Kelly Marie Tran will be headlining the vocal cast of the upcoming Disney animated film Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney Animation Studios’ first film inspired by Southeast Asia with first Southeast Asian actress to lead a film from the company.
Raya and the Last Dragon is a movie of many firsts — one of which no one saw coming, not even its creators. The upcoming film will be one of the first Disney Animation features to be developed from remote locations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With production ramping up around March just as the pandemic hit, the Raya team had to quickly reshuffle, working with equipment at home and communicating through Zoom. Despite the challenges, director Don Hall says the studio’s various teams rallied to create what he calls “the most beautiful animated film I’ve ever seen.” As the filmmaker behind beloved pictures like Winnie the Pooh, Big Hero 6, and Moana, Hall knows what he’s talking about.
Tran, who many audiences know as Rose Tico in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, tells EW that Raya, the daughter of a chief, redefines the classic Disney princess. López Estrada also teases we can look forward to chases, fight scenes, and more “high-octane” action from our heroine.
“She is someone who is technically a princess but I think that what’s really cool about this project, about this character, specifically is that everyone’s trying to flip the narrative on what it means to be a princess,” Tran says. “Raya is totally a warrior. When she was a kid, she was excited to get her sword. And she grows up to be a really badass, gritty warrior and can really take care of herself.”
When it comes to representation, the filmmakers say they’re putting in the work to accurately celebrate the cultures that influenced the movie, including Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Producer Osnat Shurer, who was also behind Moana, says the studio sent creative teams on research trips to multiple countries in Southeast Asia and worked with a Southeast Asia Story Trust. They also collaborated with a Lao visual anthropologist who looks at every design before it’s finalized, as well as linguists, dancers, and Gamelan musicians from Indonesia.
