Raya’s story is similarly both strained and ambitious, and it shows throughout the hour and a half runtime (with an incredibly expository opening to catch us up on the lore and other important information, for starters, as well as some come-and-go starts-and-stops of pacing). I feel like Raya is a step in the right direction ( if Disney is attempting to appeal to the same audience they tried once before, as well as the viewers that yearn for some of the studio’s most neglected latter works of their hand-drawn era).
A year later, I feel like Raya is definitely following suit in the path of these flicks, even though this film was much more loved upon release (not as much as some other releases like Encanto, I suppose, but more than the lukewarm reception of the previously named aughts features).
When it first dropped last March, Raya and the Last Dragon felt like Disney was venturing into some new territories, almost akin to what they were doing with late renaissance works like Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet: films that felt like they bit off more than they could chew when they were first released (and yet you will find cult audiences that love these latter two works for their distinctive feels and world-building).
