Review of Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) by Phildog — 06 Mar 2021

Probably the worst Avatar: The Last Airbender knockoff yet.

Characters are far too many and lack development. The writers don't seem to understand the importance of continuity of location. There is some queer subtext that the movie doesn't have the guts to do anything with. The dragon is straight up annoying and for some reason keeps making real-world references. The baby that's a scam artist is absolutely ridiculous. The animation, models, and everything is pretty great. The character designs are pretty bland.

I'll give the movie credit for one thing. In Eastern lore, dragons are heavily associated with water and not with fire like in the west. That's the only thing really original to this film, and when it explores the mechanics of that, it gets more interesting.

That said, it's by far not enough to save this film. The movie is basically watchable, but frankly, you're better off watching the show it so crudely cribbed off of or actual Chinese animation.