It’ll please small kids, but they’re never to be trusted: Raya and the Last Dragon reviewed

Raya and the Last Dragon has everything you might want nowadays from a major Disney film — feisty kick-ass heroine, non-white representation, a narrative that isn’t hung up on romance — but no one involved appears to have asked themselves: do we have an interesting story? Do we have any fresh ideas? Is it fun? This may please very small kiddies who don’t know any better, and there are plenty of them about, but Raya’s not a classic in the making. It’s gorgeously depicted, needless to say, but disappointingly unanimated in all other ways.

The premise is set out in the wordy prologue, introducing us to a fantasy world inspired by south-east Asia where, 500 years earlier, the Kumandra people lived in peace and harmony alongside dragons. But then monsters, known as the Druun, trucked up, turning everyone they touched into stone. The last surviving dragon concentrated all her power into a magical gem that blew the Druun away but caused humanity to fight over who would get to keep it. Eventually, Kumandra split into five warring nations: Heart, Talon, Spine, Tail and Fang. Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) lives in Heart, where the gem is stored, with her father who believes the Kumandra people can be unified once more. ‘We can tear each other apart or build a better world,’ he says. ‘ We just need to trust each other.’ Oh, it’s that message, the trust one, but don’t panic if you don’t pick up on it first time round. It is repeated. Repeatedly.

Raya’s father invites representatives of the other lands to Heart because if he can just get them round the table ‘we can be one people once again’. But it ends in disaster, the gem is smashed, and the Druun, who materialise as glowing purple ink-blots, return.