March 2021. The world was still recovering from lockdowns. Theaters were barely operating. Disney made a choice that would doom one of their most gorgeous animated films to obscurity before it even had a chance. They released Raya and the Last Dragon simultaneously in limited theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access for 30 bucks, essentially splitting their audience and guaranteeing the film would never get the cultural moment it deserved.
Four years later, mention Raya to the average Disney fan and you’ll get blank stares. Meanwhile, Encanto, released eight months after Raya, became a global phenomenon with songs dominating TikTok for months. Frozen 2 remains in constant rotation. Even Moana from 2016 gets more streaming minutes than Raya despite being five years older when Raya released.
Yet here’s what nobody talks about: Raya earned a 93% critics score and 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It made 130 million dollars worldwide during a pandemic when theaters were ghost towns. It became the third most-streamed film of 2021 with over 8 billion minutes watched. Critics called it “gorgeously animated” and praised its Southeast Asian representation. Kelly Marie Tran delivered a career-defining voice performance. The themes about trust, unity, and overcoming division felt prescient given global tensions.
So why did this movie disappear from cultural consciousness while lesser Disney films became household names? The answer involves terrible timing, unfortunate release strategies, and the cruel reality that sometimes the best films get overlooked simply because they arrive at the wrong moment. But that doesn’t mean Raya deserves to be forgotten. If anything, it deserves a complete reevaluation as one of Disney’s most underrated modern masterpieces.
Here are 11 reasons why Raya and the Last Dragon deserves way more love than it gets.
1. Raya Is the Warrior Princess Disney Always Needed
Forget damsels in distress. Raya is a trained fighter who wields weapons, strategizes battles, and survives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. She’s not waiting for a prince or relying on magic powers to save her. She’s doing the saving herself through skill, determination, and eventually learning that strength isn’t just physical but emotional too. Her character arc from distrustful loner to someone who learns to believe in humanity again is one of Disney’s most satisfying hero journeys. Kelly Marie Tran’s voice performance captures every shade of Raya’s evolution from hardened survivor to hopeful leader.
Share this with anyone who’s tired of one-dimensional Disney princesses!
2. The Animation Is Absolutely Breathtaking
Disney’s animation team went all out creating the world of Kumandra. Each of the five lands (Heart, Fang, Tail, Spine, and Talon) has a distinct visual identity inspired by different Southeast Asian cultures. The water effects when Sisu transforms look photorealistic. The Druun spirits move with genuinely unsettling fluidity. Combat sequences are choreographed like martial arts films with weight and impact. The color palette shifts dramatically from lush greens to apocalyptic purples depending on whether the Druun are present. Compared to other 2021 animated releases, Raya’s technical achievement stands among the best, yet it rarely gets mentioned in conversations about animation excellence.
3. Southeast Asian Representation Actually Matters
Before Raya, Disney’s Asian representation was limited to Mulan (Chinese culture) and minor characters scattered across other films. Raya draws from Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, and other Southeast Asian influences to create a fantasy world that feels culturally specific without being a direct adaptation of any single country. The architecture, clothing, food, and even combat styles reference real Southeast Asian traditions. For millions of people who’d never seen their cultures reflected in Disney animation, Raya represented genuine progress. Yes, some critics argued it could’ve gone deeper into specific cultural details rather than amalgamating multiple cultures, but representation isn’t all-or-nothing. Raya opened doors for more Southeast Asian stories in mainstream animation.
4. It Addresses Trust in Ways Kids Need to Hear
The film’s central conflict isn’t good versus evil but trust versus suspicion. When Kumandra was united, humans and dragons lived in harmony. When people stopped trusting each other and fought over the dragon gem’s power, the Druun spirits emerged from that division and turned everyone to stone. Raya’s journey requires her to trust former enemies, and that proves harder than any physical battle. In an era where polarization dominates global politics and social media encourages viewing everyone as potential enemies, teaching children (and adults) that trust must be earned through vulnerability and kept through empathy feels radically important. The movie doesn’t pretend trust is easy or always deserved, it shows the messy process of choosing to believe in people despite risk.
Don’t miss out on understanding why this movie’s themes are more relevant now than in 2021!
5. Namaari Is One of Disney’s Most Complex Villains
Calling Namaari a villain oversimplifies her role. She’s the princess of Fang who betrayed Raya as a child, not out of evil but because she believed taking the dragon gem would save her people. She’s an antagonist driven by loyalty to family and nation rather than power-hunger or cruelty. Throughout the film, Namaari struggles with her choices, clearly conflicted between what she’s been taught and what she knows is right. Her eventual redemption arc doesn’t come easy or feel unearned. She has to prove through sacrifice that she’s changed, that she’s chosen trust over suspicion. Gemma Chan’s voice performance captures all that internal conflict, creating one of Disney’s rare morally gray characters who transcends simple categorization.
6. The Voice Cast Is Absolutely Stacked
Kelly Marie Tran as Raya brings authenticity and emotional depth to the warrior princess. Awkwafina as Sisu the dragon provides comic relief without becoming annoying, a difficult balance many sidekick characters fail to achieve. Gemma Chan as Namaari commands authority while conveying vulnerability. The supporting cast includes Daniel Dae Kim, Sandra Oh, Benedict Wong, and Izaac Wang, creating an ensemble where every voice actor elevates their role beyond just reading lines. The chemistry between Tran and Awkwafina drives the film’s heart, their banter feeling genuinely earned rather than manufactured for laughs.
7. It Got Absolutely Screwed by Its Release Strategy
Let’s be real: releasing on Disney+ Premier Access for 30 dollars while theaters were barely operating killed Raya’s box office potential. Families had to choose between paying theater prices plus risk COVID exposure or paying nearly the same amount to stream at home. That split the audience and prevented the communal theater experience that makes Disney films cultural events. Compare this to Encanto, which got an exclusive theatrical release before hitting Disney+ for free, allowing it to build word-of-mouth momentum. Raya never had that chance. Its 130 million worldwide gross during pandemic lockdowns actually represents significant success given circumstances, but the narrative became “Raya flopped” rather than “Raya succeeded despite impossible conditions.”
8. The World-Building Deserves Multiple Films
Kumandra feels lived-in and expansive, with history and mythology that extends far beyond what the film explores. Each land has a distinct culture, leadership style, and relationship to the others. The dragons’ backstory fighting the Druun 500 years prior suggests entire mythology barely touched. The film ends with Kumandra reunited but doesn’t explore what that actually looks like practically. A sequel could dive into rebuilding trust between lands, discovering what caused the Druun originally, or exploring other regions of Kumandra never visited. Disney rarely develops original properties beyond initial films anymore, focusing on sequels to proven hits. Raya deserved franchise treatment but got relegated to one-off status.
9. The Themes About Division Feel Painfully Relevant
Kumandra literally broke apart because people couldn’t agree on who deserved the dragon gem’s power. Sound familiar? The film’s metaphor for political division, nationalism, and inability to find common ground wasn’t subtle, but it didn’t need to be. Kids watching learned that shared threats require cooperation even between enemies. Adults watching saw reflection of real-world conflicts where tribalism prevents solving collective problems. The Druun being created by humanity’s discord adds philosophical weight to what could’ve been a standard fantasy villain. They’re not external evil but a consequence of humans failing each other, which means they can only be defeated through unity.
10. It Became the Third Most-Streamed Film of 2021
Here’s a fact that destroys the “Raya failed” narrative: the film racked up 8.34 billion minutes watched on Disney+ in 2021, making it the third most-streamed film of the year behind only Luca and Moana. That’s not failure, that’s massive success proving audiences loved it once they actually watched. The problem wasn’t quality but awareness. Many people simply didn’t know Raya existed or forgot about it amid 2021’s overwhelming content avalanche. The film found its audience through streaming even if the theatrical release disappointed. Those 8 billion minutes represent millions of families who connected with Raya’s story, yet media coverage focused only on box office numbers.
11. It Deserved Award Recognition It Never Got
Raya earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature but lost to Encanto. That’s fine, Encanto is excellent. But Raya barely entered the awards conversation despite 93% critical approval and technical achievement matching any Disney film. The animation, voice acting, score by James Newton Howard, and thematic depth all deserved recognition that never materialized because the film had already been written off as pandemic casualty. Awards create legacy, and without that validation, films fade from memory faster regardless of actual quality.
Your Verdict on Raya
Have you watched Raya and the Last Dragon? Does it deserve more recognition than it gets? Would you want a sequel exploring more of Kumandra? Drop your honest opinions in the comments because this is exactly the type of film that benefits from rediscovery when people actually give it a chance years after release.
Share this article with anyone who loves Disney animation or needs convincing that Raya belongs in conversations about modern Disney classics. Follow for more deep dives on underrated films that deserved better. Because sometimes the best movies get overlooked not because they’re flawed but because timing, marketing, and circumstances conspire against them, and Raya and the Last Dragon represents that tragedy perfectly while remaining gorgeous, meaningful, and absolutely worth your time.
