“It was our Arthurian legend, our Game of Thrones, our Dungeons and Dragons that we were building when we were building Kumandra,” he explains. On a larger scale, Nugyen says the team’s approach of creating the fictional land of Kumandra could be likened to the making of fantasy worlds built on pan-European influences. “We were all pitching different dishes and when you could get one little dish in there that was super recognizable, it meant so much.” He shares his excitement about a scene where Raya makes an offering with bánh tét, a glutinous rice cake eaten during Vietnamese New Year, which is also Nguyen’s favorite food and one that reminds him of home. And it would be small details, like what food would be on the banquet,” Nguyen says. “It was fun to have Fawn, myself, Adele, members in our animation, story teams, to arm wrestle a little bit about what things we can celebrate in our cultures.
They strived to make the film’s details more authentic to Southeast Asia, which was also front of mind for co-writers Nguyen and Lim. Led by Lao visual anthropologist Steve Arounsack, the Trust is a group of consultants with areas of expertise ranging from music and choreography to architecture and martial arts. The studio also formed the Southeast Asia Story Trust, similar to its Oceanic Trust for Moana.
Before the pandemic, members of the production team traveled to Laos, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore to learn about their cultures. Still, the absence of the streaming platform from a number of the countries that inspired the film has prompted discussions about its intended audience.ĭisney went to great lengths, quite literally, to conduct research for Raya and the Last Dragon. And Raya and the Last Dragon is opening theatrically in other countries where cinemas are open, including Thailand and Malaysia. Currently, Disney+ is available in Indonesia and Singapore. The lack of access to Disney+ in much of Southeast Asia has also added to fans’ frustration. A week before the release of Raya and the Last Dragon, a tweet about the film’s seemingly broad approach in portraying Southeast Asia-based on the teaser content-as well as the majority-East Asian cast received more than 26,000 likes. She is not alone in her initial response. “It was probably one of the best representations of a Filipino I’ve ever seen because they really did research,” she says. The characters made parols, or star-shaped lanterns that are a popular Christmastime decoration in the Philippines, and performed mano, a gesture that honors the elderly. Titled “From Our Family To Yours,” the three-minute, Christmas-themed animated short featured a distinctly Filipino family engaging in recognizably Filipiino traditions. Also disappointed that the film does not tell a story specific to one country, Sandy tweeted, “This movie represents no one in particular.”įor Sandy, who spoke to TIME ahead of the movie’s release, the disappointment stings more because Disney UK had released a video ad in November 2020 that spurred her imagination for what was possible. “Additional Voices,” which in this film include Filipino-American actors like Vincent Rodriguez III ( Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Liza Del Mundo ( W.I.T.C.H.), are typically characters in animation with no individual names specified and who contribute to group sounds. “When I looked at the cast, you do see Southeast Asian actors in the project but they’re only cast as Additional Voices,” Sandy, who prefers not to give her last name, tells TIME. “They basically put the whole region in a blender and hired so little south-east Asian actors for the roles,” wrote Sandy, a 25-year-old graphic designer who lives in Manila.
On the day the full cast was announced, some took to Twitter to express their criticism. They include Awkwafina, who voices Sisu, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong and Sandra Oh. While the movie features a couple of other Southeast Asian voice actors aside from Tran-most notably the teen actors Izaac Wang and Thalia Tran, who voice the characters Boun and Noi, respectively-the majority of the top-billed actors are East Asian. While plenty of people shared their excitement around seeing their cultures represented onscreen as promotional materials for the film were released, others expressed concern, most notably about the lack of Southeast Asian actors in the cast as well as the approach of combining influences from multiple Southeast Asian countries into one story. But steps forward in Hollywood are rarely clear-cut.