The movie will make history with Disney's first-ever Southeast Asian princess. However, the dragon turns out to be nothing like she expected. Inspired by the cultures and mythologies of Southeast Asia, the feature was directed by Don Hall ( Big Hero 6) and Carlos López Estrada ( Legion). Kelly Marie Tran stars as Raya, a brave young warrior in the kingdom of Kumandra, who must track down the fabled last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina), after a plague called the 'Drunn' turns her loved ones to stone. It’s a fine line between representation and appropriation, but Disney is at least prepared to try to tread it.Thalia Tran Credit: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic & Disney Maybe generically “south-east Asian” is progress compared to generically “Asian”? Some on Twitter have expressed delight at their culture being seen by Hollywood. As does some Japanese anime: Kiki’s Delivery Service, for example, takes place in a generic “Europe”. How would we feel about a movie land that smushed together, say, England, France and Germany? Then again, Frozen, with its pan-Scandinavian setting, comes close. In contrast, Disney’s European tales tend to be more specific: Brave’s Scotland or Beauty and the Beast’s France.

Not to mention Black Panther’s Wakanda, although its geographic obscurity was part of the point, and faithful to the comic books. Disney has some form in composite fictional realms: see Aladdin (set in “Agrabah”, AKA “some Arabic kinda place”), or Moana’s Polynesian isle of “Motunui”. But the issue is compounded by Raya’s fictionalised setting, which effectively smushes together a highly diverse region. In its defence, many of Raya’s team are south-east Asian, including the writers Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim.

The last dragon movie full cast