Review: Disney's 'Raya and the Last Dragon' combines epic scale and a sharp focus on characters to tell a powerful story about trust and reconciliation

Boldly epic and emotionally intimate, “Raya and the Last Dragon” may be the most moving work to come with the Disney label since “Frozen” — and without a catchy ballad to become your next ear worm.

When we first see Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), she looks like the solitary rider in an old Western or a martial-arts movie. In voice-over, Raya explains the history of her dragon-shaped mythical land, Kumandra — where, 500 years ago, humans lived under the protection of dragons. The dragons sacrifice themselves to ward off an evil force, called The Druun, turning to stone and leaving behind a stone containing their protective magic. Kumandra breaks apart into five regions, each named for a body part of the dragon map: Tail, Talon, Spine, Fang and Heart.

Raya is from Heart, where her father, Benja (voiced by Daniel Dae Kim), carries on their family’s tradition of protecting the magic stone. When Raya is a pre-teen, Benja tells her he believes he can bring the five regions together to restore a united Kumandra — but when he invites the rivals to Heart, the distrust amid the warring factions causes a mob scene in which the stone is shattered, with each group taking one piece. Raya blames her counterpart in Fang, a princess named Namaari (voiced by Gemma Chan), whom she trusted, for setting the disastrous events in motion that bring The Druun to Heart, turning her father to stone.

Directors Don Hall (“Big Hero 6”) and Carlos López Estrada (“Blindspotting”), working off a script by Qui Nguyen (a writer on “Dispatches from Elsewhere”) and Adele Lim (who co-wrote “Crazy Rich Asians”), take only 20 minutes to chronicle all of the above — making for some of the most efficient and elegant world-building since “Black Panther” took us to Wakanda. The film’s set-up soon launches into the main story, which starts six years later, when Raya is a hardened adult traveling through the other four regions attempting to find the one dragon who, according to legend, didn’t turn to stone.

That dragon is Sisu, and yes, Raya finds her — the trailer tells you that much — and the real action starts from there. Sisu is exuberantly voiced by the comedian/actor Awkwafina, who gives the most energetically creative animation performance in a Disney movie since Robin Williams played the genie in “Aladdin.”

The beautiful visuals are steeped in southeast Asian cultures, and the action emulates the fluidity and power of great martial-arts movies. And the voice cast — besides Tran, Kim, Chan and Awkwafina — also features Benedict Wong (“Doctor Strange”), Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”), Patti Harrison (“Search Party”) and Sung Kang (from the “Fast & Furious” franchise), as well as charming performances by child talents Izaac Wang and Thalia Tran.

There’s more to “Raya and the Last Dragon,” though, than an Asian-based, female-centered story that checks off boxes on Disney’s representation scorecard. That’s just the backdrop for a richly drawn and powerfully told story, a hero’s journey that never loses sight of the characters amid the spectacle. 

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‘Raya and the Last Dragon’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, March 5, in theaters where open, and as a premium offering on Disney+. Rated PG for some violence, action and thematic elements. Running time: 109 minutes (plus a seven-minute short, “Us Again”).