Raya and the Last Dragon

[D82]

More character names from a book description. I guess they could be the names of the rest of the misfits or the creatures who look like monkeys.

This Raya and the Last Dragon Giant Activity Pad keeps the magic of Kumandra alive with 32 huge pages of art and puzzles! Fans of Raya, Boun, Noi, Tong and of course Sisu the Last Dragon will love this pad that includes over 100 glossy stickers and a full colour scene to decorate.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIOCkiqlEVY/

[D82]

A new interesting detail about the story has been revealed in a book description:

Raya has a mission: to restore peace to the kingdom of Kumandra. With the help of Sisu, the last dragon, and a diverse group of friends, she must gather the pieces of an ancient gem with supernatural powers.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CITXCVOl1ib/


That explains why the gem Raya has in her hand in the Japanese poster looks different from the spherical one shown in the teaser. It's probably just a piece of it.

[D82]

Awkwafina taks about the movie in a new interview:

On what drew her to Raya and the Last Dragon
“When I first heard about it, it was a concept that I never heard of and couldn’t even imagine. Two strong, female characters, one a warrior princess. When I first heard about the idea and was introduced to the team and the director and the animators, I knew that this is going to be very special, especially with Kelly Marie Tran involved. I’ve seen some footage of it and I sometimes question if it’s live action or not because it’s so real. The beauty about Disney is there’s always this human element, something that’s very greatly relatable to all the characters. I definitely relate to both Raya and Sisu, my character, who is a water dragon.”

On recording Raya in her home
“Toward the end, we were still recording into COVID. That led to a lot of impromptu setting up the mic in my own house with horrible acoustics, recording for a Disney movie. That’s the cool thing with voiceovers. Unlike being on a set, you can kind of pick it up wherever you are. It was a process. You re-record scenes over and over again. Things would change. Characters would change. It’s a constantly evolving process, which is new for me to witness how Disney works. There’s so much hard work involved for the smallest details. It’s a constantly evolving vision.”

On the first time she met Kelly Marie Tran
“I met Kelly maybe a year ago. We share sometimes the same hair guy, so we know each other through him. But we haven’t had a proper chance to sit down and talk, which I’m definitely looking forward to doing soon. I wasn’t able to be in the same studio as Kelly.”

On how Asian-American representation in the media has changed
“I think maybe the only coincidence is that I’m Asian. I don’t really seek out Asian-centric content as my main thing. I seek out stories that I am impacted by. With Crazy Rich Asians, I remember reading the book and being a really big fan of it and knowing that this would be the first time that would happen. It would be a big interest. The Farewell was my relationship with my grandma and what that meant to me and how that role was super unique. With Shang-Chi and Raya, those were more for me, just to be a part of a Disney movie, especially in an animated role, which was a dream for me. And I also believe that Shang-Chi will have some significance because it’s significant to me. There are different reasons that go into things, but there was a time when there weren’t a lot of Asian-centric movies. There weren’t a lot of Asian-American casts. I hope we get to a place where they’re just more a part of mainstream media.”

[D82]

‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Star Kelly Marie Tran on ‘Unfair Pressure’ of Playing Disney’s First Southeast Asian Princess (Video)
https://www.thewrap.com/kelly-marie-tra ... -princess/

Awkwafina Reveals What She Loves About Voiceover Work Ahead of 'Raya and the Last Dragon' Premiere (Exclusive)
https://popculture.com/celebrity/news/a ... st-dragon/

[Clindor]

Quite possibly yes. In this one clip featuring the stone at D23, it starts spreading green light all around the Asian jungle when young Raya (obviously little girl) and her father (both unseen on screen) ask to see the powers of the gem!
Then the light begins spreading beyond the screen and inside the D23 Hall thanks to laser projections!.. it was beautiful <3
Before that, it was all dark, discreetly levitating above a pond right in the middle of the jungle (no temple).

Then once again, take what people shared about D23 Expo with a grain of salt, because decisions made by the artistic teams till last year could been modified since.
I actually suspect that what Disney showed were partly preliminary works that won't be used for the final result.
(Although a little bit from one of the clips does appears very furtively in last Wesnesday trailer..)

Oh, wow, I hadn't heard about any of that before. Thanks for describing it! The stone having like a life of its own is interesting and what a cool idea to use laser projections at that point of the presentation! Yes, of course, it's very likely that that early footage won't be in the final film, but maybe some of those ideas/story elements will still appear in in it somehow. Can I ask what bit from the footage shown at D23 appeared briefly in the trailer?

Sure thing. These are all the shots that are successively shown one after the other in the trailer just before the logo appears - Raya waiting under the rain, looking far ahead - These are from the beginning of the sequence screened at D23 (if you watch carefully you can spot the temple entrance.)

First look at what probably is Sisu's final design in dragon form and more new looks at Raya. Clindor was right that Sisu looked bluer in the teaser trailer.


Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CHv0pvxnulF/


Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CHwPNg-ndXc/

Yep, I really hope this new design of Sisu works better with you guys (than it does with me ^^) I’d like to say I this definitive design of her makes me feel enthusiastic, but that’s just not the case :/ Speak of one downgrade compared to her more detailed, more sophisticated previous design. ^^’ I guess she is less difficult to animate her this way, argh that’s still a shame. The previous design was nearly perfect to me, so utterly different from what we are used to see both for Disney animation and for animation in general! To me this is a huge mistake ^^ Her new design is still cute (I understand now the Elsa vibes), but a bit more commonplace unfortunately. But I might be alone in my case. ... Anyway there are plenty of other things to be excited about!

[D82]

These are all the shots that are successively shown one after the other in the trailer just before the logo appears - Raya waiting under the rain, looking far ahead - These are from the beginning of the sequence screened at D23 (if you watch carefully you can spot the temple entrance.)

Thanks for the reply! You're right, the temple entrance can be seen there.

Yep, I really hope this new design of Sisu works better with you guys (than it does with me ^^) I’d like to say I this definitive design of her makes me feel enthusiastic, but that’s just not the case :/ Speak of one downgrade compared to her more detailed, more sophisticated previous design. ^^’ I guess she is less difficult to animate her this way, argh that’s still a shame. The previous design was nearly perfect to me, so utterly different from what we are used to see both for Disney animation and for animation in general! To me this is a huge mistake ^^ Her new design is still cute (I understand now the Elsa vibes), but a bit more commonplace unfortunately. But I might be alone in my case. ... Anyway there are plenty of other things to be excited about!

No, you're not alone. I was also quite disappointed with the redesign and I think blackcauldron85 preferred how she looked before too. The new design is fine, but as you said, the first one was more unique and special.

[blackcauldron85]

^Yup, I am right with you two! My goal is to pay off student loans and not spend $, so while before I would have bought all the Sisu merch regardless, I now might just buy one little thing with her, because I'm not as in love w/ her design. BUT, seeing the movie might make me forget about that, you know? She's still really cute. I think it was her white & pink colors and fluffy tail...but she's still cute, I'm looking at the new picture, and I still love her...

(It isn't letting me post it as an image, but I put the old & new pics together...)
https://imgur.com/693SPKN

[Redadoodles]

Awkwafina taks about the movie in a new interview:

On what drew her to Raya and the Last Dragon
“When I first heard about it, it was a concept that I never heard of and couldn’t even imagine. Two strong, female characters, one a warrior princess. When I first heard about the idea and was introduced to the team and the director and the animators, I knew that this is going to be very special, especially with Kelly Marie Tran involved. I’ve seen some footage of it and I sometimes question if it’s live action or not because it’s so real. The beauty about Disney is there’s always this human element, something that’s very greatly relatable to all the characters. I definitely relate to both Raya and Sisu, my character, who is a water dragon.”

I'm beyond tired of reading "strong female character" everywhere. News flash, it doesn't mean anything. How about you go on and define your idea of strength and use other adjective to communicate how a character is progressive or interesting.
It's becoming beyond predictable, especially for Disney to shove that sentence in everything they're about to release. It even pushes feminists like myself to get annoyed and at this point it even makes me want to skip the film all together.
It's quite funny to see that when Mulan was released, no one called her a strong female character. She was only seen as interesting and written well.

[rodrigo_ca]

Raya will be released on Disney+ alongside theaters with Premier Access

[D82]

Raya will be released on Disney+ alongside theaters with Premier Access

I think that's a good decision. And one good thing is that it'll now open one week earlier than it was previously announced.

[Sotiris]

New poster to accompany the Disney+ premier access announcement.


Source: https://www.facebook.com/rayaandthelast ... 7390606927


Close-up.


Source: https://twitter.com/DisneyRaya/status/1 ... 4760300547

[Clindor]

That's a nice one

Btw, for those who wish to live stream the Disney Investor Day, here's the link: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney ... -day-2020/

[D82]

I like the new poster too. By the way, I think you were right they modified Raya's design to make her look more similar to Kelly Marie Tran, Sotiris. I definitely see the resemblance in this latest poster.

[Disney's Divinity]

That's an amazing poster. I think it could even be a one-shot re-creation of the climactic scene of the film when Sisu has officially become a dragon again, the Druun are destroyed, and the rain returns. I can even imagine there being a magical, fast-paced re-growth of the greenery (think something similar to the ending of FernGully).

When did this practice of making the characters look like the actors begin? I always thought they picked the voice that best suited the character design, not designed the character around the voice actor... I remember reading that Tiana was drawn to look like ANR. I don't think Ariel and Belle look much like Jodi Benson and Paige O'Hara, for example, so I'm curious how far back this goes or if this is just another thing Lasseter began.

[D82]

Btw, for those who wish to live stream the Disney Investor Day, here's the link: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney ... -day-2020/

Disney is also posting live updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Disney

[DisneyFan09]

New poster to accompany the Disney+ premier access announcement.


Source: https://www.facebook.com/rayaandthelast ... 7390606927


Close-up.


Source: https://twitter.com/DisneyRaya/status/1 ... 4760300547

I like the new poster. Despite that it feels derivative from the one with Tuk Tuk. For some reason these posters gives me Rayman-vibes

Btw, for those who wish to live stream the Disney Investor Day, here's the link: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney ... -day-2020/

Thanks for the link, Clindor

[robster16]

OMG, the character designs!!! SOOOOO much information!!! I'd love to add them here, but the image dimension restrictions prohibit that, so look for them online!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6muxZVEAY ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6muxbU8AI ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6mxSWVoAU ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6mxStUYAA ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6m0iqVQAA ... name=large

[Redadoodles]

OMG, the character designs!!! SOOOOO much information!!! I'd love to add them here, but the image dimension restrictions prohibit that, so look for them online!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6muxZVEAY ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6muxbU8AI ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6mxSWVoAU ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6mxStUYAA ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6m0iqVQAA ... name=large

I love the color palette of the film so far! Thank you for sharing!

[robster16]

OMG, the character designs!!! SOOOOO much information!!! I'd love to add them here, but the image dimension restrictions prohibit that, so look for them online!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6muxZVEAY ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6muxbU8AI ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6mxSWVoAU ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6mxStUYAA ... name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6m0iqVQAA ... name=large

I love the color palette of the film so far! Thank you for sharing!

They showed footage of the characters in motion during the presentation which I can't find online yet, but I'm sure it will pop up soon enough! Some gorgeous shots in there of Sisu appearing out of the water and flying through the sky for instance and that baby really packs a punch so to speak!

[Redadoodles]

Is it me or the heroine looks a bit older on the poster than on the few pictures we've seen in the past ?