Raya and the Last Dragon

[Sotiris]

Too bad Disney didn't put their foot down like with Aladdin. For some reason all these directors seem to hate musicals. I guess nobody volunteers to do these and Disney picks some random schmuck to do it, and they take the job because they can't get any other movie anyway even though they feel re-making "cartoons" is beneath them.

Except for Bill Condon. Everyone else seems disinterested in making musicals from Kenneth Branagh to Jon Favreau to Guy Ritchie. I hope Disney puts their foot down for the Hercules remake, but unfortunately that seems unlikely.

[disneyprincess11]

I don’t know about Jon Fareau hating musicals. He did squeeze in IWBLY in THE JUNGLE BOOK, even though it came out of nowhere. I 100% agree with Mulan not being a musical. Cinderella worked out well with not being a musical, but I do wish they kept the Bibbidi Boppity Boo number. HBC’s rendition was just as great as the OG!

[Disney's Divinity]

I didn’t think Cinderella was good at all, but it not being a musical wasn’t the reason. Actually, I didn’t care that much in that case because that film’s music isn’t very good, jmo… Which is a shame because Ilene Woods has a beautiful voice.

Except for Bill Condon. Everyone else seems disinterested in making musicals from Kenneth Branagh to Jon Favreau to Guy Ritchie. I hope Disney puts their foot down for the Hercules remake, but unfortunately that seems unlikely.

Yes, sadly. I doubt I'll see it either then. I might be locked into seeing the TLM remake regardless of how much Marshall and Miranda screw it up, but I don't have any motivation to do that for the other remakes if they decide to take a dump on the original films. TLM is a special case; for me, it's bigger than Disney in general really.

But, you know, Disney being the greedy company it is, you'd think they'd consider the soundtrack sales they could get from the remakes remaining musicals. They wouldn't blow it out the top or anything, but I'm sure every dollar Disney can suck up counts in their eyes, normally.

[Farerb]

Except for Bill Condon. Everyone else seems disinterested in making musicals from Kenneth Branagh to Jon Favreau to Guy Ritchie. I hope Disney puts their foot down for the Hercules remake, but unfortunately that seems unlikely.

I'm not that much of a fan of Rob Marshall, but he still doesn't seem to be disinterested in musicals since most of his films are musicals, and I don't know if Bill Condon cares that much about musicals or understands them since his numbers in Beauty and the Beast felt stiff and lifeless.

[DisneyFan97]

Except for Bill Condon. Everyone else seems disinterested in making musicals from Kenneth Branagh to Jon Favreau to Guy Ritchie. I hope Disney puts their foot down for the Hercules remake, but unfortunately that seems unlikely.

I'm not that much of a fan of Rob Marshall, but he still doesn't seem to be disinterested in musicals since most of his films are musicals, and I don't know if Bill Condon cares that much about musicals or understands them since his numbers in Beauty and the Beast felt stiff and lifeless.

I love Rob Marshall, !

I think he is aGreat Director

[D82]

I remember reading that the reason Disney removed the songs in Mulan was because they thought China didn't like musicals and they want the film to be a commercial success there.

It rings a bell to me too, though maybe it's wasn't that they don't like musicals, but that Mulan's songs were offensive to them in some way. Perhaps they don't sound Chinese enough for them, for example. Another possibility could be that Disney wanted to show China this remake will be very different to the original and removing the songs was essential to that.

From what I recall, it was the director's idea to remove the songs because she wanted to make a war movie and there's no place for songs in war movies.

That's the official excuse, but it may not be the real one. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression directors have little choice here and it's the studio who decides things like that. I don't think it was Guy Ritchie's idea, for instance, to make Aladdin a musical. Disney decided it would be a musical after the success of Beauty and the Beast. And I think Cinderella didn't have songs because it was one of the first remakes and they weren't the shot-for-shot adaptations they've become now.

[Farerb]

^To me Cinderella didn't really feel like a remake, but just another Cinderella adaptation.

[D82]

To me Cinderella didn't really feel like a remake, but just another Cinderella adaptation.

Yeah, to me it also felt more like another adaptation than a remake. Maybe that's why I have fewer problems with it than with other remakes.

[estefan]

I don’t know about Jon Fareau hating musicals. He did squeeze in IWBLY in THE JUNGLE BOOK, even though it came out of nowhere. I 100% agree with Mulan not being a musical. Cinderella worked out well with not being a musical, but I do wish they kept the Bibbidi Boppity Boo number. HBC’s rendition was just as great as the OG!

Kenneth Branagh also previously chose to adapt Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" in the style of an old-school Hollywood musical. So he's not opposed to musicals, either.

I recall with "Beauty and the Beast", the original intention was to adapt the Broadway musical. Then Disney decided they wanted to do something in the vein of "Snow White and the Huntsman", which Condon wasn't interested in. Then "Frozen" became an enormous success and Disney went back to wanting a musical, albeit without the songs from the stage musical, and Condon signed on.

[D82]

Though it's true that Raya's outfit looks a bit like Rey's ones from Star Wars, at least it seems it's accurate to the region the film is inspired in:


Source: https://www.facebook.com/AmazingKingdom ... ?__tn__=-R

[Clindor]

Source: https://www.facebook.com/88713542146496 ... 4329097729

This is one of the character designs they showed us during the movies panel at D23, but only a cut of it.
You could see Raya entirely from top of bottom (including the weapon she's holding in her hand, rather massive) and here they totally removed from behind her Awkwafina's character Sisu under her human form breaking the forth wall and looking straight at the audience with a rather eccentric gaze. (and who ever is resposible for this unofficial editing, they replace the wallpaper by the concept art everbody knows ^^)

[DisneyFan09]

Really? Cool Thanks for the head-up, Clindor. It´s a pity that the general public would wait a whole year before seeing it.

[D82]

Thanks for the info, Clindor! Is this how Raya looked in the footage shown as well?

[nomad2010]

No one seems to have posted the full image found here:

https://thedisinsider.com/2020/07/24/pr ... s-debuted/

Don’t have time to save and upload, but it’s here for those who want it or if anyone wants to repost it!

[Clindor]

Thanks for the info, Clindor! Is this how Raya looked in the footage shown as well?

Absolutely! In fact, before the directors and cast came on stage to present the movie and showed us, actually, quite a few things! (you can argue they showed us more about Raya and the Last Dragon than they did with Frozen II, the latter being, oddly enough, more hold into secrecy for commercial reasons than Raya), there was at the beginning of the panel a compilation film showing very short clips of the movies that were about to be discussed during the panel. When Raya turn came (and so nobody knew anything about it: we only heard about the Dragon Empire draft that leaked in 2018 back at this time) there were two frames of Raya herself walking through a large corridor inside a very dark temple. 1st frame: you could see her from behind holding a torch and with the same Asian conical hat (from the picture shared above) on her head. 2nd frame: it was a close-up on her face, half-masked, so basically a quick insight on her eyes ^^ (the third frame (actually the first) being the movie title.) All this is to say: you couldn't see much about the lead character herself until they present the movie.. one thing that struck me was how thin the character was, and how she had a long face ... so much that I first thought from this glimpse it was a male character ^^! (I can't remember if you could distinctly see her hair, but anyway they would have been in the obscurity and I think a piece of cloth covered them, also an Asian male lead could have had long hair) ... So it's a very different female design from what Disney got us used to! (and I like it!! )

EDIT: In the diverse footage showed during the movie presentation: she doesn't always look that serious though.

[DisneyFan09]

No one seems to have posted the full image found here:

https://thedisinsider.com/2020/07/24/pr ... s-debuted/

Don’t have time to save and upload, but it’s here for those who want it or if anyone wants to repost it!

No offense, but that image has been posted priorly on this board. I hope you don´t get offended by this.

Absolutely! In fact, before the directors and cast came on stage to present the movie and showed us, actually, quite a few things! (you can argue they showed us more about Raya and the Last Dragon than they did with Frozen II, the latter being, oddly enough, more hold into secrecy for commercial reasons than Raya), there was at the beginning of the panel a compilation film showing very short clips of the movies that were about to be discussed during the panel. When Raya turn came (and so nobody knew anything about it: we only heard about the Dragon Empire draft that leaked in 2018 back at this time) there were two frames of Raya herself walking through a large corridor inside a very dark temple. 1st frame: you could see her from behind holding a torch and with the same Asian conical hat (from the picture shared above) on her head. 2nd frame: it was a close-up on her face, half-masked, so basically a quick insight on her eyes ^^ (the third frame (actually the first) being the movie title.) All this is to say: you couldn't see much about the lead character herself until they present the movie.. one thing that struck me was how thin the character was, and how she had a long face ... so much that I first thought from this glimpse it was a male character ^^! (I can't remember if you could distinctly see her hair, but anyway they would have been in the obscurity and I think a piece of cloth covered them, also an Asian male lead could have had long hair) ... So it's a very different female design from what Disney got us used to! (and I like it!! )

EDIT: In the diverse footage showed during the movie presentation: she doesn't always look that serious though.

Thanks for the information, Clindor. It´s remarkable that they showed more of Raya than they did with Frozen II, since Frozen II had more weight on it´s shoulders than Raya, anyways (since it was the sequel to the behemoth that was Frozen). But what´s more remarkable is how Disney´s secrecy-policy has increased more and more for each Expo convention. At least when Moana was presented, there was more pictures and information about it revealed to the public than with Raya (and yeah, I know that I´m repeating myself, but at least the comparison between them is relevant, due to how both are original properties by Disney).

[Clindor]

But what´s more remarkable is how Disney´s secrecy-policy has increased more and more for each Expo convention. At least when Moana was presented, there was more pictures and information about it revealed to the public than with Raya (and yeah, I know that I´m repeating myself, but at least the comparison between them is relevant, due to how both are original properties by Disney).

Yes, and yet, I would partly disagree on this. Yes, we all noticed that Disney's secrecy-policy did increase over the past few years, undeniably. Yet when it comes to the D23 Expo/Conventions, on the contrary, it feels like they are still willing to share quite a lot! (except for some rare specimens as Frozen II for which they might judge the commercial stakes are just too high (and actually they showed us 3 clips from Frozen II though very discreet about the story)) But with Raya and the Last Dragon I think they shared with us quite enough to be fair!..: they showed 2 clips (one rather looong which was a feast for the eyes, portraying a lot of landscapes (it was magnificent! <3 and very realistic looking) then the interior of a great, dark temple), introduced 4 characters, displayed several concept arts, character designs, synopsis and parts of the intrigue, footage and presentation of their trips around South-East Asian when they were looking for the inspiration and for cultural elements to include in their movie. Of course, as you all know, 2 members of the voice cast came on stage, made jokes and present their characters. There was quite a lot! (I don't remember how much they shared with Moana but tbh it was probably similar.)

What seems to be different now, is that only a few from the Expos leaks on the Internet. I was shocked last year when only one concept art was officially revealed online for the non-attendants.

So sharing is still in Disney's approach, but more during special events, with secluded groups.

[DisneyFan09]

Yes, and yet, I would partly disagree on this. Yes, we all noticed that Disney's secrecy-policy did increase over the past few years, undeniably. Yet when it comes to the D23 Expo/Conventions, on the contrary, it feels like they are still willing to share quite a lot! (except for some rare specimens as Frozen II for which they might judge the commercial stakes are just too high (and actually they showed us 3 clips from Frozen II though very discreet about the story)) But with Raya and the Last Dragon I think they shared with us quite enough to be fair!..: they showed 2 clips (one rather looong which was a feast for the eyes, portraying a lot of landscapes (it was magnificent! <3 and very realistic looking) then the interior of a great, dark temple), introduced 4 characters, displayed several concept arts, character designs, synopsis and parts of the intrigue, footage and presentation of their trips around South-East Asian when they were looking for the inspiration and for cultural elements to include in their movie. Of course, as you all know, 2 members of the voice cast came on stage, made jokes and present their characters. There was quite a lot! (I don't remember how much they shared with Moana but tbh it was probably similar.)

What seems to be different now, is that only a few from the expos leaks on the Internet. I was shocked last year when only one concept art was officially revealed online for the non-attendants.

So sharing is still in Disney's approach, but more during special events, with secluded groups.

Okay, I look back at my previous post and realize that I conveyed my statement somewhat wrongly. What I truly meant, was that what for every Expo, there seems to be given less information to the general public outside of Expo, not those who attend the convention. But I guess it was my fault, since I didn´t wrote it more clearly. So I´m sorry about that.

[Clindor]

Okay, I look back at my previous post and realize that I conveyed my statement somewhat wrongly. What I truly meant, was that what for every Expo, there seems to be given less information to the general public outside of Expo, not those who attend the convention. But I guess it was my fault, since I didn´t wrote it more clearly. So I´m sorry about that.

No no, no need for be sorry, it's just a discussion, no harm done!
(having experienced the convention though I found it was interesting to share that)
But yeah when it comes to gerenal audiences, they tend more and more to wait the last minute for a full promotion, that's sad..

(btw, not that this is important but you misquoted my username in your StL message, if you want to correct that)

[DisneyFan09]

Oh, I´m sorry about the latter.