Everything GREAT About Raya and the Last Dragon! 

“Awww I want Dragons!! Stupid non-dragon world.” I honestly felt that

I think Raya’s “doom walk” is one of the cinematic highlights of the movie for me. Especially the part where she splits a Druun *without even slowing down*, complete with a little flourish of the cape.

Something I picked up on, I liked how Sisu’s human form, her teeth wasn’t perfect In sooooo many Disney computer animated movies nowadays, their teeth are perfect

“Ma’am, I know you’re panicked, but you just body-slammed a child.” CW: *proceeds to add one win*

“If you lost a puppy and someone said ‘WeLL wE sTiLL hAvE a BiG cHuNk oF It!’, would that make you feel better??” Is single-handedly my favorite line from a Disney movie.

Anyone else notice just how many people the Druun wiped out? If there were 5 clans to begin with, Tail is essentially a person-less wasteland, Heart got abandoned when the Gem split, and Spine got wrecked by the Druun with only a sole survivor, there were only 2 clans left: Talon, built on the water, and Fang, walled off by water on an artificial island. That means that about 60% of the world got wiped out just by the Druun.

I'm just very happy someone else is finally saying that "trust everyone blindly" was never the message of the movie.

I think we need to touch on how great the animation is, especially when things are wet. The slight darkening of Benja's gloves after he dips them in the water in the beginning, or the shine on Raya's hair after everyone comes back, or the way Sisu's "hair" kind of clings to her head when she does that little spin in the water. Even the shine on Raya's cheek after she wipes her tear right before she awakens Sisu. The animation in this movie is so smooth and detailed in some shots and it's beautiful the whole way through. I love how you can see the individual fiber strands that make up Tong's tunic, too

The trust theme would be fine if it weren't so incomplete. The problem is that Namaari lacks any kind of redemption arc. She betrayed Raya, and in a way that completely destroyed the known world - not a small betrayal - and does nothing at no time ever in the film to indicate that she is deserving of a second chance. Without that redemption arc, without requiring that Namaari demonstrate *some* kind of desire to change, the trust theme is dangerous. That's how people get trapped in abusive relationships. The world, the real world, our world isn't suffering due to a lack of trust, it's suffering due to a lack of repentance (meaning change of heart, not even religious). Were people who caused harm more willing to admit their wrong and actively change, trust would immediately follow.

13:44 I always interpreted it as Namaari being sad, since the dragon she’s been a huge fan of since childhood is now growling at her in anger.

I'm a huge sucker for dragons, and elemental type stuff where different tribes have different elements or areas they live in, so this movie got me hooked in almost instantly. I'm kind of glad that they didn't make Raya and Namaari into those "secret siblings" cliche because that's originally what I thought would happen. The scene where they all turned to stone would've really got me if the credits started to roll.

When he started listing southeast asian weapons and martial arts i got really giddy for no reason lmfao. As a southeast asian individual who hails from the philippines, it's so amazing how he was able to recognize fighting styles, and research the weapons used by Namaari, and Raya, like the Filipino Arnis. These were small bits I didn't think western people would get, but i'm pleasently suprised! thank you

I like how the Tail chief died. She didn't just get turned into stone and come back with the rest. She hid herself behind a fortress and slowly wasted away because she was too paranoid to trust anyone else further reinforcing the message in this movie

"Stupid no dragons world" - most relatable saying Ever.

i can't stop thinking about how much potential this movie could've had if it was a series. it's so gorgeous and the world is amazing but it was too big for an hour and a half

To help explain Raya's untrust against Namaari with the crossbow and Sisu, we should also remember that her Father was shot by one.

"Sisu" is a word in Finnish. It doesn't translate well into English but it's basically the definition of "not giving up" and "having guts to do so". Or as a simple google search says "strength of will" But I don't think the producers knew the word existed although the word describes Sisu in the film pretty well.

One thing I caught in this movie that I wanted to share was that the main vehicle for getting around in the whole movie is a floating restaurant! As the adventure party gathers, they have many scenes of them interacting and becoming family in a place meant for food. I think there is a good theme of eating together brings people together thing going on, set up by Raya's dad talking about the soup made from different ingredients across the land. As the story goes on, we see the party bonding more and more over food the entire time!

I gotta give Raya some props for being a action and adventure film from Disney, haven’t seen something from them like that since treasure planet .

Another fun detail I love about this movie is when Raya comes up to have her final confrontation with Namaari. When she brings the stone up and repealed the Druun coming towards her, two of them are shown being repelled, showing that one life just ended so that they could replicate, meaning they had JUST killed Namarri's mom or relatively recently. This gives her even more reason to be angry and spiteful towards Raya, giving the last battle that much more tension.

My list of things I loved about this movie + my list of things that could have been changed: -The effects. Just the lighting of the water and tone of Raya’s skin are stupidly good animation. -The dragons designs. They are long fluffy magic noodles. That is just beautiful. -Shisu’s misunderstanding of the world around her. It makes sense that, after the last thing you remember doing o save the world is having to trust people, you would naturally think that everyone is to be trusted. -The angry old lady chief. Idk why. She makes me happy even tho she betrayed Shisu. -The FOOD EFFECTS. GOD IT MADE ME SO HUNGRY WATCHING -The fact that Tounge(I think??) likes the baby because he misses his own child. -Just seeing how the hatred had changed Raya after Shisu was killed. She was ready to kill. It added a great effect. -The symbolism. How, because Shisu is the last dragon, and she is a water dragon, her being killed drained the water. Water truly is ‘magical’ in this world, as it acts as protection against the Druun. Also, how when they basically become un-stoned, the rain is what washes it away. Rain is water. It is Shisus magic and trust that saves them. Now, things that should have been changed: -A better Namaari redemption arc. We didn’t have much of her in the movie. I believe that there should have been more of her realizing how corrupted the world was, and how she wanted to change it. -A close up of her finger off the trigger, not on. If they had showed that she was hesitating on shooting and had decided not to. If that had been shown, it would have created the impression that Namaari had finally been redeemed. However, it was Raya lashing out in her distrust that killed Shisu. I’ve operated a few crossbows, and hitting them while they are loaded DEFINITELY sets them off. That was all for now. I will update more later.

One thing I noticed: When they put the flowers in the water, they all put the exact number of people they lost through the druun.

This movie is gorgeous. In terms of the music, the fight scenes, the VFX, animation, story and portrayal of humanity, visuals/camerawork! Everything was just, beautiful.

"Almost like poverty and crime go together" OUCH, I just burned my finger on that hot take

Finally got round to watching the film this morning (as well as Encanto, waiting for that EGA vid) and it is beautiful. There was one moment that had me in floods of tears, when Raya and her father see each other on the bridge and how she says "Ba" before running to him. So much heart and loss and relief and joy crammed into one small word.

"Nothing will make you feel like a child more than reconnecting with your previously stone dad after 6 years" damn her father came back from buying cigarettes

Raya: Uses "Princess undercut" as an insult Me, with an undercut: D:

I actually really liked this movie and I don't know why people hated it. It was wonderful

There's nothing wrong with saying you find Sisu attractive, I do too. Dragons are very beautiful creatures, especially the dragonesses. I've honestly never seen a dragoness that didn't look beautiful. I also look at inner beauty and Sisu is beautiful on the inside just as much as the outside. She's sweet, loyal, wise, majestic, spiritual, strong but gentle, and an extraordinarily kind soul.

Fun Fact: All the fight scenes were choreographed, performed and filmed IRL and then used as reference for the animators. So all of them are somewhat real performances you are watching.

Now this is a Disney princess who can fight and still look fabulous Raya has the most amazing hair out of all the Disney princess my opinion

Guys, listen up. Who else is still waiting for Everything Great with “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” except for me? If you are with me for this video, smash the like and answer whatever thoughts you have for this animated movie.

I absolutely love the moment right after Sisu is shot where it zooms in on Raya and shows her reaction. From the animation that shows the true fury in her eyes to her raged filled breathing. It’s such a subtle detail, but it was one of the most realistic animated scenes I’ve ever seen.

One detail that always stood out to me in this movie is that when the Druun were closing in, there was one citizen from each clan gathered in the same place, and even though they all came from completely different backgrounds and places, they decided to put trust into each other in a moment where they knew they had to let go of their differences and past. Absolutely love this movie; it honestly deserves more recognition for the amount of hard work that was put into its production. And give it up for James Newton Howard for creating such a majestic and amazing soundtrack, indeed an excellent masterpiece.

I appreciate your positivity even about movies that a lot of people aren’t super fond of, but with win counter 152, I think that the whole thing of raya giving Naomi the option of either A. Turning to stone and dying with everyone else, or B. Not turning to stone and saving anyone, does not show trust, Naomi has to put together the stone or else she will die, that does not mean that she cares at all about Raya, I mean even the worst people in history would do that because it involves self preservation. When your trust is broken, the person who broke your trust should be the one to take the first step to mend it, not the other way around. What they should have done is given Naomi another option of getting out with the stone and her life, leaving raya to be turned to stone, but still have her choose to save everyone to actually put meaning into the moment.

I think this story would have made an amazing series. Flesh out the different clans and make a ATLA traveling series.

"Aw, I wanna live in a world with dragons. Stupid no-dragons world." Most. Relatable. Sentence. Ever. Anyway, at this point I've watched the EGA, the EWW and the Honest Trailer, I might need to just cave and watch the actual movie. As always, Lee, your enthusiasm and genuine love for movies is awesome and heartening ! Sending good vibes your way, hope the kids are doing good.

I realized something about the scene leading to the Dragon Gem breaking. All the Fang people saw the firework and immediately knew what the signal was for. This means that Namaari was NOT the only one in on the plan to steal the gem, and based on her other interactions with her mother, I doubt it was even her idea. Also, Chief Virana seems like a smart enough ruler she would have given flares and instructions to multiple people, not just her own daughter, so the plan would have more chances at succeeding. You do mention some of this at the end of the video, but I just really like when movies that give redemption arcs to the main antagonists don’t make them completely unlikeable from the start.

This IS a beautiful movie.

Seeing how much potential this movie had, I can’t help but wonder how much of the script was screwed over because of the pandemic. As the credits put it, 20:37 the team had to make this from 400 individual homes, and I can’t imagine it’s easy to write a whole movie script from that many places (even if most houses were for animators, musicians, etc etc).

Can we just win the gorgeous and intricate details in the animation. Not just the landscapes but the unique look to each of the dragons and the details in the clothes and hairstyles. The animation is just stunning.

I like how he addresses the trust stuff. all the reviews i've watched all criticise it for the message being 'trust everyone regardless of how they treated you' but this guy gets it but also says that it could've have been a bit better which I wholeheartedly appreciate

Also, when a character is mistrustful, there is a normal focus while when they embrace Sisu's point of view, there is a bokeh blur instead. By looking at this detail you can see at which moments characters start to change their mind.

One of my favorite things about the movie which you skipped over was the paper cut outs in the opening prologue are a really gorgeous representation of Indonesian shadow puppets. I remember making them in school and my mum had a few of them when we were growing up. Really stunning piece of art.

The scene where Namaari teared up at seeing Sisu had me choked up as well. It showed the emotional nuances between those sides.

I feel that it is less about "Trust everyone no matter what." But rather Trust people to want to help each other when the option is presented.

"I love that sweet and cutesy Sisu pulls off ferocious like a champ" Unfortunately the comparison is unavoidable but Sisu can't pull off sweet and cutesy or ferocious like Toothless can.

Yes! As a kid of SE Asian parents growing up in the 80's and 90's this film hit hard in all the good ways. Happy to see it here to undergo the "Wins" treatment.

Honestly, I love the “totally lowkey unnoticeable” digs on society throughout the video! They confirm that my dude over here has got a good head on his shoulders 😝❤️

Just noticed the light shift when Raya dismisses Sisu's idea of getting Namarii to cooperate. (It shifts from soft light at 15:12 to growing oh-so-slightly darker in 15:14)

I would seriously love a tabletop RPG built around something like this. South-Asian inspired fantasy setting with fantastical creatures but little to no magic on the people side of things sounds like so much fun to just mess around in. tbh the worldbuilding in this movie is just top notch

This was the best movie of the year, no matter what... This had me in tears, in awe, in shock and in belief for everything that happen. I'd love to live in this new world....a United Kumundra😭😭😭

I can't believe it took me this video to realize that it hit so hard to me because I developed "don't trust anyone" as a defense mechanism and I miss the faith of trusting in things just because - like Sisu does. Hello I did not sign up for therapy I just wanted to see some positivity about this movie 💀💀💀

Something I think a whole lot of people miss is that the message of the movie isn't simply about trust, it's about mutual trust. Every instance where trust turns out to be a mistake is one where the characters are interacting with people who have been told not to trust their whole lives, and in Namaari's case, she's also being manipulated/instructed by her mother, who doesn't trust the other lands. Ultimately, a lack of mutual trust created the literal apocalypse (twice, according to Sisu), but its trust that saves the world and begins the process of repairing it at the end of the film. Namaari finally decided to take a risk for someone other than Fang, and Raya and co. realized that holding onto hatred and grudges (which have kept their world back for, oh, 500 years) was only going to make things worse. Edit: yeah, I made this comment, like, halfway through. Thank you, Cinemawins, for addressing this issue and taking a new angle on it I hadn't seen before. Your point is honestly stronger than mine, since it faces a hard truth of life: that sometimes, trust has to go one way before it becomes mutual.

I like Pengu's design ^^ He's a unique dragon like his fellow dragons

I think the reason the Dragon Siblings chose Sisu is because she’s the weakest and there’s two ways this could work The Druun always go for the stronger People/Dragons, so they knew Sisu would have a chance to end the Druun And the other way is they wanted Sisu to become stronger and more responsible

I just love this movie, kinda wished it was a bit longer to explore better the world built in the story, the different populations and all, it was really an interesting thing. The best part was watching it with family and friend, there was my friend's granny asking: "What do binturi and dep la mean?" and we explained that, researching a bit, the funny thing is that they seems to be almost like an angry flirt (like "dep la" beig similar to the vietnamese "dep" that means beautiful and the fact that it is translated as "strangely beautiful" and "best friends"), she just exclaimed: "Oh, there was no need for strange languages! Those two just need to fuck the tension between them off and stop babbling about the furry snake! It's clear as day!" (Just adore that woman). The dragons' desings and powers are so cool too, probably among the best fictional dragons we ever had in a movie that could have goon for goofier and less cool desings (since it is a family product, it can happen that some choose the more "easy and almost-ugly" desing thinking that kids won't mind those instead of something cool that can interest more people). But now, let's talk about how Namaari's mother could have just be quiet about the: "Yeah, we should just force a powerful and mighty beast to come with us and take the glory, instead of seriously helping and clear our name!", that woman just had to shut up and Sisu would have avoided death and Namaari would have avoided the possible trauma, even if the final fight was cool as fuck to watch.

So a really cool thing, Sisu's "water stepping" is in the "Avatar" world as well! In the Avatar Kyoshi books she learns a technique that all benders can use called Dust Stepping- Water Benders do this (little suspended water/ice platforms they leap on) Airbenders and Firebenders do short bursts of air or fire, and Earthbenders grab dust/sand/small rocks and jump off those

I mean the message on the movie was certainly lead astray, but I'd put that mostly down to it being really difficult to see any signs that namari was worth placing trust in again. After a while I did realize that the way she actually tries to help (saving tuk tuk) after her big duel with raya is actually demonstrating some of her sincerity and may be the reason, along with sisu's faith in her that lead raya to risk it all and place her trust in namari. I'd argue that I would have preferred for have namari express some sort of remorse or ask for forgiveness from raya before earning that trust back, although that would have stepped on the idea of raya having to take the first step.

I think my favorite versions of dragons always end up being closest to Sisu and her siblings in temperament. There's just something RIGHT about the intelligent, wise dragon, compared to the ravenous monster. Of course, I'm also incredibly fond of the look of western dragons, all big and wings and stuff, so...

The dragon really looks like something everyone would instantly want to pat.... Even at the risk of getting eaten or smth... Just so fluffy looking!

Worldbuilding and amazing visuals can really carry a film. I love this movie so much

This is absolutely amazing I hope you do more animated films, obligatory movie ask : Cars

The amount of work he does making these vids he deserves 2m

I loved this animated movie too ,I can hardly wait for Sisu's optional merchandise to finally be on the store shelves.

DUDE, I was literally just wondering where CinemaWins went and here you are with an upload! Great to have you back man and glad everything is okay.

"Anger is never the answer" But it IS an excellent motivator!

I gotta say. This movie genuinely made me cry like multiple times....

I went into this movie not knowing anything about it and having no expectations, and ended up loving it so much. The message about trust is incredibly timely, though it's probably falling upon deaf ears among the politically inclined adults. I hope the kids who grow up after watching this movie will remember it when they're in charge of the world.

The movie is already 1 year old!!! It’s gorgeously animated, Kelly Marie Tran and Awkafina give such fun, lighthearted performances, the mythology is well-put together, and making the statement of different nations coming together and learning to try and trust one another is done very well. I especially like the rivalry of Raya and her childhood friend. Ended up being a lot more enjoyable than I thought. It also continues to succeed in more representation as far as modern female Disney figures are concerned.

The thing I think they did wrong was never returning to what Kumari said about that "first time I've had rice in a while" because that does not automatically equates to poverty in Fang. Right now in my country we have more apples than we know what to do with (literally, there was a scandal a bit back about farmers throwing apples away in ditches because they couldn't sell them) but we can't grow either rice nor dragonfruit nor... a lot of other stuff that needs different climates. Us not having dragonfruit does not equates to our country being poor. And in the movie they never show it one way or another. They put in that line about rice and assume everyone will think "oh, that means everyone except Heart is poor and famine-riddled" but it really doesn't. And when later on in the movie we see Fang it looks super green and prosperous. Personally, I think that line should be seen as a nod towards how Kumandra isn't united, so things that people have in Heart every day is a luxury in Fang but maybe something Fang has everyday will be a luxury for Heart and so forth.

Something I noticed when watching the movie is that at you look at Sisu’s older brother when Sisu’s family is using the gem (15:27 in the video) his hands are cupped like how the people who got turned to stone hands are, which means that the pose that those people have is technically them putting their trust in Sisu to use the gem.

Amazing movie Characters, storytelling, graphics and sounds are just great Oh did i mention the dang beautiful dragon noodles? They are here and fuzzy as heck

19:34 if you look closely on raya's stone face you can see that the gem is going back to powerful status, another win in my case

I’m pretty sure that the other dragons only gave Sisu the gem because without her, there would be no water, so 99.999999999% of humanity would die.

Kumandra feels like such a rich and developed world, but so much of it went unexplored! I really wish this movie had been more of a success because then it would be more likely that we would get to return to Kumandra. Absolutely my favorite fantasy world.

This video actually got me to go watch the movie finally, and I really enjoyed it! I still have an issue with an elsa-faced dragon, and I don't think Awkwafina was the right actress for Sisu, but still, it was a really really good film

Dunno if anyone things about this, but it really sucks that Raya's father missed like 6 YEARS of Raya's growth. That's time he'll never get back. It's like he went to sleep and she was a kid the last he saw her, and then the minute he woke up again, she was a full grown adult. Time passed for Raya, but for the chief it could have felt like the blink of an eye. That had to be so jarring, and I honestly don't think that they made that clear enough. He recognized her immediately, but I really would have appreciated some mention of 'how you've grown' or 'when did you get so big?'

Despite many other opinions, I absolutely loved this movie, it was absolutely beautiful. Same thing with Luca.

Is nobody gonna talk about the fact that Sisu had to get all the other dragon powers by touching the gem and only then she gets the power. But then at the end everyone has Pengus magic?

For a few months I couldn’t NOT stop watching this movie idk why like as soon as it finish I’d replay it even when I knew everything that happened I was just so into the movie 😫

So many shots in this movie looked soooo realistic it was amazing, and it was never unsettling (except for how real the Druun felt, but like kudos on it either way) it was just such a stunning movie to watch. On the same note, but as an aside: I know we already know that Disney and Pixar and most animation studios have perfected water, but when I watched this movie with my GF, and the scene were Sisu falls in the water and it shows a shot of it splashing up after her impact, yea... I legit paused the movie and went "ok, I'm sorry, I know this is emotional and all but LOOK AT THAT SPLASH! ARE WE SURE THAT WASN'T JUST A CLIP OF ACTUAL WATER SPLASHING???" and I thought of you and times when you've said similar things and I have been thinking about it since I watched the movie. So glad you enjoyed this movie!

The one thing that I love of what they did with this movie that makes it hit differently and stand out from other Asian cultured movies like Mulan is they actually got somebody on the scene who KNOWS about marital arts and the different styles, techniques and weapons they also did this with karate kid 2013, Jade Smith had to LEARN Kung Fu in order to do everything right.

Fun fact Amy Johnston and Lauren Mary Kim choreographed and even did some motion capture fights in this movie. I don't remember what Amy was in but Lauren did mo cap for season 7 of clone wars among many other things. They're both really great stuntwomen

You missed the moment after the first bug explodes and raya shoves sisu out of the way, when they look down that hall of other bugs, sisu subtly puts an arm protectively in front of Raya. It was subtle and cute and great.

Honestly, this is the one movie I REFUSE to hate. Sure, I acknowledge its flaws, but the story was just SOOOO well thought out and the world building was INCREDIBLE and the message was sooo DEEP! I remember watching this on the last day of school last summer, and honestly I WANTED to just use the last period of the year to play on my computer, But I JUST COULDNT DO IT. The movie was just TOO AMAZING to take my eyes off of!

I love Sisu! She’s so damn adorable!!! When I heard her voice in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, I just about squealed (I held back cuz I was in the theater)

Great summary of that awesome movie. You were able to put me through the movie again remembering me of the good feelings I had watching it last week and also you were able to put into words what I only felt. Thank you for that twentyfour minutes, mate!

The only thing I thought was disappointing about this movie was that they gave her a sword as their main weapon. Giving a main character a sword as a weapon in a Disney movie automatically tells you that they're never going to actually hurt anybody with it, because swords cause wounds that are way too bloody for a kids movie. If she had a cool staff or something that would be way more compelling cuz she could actually hit people with it. The final fight scene kind of lacks any drama because they might as well be swinging pool noodles at each other for how deadly their weapons are allowed to be.

Raya was probably the most fun I'd had with a Disney film since Wreck it Ralph.

I know a lot of people bash on Sisu's design, that she isn't the typical "dragon" design, but her design is actually really nice since she's based on the eastern dragon style with some floof it actually reminds me of how I use to draw eastern dragons

The moment when Sisu saw the pure awe in Namaari’s eyes fucking killed me man. It’s such an emotional and tender moment and really shows that the "villain" isn’t all bad. I feel like they did Namaari’s character really well.

What I really like about the movie is how it nails the Asian culture, like raya taking her shoes off before going into where the gem is stored (because it’s a very important place) or the traditional clothing or the rice patty’s at the fangs island

After watching this, trust doesn’t sound like a word anymore

I always assumed that the Druun were repelled by water because the last dragon alive was a water dragon and her element/source of her power repelled them, and that the only way the Druun can survive those elements was to kill the dragons. I mean, take into consideration that when Sisu was killed all of the water in the world disappeared. So, it makes sense that when a dragon dies its elements disappear too. Disclosure: i havent finished this video so idk if he makes this possible connection or not. But it seems like a possibility. Let me know if anyone else has any other theories

The music is some of the best Disney had produced in decades. The battle theme as Raya goes to battle Namaari at the climax is amazing, and every part of the score works

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NEW BABY! Thanks for covering this film. Raya and the Last Dragon was such a joy to experience.

The whole way through the movie had major vibes of the WoW expansion Mists of Pandaria (Asian themed, eastern dragons, big purple and black blobby monsters...) and Avatar the last Airbender (obvious reasons) and I thought it'd have made a great series too. Would love to see more of that world.

I honestly loved everything in this movie, all the way until the end. Just feels like the lesson is a little hamfisted, in this one. *Everything* else is amazing, though. The style, the animation, the choreography for the fights, the adventure, and most importantly the Sisu R34, were all 10/10. Just wish it was drawn out over a few movies, one for finding Sisu and then one for each gem piece. Or at least a 2 part movie. Maybe a show full of dragon shenanigans, like HTTYD had. Only complaint is that I feel like it would have been 1000% better if it went the "trust is earned, not freely given" route. But maybe that's just me being stung one too many times for trusting people I shouldn't have.

"stupid no dragon world" is a sentiment I feel every day. Also, was it just me, or was Raya: atld and Encanto way better (especially compared to the latest realizes *cough live-action-Mulan cough*)