With Raya and the Last Dragon out for about a week now, there are many thoughts and opinions being shared across the Internet about it. While a few of us here at The Nerds of Color have written extensively about Disney’s first Southeast Asian film, I thought it would be appropriate to gather together the Southeast Asian Nerds of Color writers and discuss it. Together with Laura Sirikul, Mike Manalo, and Patrick Michael Strange, in a conversation about as long as Raya and the Last Dragon itself, we go in-depth on everything from the film’s plot, how it tackled the topic of trust, the characters, the majority East Asian cast, the lack of Filipino culture and actors, and more.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers from Raya and the Last Dragon.
(I also want to quickly note that early on in the video, I said how this is the first Disney Princess film that is not a musical, only to realize later that it is not true. This is the second non-musical Disney Princess film. The first is actually Brave.)
Raya and the Last Dragon is now playing in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access.