We meet Raya, voiced by Kelly Marie Tran (the recent “Star Wars” trilogy), apprenticed to her Guardian of the Dragon Gem father ( Daniel Dae Kim). Accidentally a tad on-the-nose, and eyebrow-raising in theme? Oh yes. The story is a made-up mash-up of Pan-Asian/Southeast Asian myths hanging on learning to “trust” people again, and features a plague that has decimated the land and a heroine whose lifelong pal is a pet pangolin, the pill-bug armadillo which the Chinese government blames for the global pandemic COVID-19. That said, “Raya” is a pleasant enough kids’ adventure - “Raiders of the Lost Ark” meets “Mulan” who is now a “Tomb Raider.” The strain shows, and slang is no substitute for actual humor - sight gags or funny lines.
“BOOM goes the dynamite,” which even the kids have moved on from, thank heavens. She’s voiced by the comic actress Awkwafina, so the pale blue dragon lets us know “I’m gonna be real with you, I’m not the BEST dragon,” that “I got water skills that kill!” and “I gotcha girl. That’s all over the script to Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon,” where a lot of effort was put into making the dragon, in particular, sound flip and hip. Nothing more instantly-dates an animated film for children than over-earnest efforts to contemporize the dialogue, to render it slangy and to-the-minute current.
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