumandra where humans
and dragons have lived together in harmony for a long time. Although an
evil wave of monsters that can
make everything into stone has
threatened this place and the
dragons had to sacrificed
themselves to save
humanity.500 yeas later, the
same monsters have returned to
this place and Raya (the main
character) as to fight by herself
to find the last dragon (Sisu)
that can possibly bring

Kumandra back together. During her long journey she realises that to win
this war it will be necessary to take trust and teamwork.
This seems another fantasy Disney movie, right? That at the end there will
be a happy ending and people must fight and sacrifice for everyone to be
happily ever after. This is true because all of this will happen in the movie
however the only different is how they get there in the final moment. This
movie can sound very cliché at the beginning although it will make the
viewer re-think about their life and the way that our world is nowadays.
Choosing a movie to watch with children must be sometimes hard because
we cannot know how the movie could possibly affect a child’s mind. Although
in my point of view this is a perfect movie to watch with children’s and later
talk about it with them.
First of all, and one of the most exited things about this movie is the
diversity in it. Firstly, because it is a multi-racial movie that at the end it will
bring harmony between all of them. As well as the fact that the set of this
animating movie had taken their inspiration from the Southeast Asian
cultures (that nowadays is something that we do not see much in the world
of Media). To pay a good tribute to this region the Walt Disney has hired
professionals that know about the story, language, martial arts and etc of
this specific region. So as a start it is a good movie to open minds about
others place around the planet hearth.

During this two hour of movie, we
can relate easily with all the strong
characters. First because we have
the two main characters, Raya and
Sisu that are the complete opposite
of each other. Raya wants to fight,
and to do anything to bring
Kumandra back and she do not trust
anyone for anything, on the other
side we have Sisu (the last dragon) that trusts everyone along the way
because she believes that the best way to win a war is by trusting and to
make teamwork. They both will have to find a way to cooperate together
without ruining the whole plan.
I believe that the most important part is the end of the movie. Sisu was
always trying to show Raya the importance of teamwork and the
importance of trusting everyone around her however Raya have never
listened to her because in the past she had trust people and only got
disappointments out of it. For that reason, Raya prefers to fight and to
conquer everything by herself and not trust anyone. Although during the
movie we realise that she makes some mistakes by not trusting people
and at the very end of the movie she must remember everything that Sisu
told her, and she choose to trust her worst enemy instead of doing it
herself. With this part we learn that the harmony, the teamwork and the
trust can win a war more easily than fighting and turn back to everyone.
This is a very good lesson not only for children but also for adults.
Nowadays the world seems to care more about fighting than trying to find
harmony and peace between
everyone and that is making
everyone apart. “Raya and the Last
Dragon” makes us think about the
way we solve things nowadays and
make us believe that it is possible
to be united again as one.
This is definitely something that our
children should learn to make a
better world in their future.

It is also important to talk about the bad parts about this movie that most
people believe that it is something bad although I think the opposite.
During the 2 hours of movie there is a large number of scenes that
involves fighting which can be something bad for children’s because
parents van think that this can influence children’s to fight more and to be
more violent. I believe in the opposite because during the movie and
specially in the ending it is clear that the only way to solve the problem
was trough talking, trusting and teamwork. And this is why this movie is
important to teach children that violence and war does not solve anything
it simply tears people apart.
To conclude my review, I believe that this is an important movie for the
development of a child because it covers topics that now, more than ever
need to be talked about. It is essential that the future of our children’s is
peaceful, and this movie gives us some clue on how to do this.