Raya and the Last Dragon

The latest disappointment from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Raya and the Last Dragon follows Kelly Marie Tran’s Raya as she embarks on a quest to reunite the various pieces from a destroyed gem that will effectively save the world – with the character receiving assistance from a band of oddball figures, including a sassy dragon named Sisu (Awkwafina). It’s a decent-enough setup that’s employed to periodically compelling yet mostly underwhelming (and uninvolving) effect by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, as the filmmakers, working from Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim’s screenplay, deliver an erratically-paced endeavor that’s been suffused with far too many meandering stretches and a whole host of unappealing attributes – with, in terms of the latter, Awkwafina’s persistently grating vocal performance only compounding the picture’s arms-length, less-than-enthralling atmosphere. There’s little doubt, as well, that the narrative’s hit-and-miss episodic structure ultimately does little to alleviate Raya and the Last Dragon‘s mostly tiresome vibe, while the heavy emphasis on juvenile, ill-advised instances of comedy ensures that the picture is, for the bulk of its overlong running time, geared predominantly towards younger viewers – which, despite an admittedly affecting finale, ultimately cements the film’s place as a distressingly ineffective misfire that’s rarely as engaging (or entertaining) as one might’ve anticipated.

** out of ****