EDIT: I want to apologize for not using Xiran's correct pronouns. I didn't know they used They/Them. I also want to apologize for mixing up Agrabah with "Arabia." That was very silly of me because Arabia is the name of a real peninsula. I think it's important to acknowledge that Disney did hire a lot of artists and consultants from the cultures they referenced to help build the world of Raya, and I genuinely think their contribution was the movie's saving grace. However, at the end of the day, they will not have the same amount of influence on the movie's tone, writing, or direction as the writers and directors. Hence, it is extremely dubious that Disney was not willing to put Southeast Asians or people who at least had ties with the culture in roles that had the MOST control over the movie.

My main problem with Raya is the message. Now trusting people and having faith in others itself is not a bad message to have, however, the way is presented is God awful. First, she's betrayed as a child and it brought around the apocalypse and destroyed the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people including her entire tribe and father and then as an adult she's essentially gaslit into trusting the woman who has been hunting her down the entire movie, shot Sisu, and doesn't really feel much remorse that hundreds of people were practically dead because of her.

The fact that they animated every piece of fur and researched how the fur worked for Zootopia/Zootropolis and then decided to just be lazy with Raya and the last dragon just baffles me!

Imagine if Encanto had taken information from Colombia, Argentina, México, Chile and Brazil. The movie whole would have been a cultural mess.

Every time I see Raya pop up I’m just like “oh right that kid’s movie which has the message that the victim should relentlessly trust and love their abuser”. Words cannot express how much I hate Namaari. I always go into any type of content prepared for a trauma trigger, but I never expected to be triggered THAT HARD when Namaari straight up started gaslighting Raya into making her believe that SHE was the one who killed her own friend and brought on the apocalypse, when it was ALL 100% Namaari’s actions. And then, THEN everyone trusts Namaari to save the world, and she STILL tries to run and only save herself, and ONLY when she realizes she can’t save herself by fleeing, does she put the pieces together. And THEN she is absorbed into the main group, and Raya, her victim who she hunted and betrayed and abused and deeply traumatized, is responsible for her healing. It is disgusting and I can never stop yelling about how this was shoved down the throats of children. Okay I will watch the video now, just needed to vent about this for the hundredth time bc just seeing the name makes me so mad 😭

Did you know, in some of the oldest Raya concept art, the setting isn't even Southeast Asia. It was just post-apocalyptic scifi. The Southeast Asian elements really were just tacked on! It's possible that Namaari and her mother's designs, especially her mother's dress, is a leftover from that early development phase, which just makes this whole thing even more insulting. Yknow, as an Indonesian, I was like, "Where are the crowns??" when they showed all the kingdom leaders. How could they possibly overlook the opportunity to show off the various intricate SEA crowns?? It’s just laziness, pure and simple.

Yeah and the message was just so weird, along with the pop culture references, I legit wanted Raya to just punch Namari at some points, and I genuinely believe that the message should have been better if both Sisu and Raya learned from one another to thrust but to not do so blindly.

"Hey, you're probably watching this as background noise while you're drawing, right?" I feel called out

I don't get why people even think elegant and girly can't be portrayed as strong and badass. Like girly could be wearing a crown and punch the shit out of someone with it. I mean with the pointy ass crowns I see in alot of traditional SEA clothing...that shit could be a murder weapon

If Disney decided to take on Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland as well as Norway as inspiration for Arendelle, I would be pissed. And that’s because I’m half danish. Not every country is the same. I went to Norway on my last trip to Denmark recently, and they are two completely different places. Same with Sweden. It would be upsetting. So I know how you feel Calli.

As a Norwegian, I can relate. Frozen barely took some of the asethetics from old-timey Norway. Frozen was originally going to be based on the Snow Queen, which is a Danish story. In Frozen 2 they just took Sami culture, watered it down and put them in a forest. Frozen could have been so much better, our folklore has such a mystical and whimsical vibe, but they just used the standard fire, earth, water and air magic. At least they didn´t just do vikings though.

I feel like the movie had a problem where they didnt focus on any of the southeastern countries? They tried to lump them into one... they literally had five regions that could've EASILY each represented a country

As someone outside the culture, I don't have much knowledge on South East Asian cultures so my main focus in watching the movie was the narrative, characters and plot. It just felt, lackluster? The message of trust wasn't delievered well considering Raya kept getting pushed into trusting the person who betrayed her in the first place and continued to hunt her down throughout the movie. Namaari never shows remorse for her actions (from my memory) and is constantly painted in a good light. She never apologizes, and is shown to be in the right, while Raya was supposibly in the wrong and she was the one who was stubborn and the root of discorse within the main group, according to the movie at least. It felt very manipulative. It felt like the original perpetrator was pushing the message "Just get along, stop rocking the boat" to the victim, and that just didn't sit right. Sisu also was meant to be the foil to Raya, her trust countering Raya's distrust. This could have played off well, they both could have learned and grown from each other, since they were both flawed in their own ways. Raya didn't open up to others, and Sisu was naive in her trust. Sisu's naivity was used against her in the movie, as she was tricked in Talon by blindly trusting a lady (can't remember all the details). But again, Sisu was the beacon of right in the narrative's eyes and it was only Raya the plot was pushing to change. The others' flaws were either not treated as flaws or were brushed off. Because of the character's roles in the story, Sisu feels as though she represents toxic positivity (though perhaps to lesser extent) and Namaari has an unwillingness to assess her own actions, where she doesn't see the fault in her own ways and blames the people around her for the conflicts errupting to the surface. Raya is the only one beaten into submission by the plot by the end of the movie. No one else changes or has to account for anything they've done and the narrative rewards them for it. It only explores Raya's flaws, when it could have done and been so much more.

Honestly, Raya taught me lessons in writing and fantasy worldbuilding, the don'ts, to be specific, especially in taking and using inspirations from other cultures as well as the moral lessons and themes.

When I watched Raya, it never really occurred to me they were trying to represent something other than an eastern-inspired fantasy, where as I knew that Encanto was representing a different culture. I didn't actually know it was Columbian until afterwards, as I only picked up the details top realise it was a Spanish-speaking South American area.

I'm filipino, specifically Bisaya. I grew up in the philippines and watched the movie with my Filipino family. Watching the movie, I didn't really get the culture part. Because my own culture wasn't even given a shred of differentiation, I just felt indifferent. I didn't care. And when I saw someone say that Raya specifically was filipino, I felt obligated to clarify. No, she is not filipino, she is a fictional race of mixed south east Asian culture. And as much as we want it, i dont think we'll ever get proper filipino representation in animated Disney films. The thing that irked me the most was the plot. Oh my god. I could tell so obviously that they were trying to pull off an ATLA or SPOP or something somewhere along that line, and failed MISERABLY. I could go on but i'm on mobile and have a headache.

I think more people from Southeast Asia should be on the team. Directors, writers, artists. Etc. The musical take is something I didn't expected, but after thinking for a while, I definitely agree. I like to be optimistic about this movie could be a small step for more southeast asians being able to tell their stories and show those stories.

FINALLY, SOMEONE ELSE THINKS RAYA SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MUSICAL!

I'm SEA American, my family are refugees from the Vietnam War because our clans partook in the conflict on the US side. Suffice to say? My family put their trust in the empty promises of protecting our freedom and liberty. My Grandfather died from a stroke years before they finally gave him and fellow veterans recognition. My Great-uncle is still around kicking at least, it was fascinating to see the bullet wound scar through his body the first time-the round went straight through without tumbling luckily and didn't hit any major organs. This movie was not made for me nor SEAs in general, and frankly? I couldn't care less. But what rustles my fucking jimmies? The themes of *"trust"* are an absolute slap in the face of our people's sacrifices, literal children were sent into combat! I cannot trust this Government which also sends its own young men to die then forgets them once they return home. And Disney being this tone deaf to not register that? Absolutely bogus higher-ups that have no reason to be in their positions to begin with. I'm not mad that Raya is meh, I'm mad that Disney thinks this is good enough for us when it's not even for us.

I feel like this movie is trying to be a show but failing

During watching raya, my sister n I (Vietnamese Australians) felt so detached from what might’ve been our only chance of genuine representation in a big animated film for a long time :( we were rly excited upon first hearing about it, but man everything from making SEAsia into a fantasy monolith to the weird message that those who’ve traumatised you in the past deserve your forgiveness because you’re just as bad for not trusting them again is a little questionable? The worst crime is that they made a film about SEA cultures boring lmao 😭 Also your drawing came out so beautiful also! I guess I can just daydream abt a raya movie where u were behind the writing n design wheel haha

my red flag started flying when they specifically said they went to bali for research "ah i see, you're making an excuse for vacation"

As a half-vietnamese American, I agree with all of your points in this video. I especially agree with the idea that Disney should have focused on one country instead of shoving many countries into one mishmash. I also agree with the idea that the fashion is very lackluster in terms of representing our cultures, as I really couldn't tell what countries' clothes anyone was wearing.

I think I found it more frustrating that I found more representation from the Filipino grandma's scene from Spiderman No Way Home than a majority of Raja and the Last Dragon. The sad part is people in Southeast Asia and of Southeast Asian communities WANTED this movie to work so much than any other audience, but, like you said, it felt like we were watching from a tourist's perspective.

I'm a South Asian living/raised in Southeast Asia, I MYSELF didn't even realize it's Southeast Asian 😐

The movie was more of a DnD campaign than a movie

I cried while watching raya only because she looks like me and my sisters. We are white and Japanese and she was just so beautiful and looked like us.

I wish Raya was created as a series instead of a movie so that they could really delve into the various Southeast Asian cultures rather than what they created. Doing that would've allowed the writers and animators to do their homework, introduce characters, give those characters motivations and allow the audience to get to know who they were and what the cultures were around them. If they had done that they could've made something truly special. What we got, instead, was something that I honestly couldn't say had to do with any real cultures, and as such I couldn't really recommend the movie to anyone.

I am not southeast Asian, but I relate to this a lot as a eastern European (FYI this will be long) . We are often viewed as something less than western Europeans, and most the representation we get is as Villans or criminals. Not only that but most people tend to think that eastern Europe is only slavic ... which is not. Yes the majority is (Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Montenegrins, etc.), but you also have Greeks, Turks (mostly from Istanbul)(also I am aware that they belong to southeast Europe, but they too get a bad press), Albanians, Hungarians, Romani (which most if not all of you know them as the derogatory term "Gypsy"), etc. As a person living in Germany, I am not going to say that all Germans think like this, because they don't . But I know Germans that use us as an example of "bad etiquette", because we don't say "Hallo" to every stranger we meet. We don't because we are mean, but because a 'hello' is not something you say casually to someone. A 'hello' to us can last for 5mins, because you are asking this person how they and their family is, that's why we use it only for family and friends. And yeah, we don't get that much of representation (at least not positive), and a few Western Europeans look down at us and use us as examples of bad behaviour. TL;DR as an Eastern European I relate to the struggles of Western, Central, Northern, Southern and South eastern Asians (sorry if I forgot to mention any). We are also seen as less educated, noisy, lazy, ugly even tho we are the most hard-working people in Western European societies.

it was so nice to actually hear the thoughts of someone who the culture was suppose to be representing, and speaking from someone who isnt apart of that culture I can say that the movie just felt like, another movie that was terrible at conveying its story and lesson, and I was really disappointed at the lack of music in the film

I first read the title as "Insomnia girl goes through mental crisis over Raya the Last Dragon" 💀✋

*Our Culture and Traditions just keep getting left in the dark*

As an Indonesian, It felt underwhelming after watching Raya. I couldn't relate to anything culturaly story wise (except for maybe background visuals??),. Each SEA country is soo much different to eachother, they're so rich in culture and they just put it in a melting pot of unrelated things. What a movie.

Im Filipino so yes, definitely south east asian, but also my country and people have very deep and convoluted ties to hispanic culture, like colombia we were conquered by spain for a while, so we have a lot of hispanic traditions and habits integrated very deeply in our culture. Speaking as one filipino, i can definitely say i felt more culturally connected to encanto than i ever did with raya. The only thing i saw that was remotely filipino in the movie was raya's zigzaggy sword and her large hat. It was a cool movie sure, great animation but i wasn't attached to it from a cultural perspective. Meanwhile with encanto every other minute or so i would go, "Hey that's like how filipinos do this and that" (bruno's knocking on wood thing was such a delight altho idk if that's smth hispanic in particular)

I'm a person from South America (Argentina to be more specific) and I've learned throughout the years that we should ask them to do better but to not seek approval from USA either. It may be a weird statement but as much as I liked Encanto, I didn't praise it that much or joined the hype train that came with it. They finally gave a chance to represent a SA culture outside of Mexico, yes, but I feel like that was a one timer, because at the end of the day, the company goes back and forth with the people they hire to write, produce or think of this movies and a company's main goal is the money nontheless. So I learned to appreciate but not idolize for that matter, maybe descendents from SA people in the USA see it as a win but I feel it shouldn't be groundbreaking to be careful and kind to the outside cultures you take inspiration from. Also and very important, I love your videos Calli 💝they are super entertaining and they help me to relax while working on my own art, so tysm :D ❤✨

Namaari and her mother are ancient Egyptian. Me: Ok, I believe you. The mother's dress looks like it's meant to be a lotus to me. But for real, if you showed me these two characters without context, and I didn't already know what movie they were from, I would legit think they would be ancient Egyptian or ancient Egyptian inspired, the clothing, jewelry, eye liner, and hell even the hairstyle very much screams it.

As you said, I don't know any folklore from South East Asia, but I WANT TO! Disney had an opportunity to spotlight stories and folklore that isn't normally given the spotlight but they didn't. I LOVE learning about other cultures, and would've enjoyed a story that took a basis from a folklore I don't know.

ngl if i had the money i would pay to see a musical version of raya, thatd be badass

I'm so glad someone Indonesian is doing a video about Raya, makasih buat videonya. semangat ngontennya kak :D

As an Indonesian girl (born and raised here) myself, I was EXCITED when Disney announced that they're gonna make Raya possibly based on my country. But the moment I laid my eyes on Sisu? All my interest in Raya disappeared like the morning fog. I knew they were gonna mess this up so when Raya finally came out, I didn't want to watch it at all. Until my cousin played the movie at the family gathering. Out of politeness, I try to watch it to the end but oh my god was it boring as hell (to me, personally). I don't even remember any of the side characters' names despite how badly they're trying to make them as distinctive as possible.

I feel like the movie lacked the time to introduce the tribes. It did felt like a vacation. It also felt too easy to collect all the pieces of the stone imo. I may be comparing it too much to ATLA but I really have no choice but to do so. I feel like this movie would have been better as a series where Raya gets to know people and develop better trust with others. I mean, isn't that the point of the movie? Raya can also get to understand the different cultures around Kumandra. It can change her mind to "hey, maybe we are better together. Not teared apart like this." Just my thoughts though :>

if Lin Manuel Miranda, a puerto rican, can make music with so much love and appreciation for Columbia, i think raya should at least have recognizable inspirations in their made up nations if theyre gonna claim she’s southeast asian.

You should check out amphibia. The main character is Thai and despite her being on a different world for most of the show, they still incorporate her culture into the story some.

I know this isn't worth commenting but I am still gonna. this also somehow grew into a vent.... nothing serious I feel bad for being American because I am separated from both sides of my heritage apart from being told by my parents with the occasional research. Ethnic wise I am half southeast Asian (Laos) and Mexican. I feel like I am wiped from part of my heritage because I know more about folklore and culture from Mexico than I do about the folklore and culture of Laos. it's difficult for me because when people ask about my ethnic background they automatically assume I know everything. I don't. it's kinda stupid how people just assume that. I often also get called "white washed" by people who think I do things "too american". basically, I am constantly having a crisis over my heritage and being American.

I'm not Maori or Tongan or really any native Polynesian cultures, but I live in New Zealand and grew up with Polynesian food and cultural performances. Watching Moana was quite relatable, really, and I loved finding the points I connected with. I'm not Southeast Asian so I didn't really notice any thing culturally wrong with Raya, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I did think that it was missing the songs and musical numbers I always enjoyed in Disney, so I fully agree with your remark about how it should have been an musical.

Sisus design made me wanna cry

I’m a white american and Raya and the last dragon was really underwelming. There was barely any time to get to know the characters because they kept introducing new ones. Seesu (I don’t know how to spell her name) was extremely annoying, and the setting seemed like it was just for aestetics and it could of taken place anywhere with barely any change to the story.

As fellow Filipino 🇵🇭 I was offended in so many way the dragon design made want to cry I wish they kept the concept because it was so much cooler why they gave them anime eyes 😭?? And clothing your so right on that one we love detail clothes back in old days the simple clothes are have lot pattern and embroidery even accessories!! I wish this movie was musical as well the plp here love music 😔

something similar happened to Aladdin, which was supposed to be in Iraq but Disney just merged the cultural aspects of Turkey, Iraq and India, failing to represent any of these

oh my goodness I love how you mentioned 'Wonderland Indonesia' ♡♡♡♡♡ and I got chills listening to your pencak silat concept AHHH that could've been such a captivating scene, I love your ideas!!

I'm a Malaysian animation student and we had this like.. programme that gives us an inside look into the idea and concept process of Raya before it was released.. I was so excited at first but when I saw the trailers they showed (I have not watched any trailors prior) I was so disappointed.. the first thing that came to mind was "Star Wars" , not "home" or "familiar".. I was really discoyraged but then they showed their pictures when they took trips around Bali, Melaka and Bangkok (if I'm not mistaken) I held hope.. they showed the first part of the movie where Raya was at home with her father and she was wearing clothing that loomed super similar to traditional thai wear and also had some headwear that looked somewhat like a cucuk sanggul and the songket (idk what else to call it cause that's what i'm familiar with) was there so I was like ok ok.. maybe this place is saved.. I thought Raya leaned towards Nusantara influence so I just assumed that her nation would be Nusantara inspired and the other nations would be more inspired by other countries in SEA.. but no, everyone just looked............ unrecognisable.. I was super disappointed :"/

I want a retelling of that one story where a woman and her son grow up poor and he runs away, coming back years later a successful man and he looks down on his mother. His mother then prays to the local god for retribution

That sounds like a dharr mann title

Even as someone who is SE Asian (🇰🇭) but was born and grew up in America, I still felt like Raya was way off the mark. I especially agree with your point that it should have been a musical. There’s literally no SE Asian music represented in America I feel like, so I would have loved to see that

If they could make two whole movies that took place in one Hispanic country each and make it well written and accurate, then they can do the same for Indonesian countries. I've seen endless praise for Coco and Encanto about how spot on every detail is meanwhile being amazing movies with a good message. Raya and the Last Dragon can't do either of those, even though Disney has the full ability to do so and has proven such. Plain disappointing.

Disney sort of has a thing to take cultures incrediy mixed up. There was Aladin, Moana (yup, I've seen Polynesians critique the movie and one thing they all had in common was that Moana wasn't clear of whose culture was it. The only thing that the movie has it going for was a decent plot and it being a musical), El Dorado, and there's probably a lot more. It's just disappointing that the company seems to prioritise the 'relatability' of the script to the audiences rather than showing a legitimate movie instead. I can understand why they have to - But isn't is _so much better_ to accurately depict a culture instead? Just look at Kung Fu Panda, it's incredibly silly and childish for a concept yet they actually nailed the culture on the head that the Chinese government questioned how come they didn't come up with the movie. There's Coco - straightforwardly accurate. And that was even directed by people that didn't grow up with the culture. Although you know what those good movies have in common? They weren't directed by Disney. Disney can have some strong movies but it seems like most of them were in the past, while companies like Dreamworks and Pixar still seems to survive from all that consumerism influence. I mean, just look at how the dragon looks. Why is there hair? It's a god damned water dragon. You don't see any fishes with hair so why did a water dragon of all things develop a huge lump of hair??

Don't forget also that representation is the second in goals for a movie. The first is marketing, not much the movie, but the merchandise afterwards. So many Sisu plushes and Raya dolls...

Honestly, just like all the criticism I have heard from this movie I agree that Raya would definitely work better as a series. One of Raya's strongpoints is the worldbuilding, from what I've heard and I think a better approach for the representation is showing all 10 different countries by separating them into regions, maybe? Because South East Asian countries are different from each other. It's the same problem that middle eastern and south asian countries and cultures faced, having their cultures mushed together and making people think they're all the same when they're really not. Representation for southeast Asians are few and far between, that's why I was so happy when the new Carmen Sandiego series dedicated one entire episode to Indonesia. Even if it's not much, I still quite liked it. And I remember being excited about Raya but then being confused on where it went because the promotion for it suddenly STOPPED- Tho, I do acknowledge that Disney did hire artists and consultants from the cultures they referenced, I still think they could've at least hired a southeast asian director, screenwriter, writer, etc.. I didn't even get into the message. The message isn't bad, but god. The execution of that message is just terrible. Raya isn't a bad movie, but I really do still think they could've done better. I do apologize on this long comment, it's just, as a Southeast Asian person from Indonesia I was kind of disappointed by Raya...

This might seem overproud and a bit annoying (also kinda offensive-), so please if you aren't here for that stuff just don't read. I just really wanna say that I'm happy that an Indonesian content creator can share our culture to other people. It might be that I just don't watch many KZfaq videos or use social media a lot, but it's so rare to find someone sharing our culture (and not just Bali). I recently felt and learned that Indonesia might be "the biggest invisible thing in the world." I know I'm not qualified enough to say this (considering I am still a minor and just got interested in geography and history) but Indonesia is overlooked way too much. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country, a country that has more than 13 000 to 17 000 islands, a country with one of the most endemic species in the world, yet we are somehow invisible to the world. News about Indonesia is barely there unless you are in Asia or specifically Southeast Asia. I think I can say for some people that people from certain regions, such as Eastern Europe, any other part of Asia that isn't East Asia, South America, and Africa as a whole, don't get much representation (at least from what I've seen). Even sometimes East Asia is stuck to common stereotypes on the internet. Going onto Southeast Asia, many countries there are not known in other countries, even if they know the countries there, it's probably not because of the culture, but relation through war/occupation and holiday destination. Sorry for this long rant- Have a good morning/afternoon/evening/night to you all who have read this God-awful long rant with horrible grammar.

As a Filipina the Indonesian traditional outfit looks so beautiful 😍!

I'm so glad you brought up Aladdin Aladdin is mix of perisa Egypt arabia and south asain all mixed and called here middle eastern representation this happens to South Eas west /east Asians alot

Whenever I think about this movie, I always go back to the fact that Steven Universe gave more authentic Filipino representation than Disney did. Like there are literally more Filipinos in Steven Universe's cast than there are *South East Asians* in Raya and the Last Dragon's. That thought makes me livid ngl

19:30 Very interesting fact and I agree with you. I always felt that longer hair and beautiful colors were more intimidating than the whole short hair and plain look. Birds, poisonous frogs and large cats like lions and tigers are pretty good examples. When you look at a lion’s mane or a peacock’s feathers you can appreciate its beauty but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous when you get on their bad side.

I’m thai myself and I was SO hyped when i heard we were getting a southeast asian disney princess but raya turned out to be such a huge letdown. It represented no one. They even got us southeast asians fighting over what ethnicity raya is bc she was like all these unique cultures put in a blender fused in one. and YES IT SHOULDVE BEEN A MUSICALLL omg we SEAsians have got all kinds of beautiful cultural music and i just wish they wouldve explored that. I envy encanto so much in the sense that they did so well in terms of representation while what we got over here is a movie about pony-like dragons with the message of ‘you have to trust everyone’ like 😭?? + please do correct me if im wrong but aren’t the dragon worshipping beliefs more east asian than southeast?? bc i feel like instead of dragons they shouldve gone with this lao mythical creature called naka instead (which is SUCH a missed opportunity bc naka is basically a snake-like aquatic dragon without wings and namari’s literally a water dragon)

17:09 I think it's valid to feel like that, i'm Vietnamese and i feel the exact same way too. I tried to look for scattered bits of representation of my culture, even reasoning with myself that "maybe i can't find much of anything because my culture is closer to East Asia?". Overall, RATLD was a disappointing experience. The plot, the music, the design and the characters are forgettable and disney failed at their biggest marketting point for this movie, South East Asian representation. Also, Namaari is walmart Vriska lol

I'm Brazilian, not in any way related to anywhere in south east Asia, and.. it felt bland and icky, like something was wrong, i didn't really learn anything, in fact, i learned way more with videos like this. You guys deserve so much better

This video made me watch Wonderland Indonesia and- just- WOW. You were so very right in referring to it as a love letter to Indonesia. I genuinely got emotional at some bits. And the music is just *chef's kiss* If you're Indonesian and haven't seen it, WATCH IT RIGHT NOW.

I think they could and should have done more research on the culture if they were making in a designed country,and from this,the laziness are in it,I do my research bc I am working on stories mostly and if a lazy bum like me can do that they can,that’s all,love ur art and Opinion ❤️

well that sure is a title time to see how this goes-

Disney does a pretty bad job of representing cultures in general. The messages that we're supposed to take away from the movies in general are often packed full of toxic positivity and things that would get you into more negative situations in life than positive ones. There is so much nuance in all of these countries that Disney chooses to overlook and replace with generic stories that you could find in the kid's section of a library. The clothing is often misrepresented and many important pieces of these cultures are often left out as well. When it comes to Disney, a lot of work is put into movies featuring mainly white characters, (For example, the 4 Cinderella movies) and then they turn around and do a half-assed job on movies featuring people from other cultures.

They SHOULD have had more Danish references in Frozen, since it's a Danish story. But no, they needed mountains, which Denmark famously doesn't have, so they set it in Norway instead.

Hello my Sundanese people! Really feel presented by this commentary. I really like your English. And I'm completely agree with all of the things you said there, well done!

Naamari : destroys Raya's trust more than once, gaslights her into it being her fault, is responsible for the litteral apocalypse, rubs it in, caused her trauma, kills Sisu, tries to flee first and helps when realizing she can't get away, is unfairly forgiven and her redemption arc is rushed Tumblr : "OH MY GOD THEY ARE WITTLE LESBIANS ;w; SO LESBIAN I LOVE THEM SHE IS QUEEN DID YOU SEE HOW LESBIAN SHE LOOKS? PUREST FORM OF LOVE"

this video really resonated with me it really did felt like they just took random stuff from southeast asian culture and mashed it really weirdly AND OH MY GOD i really thought i was the only one who thought the fang royals looked really out of place it also resonates with me because i rarely see fellow sundanese speaking english here

I think the most amount of joy I got out of Raya was seeing her do tari pendet in the end credits

Indo here, thanks for bringing this up. Amazing take! This just saddened me, really... it's like the creators just said "Is Southeast Asia the techy Asia, or the jungle Asia? Definitely not the curry Asia" it annoys me so much...

oh God I'm glad to hear this video. from one Indonesian to another (and as someone who's still living and studying, working, and has families here), this movie just, pisses me off the more I think about it. I feel like Disney didn't made this movie to make a movie, but rather a checkbox of "representation" that may or may not be good. that's how I feel when I see echanto as well, it feels like a checkbox being marked and that movie was lucky enough to be a great movie. Hell if anything, I feel like they feel ashamed of this movie because I can tell you I've never heard or even seen any promotional material for this right until the moment it was on theaters (is it on theaters? idk I just remembered it said coming soon) I didn't even know it was to represent MY culture, I didn't know what it was supposed to represent. Ig I shouldn't be mad and just be glad that at least some people on Disney acknowledge my existence but I just personally feels like as an Indonesian, no one from the western dominating culture of entertainment knew of my country's existence and not much of our local entertainment menage to break through and become popular world wide, and it's sucks because Indonesia has a lot of beautiful culture. it's not perfect, and the government here is kinda shitty, but the culture, the art of it is beautiful and diverse. shame that it seems the west doesn't seem to have that much interest on us other than maybe a 1 week vacation to Bali :' am I being harsh? yea probably, but that's just what the movies makes me feel, it's like that one meme where if a westerner puts Indonesia in the title, Indonesianers will flock on to their video but exploited to SEA as a whole, who doesn't get that much western representation either

Ngl the first time (and only lol) I watched Raya I didn’t even realize it was supposed to take place in Asia (i think I missed them saying where it took place but nothing screamed “Southeast Asian” to me) and I was actually genuinely shocked to find out that it was supposed to represent Southeast Asians

3:05 didn't have to be so on point I-

What I like most about this movie is the youtube videos by south east asians correcting things, pointing things out and generally talking about their culture to be honest. The film is okay (to a western european who does not know a lot about south east asia), but I do apprechiate it as a starting point for the wonderfully informative videos that have come from it. Thank you for your input aswell!

she didn't say that it's not callimari at the beginning >:0 the betrayal >:,[

Raya did get me interested in Indonesia culture through. I wouldn't mind learning about the actual culture. Also I'd like to know what the music sounds like.

Im german Indonesian and when I first heard about this movie I cautiously stayed my distance because I was already disappointed by other current Disney productions. It breaks my heart to see that my worries stand proven.

lmao when you said you had to play where's waldo just to point out a reference to your culture is too relatable-cause uh the only thing i was so sure of as a filipino reference was the partial Arnis Raya did when she was a kid, jfc. I was also kinda hoping i would see the leaders of each place do the Sandugo ritual (an ancient blood pact ritual filipinos do for sealing agreements etc.) at the start to add a lil more spice when they betray Raya's dad. Cause that would add to the whole distrust thing since that was a pretty big deal, and still is at some places here.

You should redesign and rewrite the Raya and The Last Dragon characters/story! Edit: I write stories, and I may be white and writing a story about other cultures, but I do research, I talk to people from those cultures, and I actually put in effort! I'm only an amateur, and I could do better. Since you're actually Southeast Asian, I bet you'll do amazing!!!

It felt like Raya could've given the characters more colorful costumes at least. I've seen traditional clothing look like they came from a fairytale, most SEA clothes also seem to be very colorful. Like in my country, pre colonial clothing and tribal wear would have more than one color.

12:42 literal goosebumps! (in a good way)

I straight up agree with you, No dances and music. Like where the heck????

Tbh, when I first saw the kingdom of Fang I honestly thought it was Atlantis, it looked so much like what I imagined Atlantis to look like and when we first saw it, I wondered if I was watching the same movie. I also thought the dragons were hideous. Not only were the dragons mammals but they also have the appearance of elephant Shrews with elongated bodies and horse head, that's what it looked to me, plus the dragons are not only very dumb, but the message they send to people clearly means that they aren't capable of actual rational thought process.

"you must be using this video as aground noise while you draw" Me: *drawing rn* HOW'D YOU KNOW?!?!?!?!?

im so glad you pointed out the fashion and the plain-ness of the movie!! I'm not Indonesian, but i do happen to be Puerto Rican. In out culture theres so many colors and patters and it's full of life!! and that's the case for almost any culture outside of the US. in the cultures of my friends and my family we always see such beauty in the clothes and buildings and even in the enviornment!!! but that mmovie was so PLAIN!!!! it was drab and felt devoid of life and family and just CULTURE!!!!!!!!

Huh. This video actually got me kinda interested in Indonesian culture, thanks!

Tbh as a Malaysian I would’ve rather have an Indonesian/Vietnamese/Thai princess than what we got with Raya

idea, what if they just, like, switched Raya and Namaaris hair? Cause Raya is on the run most of the movie, she probably doesn't have time to take much care of it, so it would make more sense for her hair to be shaved? Idk man, just a thought.

Great video as always, your art is so beautiful and calming to look at 💗✨ 18:56 I’m Middle-European and I’ve never seen a folk costume that plain, if anything it looks a little bit like Star Wars 27:40 Me neither, and until you mentioned that it should have been a musical I couldn’t quite put a finger on the reason, but here it is!

So I'm not South East Asian. I have had some exposure to South East Asian cultures as I have several family members from the Philippines and friends from Thai and Indonesian cultural backgrounds, I do want to note I am not South East Asian myself and I don't have as rich of an experience as I do with East Asian cultures like China and Japan (as I currently live in Japan). I will say thank you for speaking up because I like hearing from the South East Asian perspective! I will say from my perspective, it felt like going into an Asian restaurant in a non-Asian country (like America). Don't get me wrong, I love going to Asian restaurants. I am always happy to support businesses made by minority ethnicities because regardless of how authentic it is, normally the food tastes good and is the result of hard work that should be respected. However, while it's always enjoyable to taste food from another culture and experience the snippet of Asian aesthetics through the artwork and decor in the restaurant, because it's put into the middle of an American setting, the experience is just temporary and when I step outside of the restaurant, I've left that setting. Raya felt like that. Because the culture and the story aren't rich, while I may enjoy it in the moment, as soon as I step away of the movie, like stepping out of the restaurant, that experience is just over. I guess at the end of the day I liked Raya and all on a surface level. I have a few complaints about it's structure like I think it moved too fast and never had strong development of any one character because it had too many characters and not enough time. I also think if they wanted a whole ensemble of protagonists then they shouldn't have made Raya the main character and instead make the group of characters the main character. Also I agree I think the dragons should have stayed dead because it would have made it feel so much more like rich and dynamic of a story and made Sisu's sacrifice so much more meaningful and impactful. Also Sisu was kind of a let down because she tonally didn't fit and aesthetically she could have just been cooler if they had made her look more like other naga dragons. But regardless of all that, it was a fine movie, but it just made me want to go back to watching Muay Thai films like Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya or Ong Bak films. Which I think the new Mulan remake gave me that same energy. Well, minus the thinking it's fine, I didn't like that movie structurally or thematically at all which would be a whole novel to fully unpack so I won't go into it now, but Mulan 2020 just had the aesthetic of movies that I like better (such as movies like Jade Dynasty or Zhongkui) and that made me just want to watch those movies instead. I hope that comment made sense and sorry for it being long, but I guess I just had a lot of thoughts on the topic.

I stumbled upon this video yesterday and have just watched Wonderland Indonesia 2 by Alffy Rev and tho i did not watch Raya i cant help but wish that Raya is made like Wonderland Indonesia 2

Not even halfway through the video and I'm truly sorry for what happened. I've heard lots of criticism about the movie even before watching it, and when I watched I could see why. A virtual hug to you and a middle finger to the underlying yet blunt racism.

"Hey, let's make an ice tribe in a movie that was supposed to represent the Southeast Asian community, and let's give them Russian accent while we're at it" - Disney's Executive probably

I'm SEA and I haven't watched the movie... coz as soon as I saw the trailer I already got disappointed lol, like 'nu-uh, I'm NOT buying ticket for this'. I do sometimes feel like my decision is super petty, but after hearing the reviews I feel like I did the right thing hahaha Why? It's because of the clothing, just like what you said, is plain. It's ooooooverwhelmingly plain. Plus the whole color coded clothing for the villages just icks me the most, and as soon I saw the Namaari I was super pissed. This is probably me overexpecting disney, but what I envision is vibrant outfits with decorative patterns, flowers, and heavy gold accessories, coz Raya is a princess, right?