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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.

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.

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 wrote:

Clindor wrote: 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?

D82 wrote: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/

Clindor wrote: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.)

Clindor wrote: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 wrote: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.”

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

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

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

robster16 wrote: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 wrote:

robster16 wrote: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!