In one very emotional scene, characters willingly sacrifice themselves to the Druun young viewers may believe they're dead. In another scene ( spoiler alert), a main character is struck by an arrow and presumed dead. There are intense close-up fights with swords/blades, and a skeleton is visible in one sequence.

Scary sequences involve characters fleeing for their lives from various dangerous situations, including both human enemies and the Druun. Grief is a major theme of the movie, and several characters talk about the loved ones taken by the Druun, including children who've lost parents and entire families.

Awkwafina co-stars as the voice of Sisu, the last surviving dragon, whom Raya recruits to help in her quest. Set in the fictional land of Kumandra, which is based on real Southeast Asian cultures (including Thai, Malay, and Vietnamese), the movie follows Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), who for years has tried to find a way to reverse a scary, curse-like plague known as the Druun, which takes the form of relentless purple-and-black blob monsters and turns anyone it touches into stone. All this combined makes Raya a good, but not great, family adventure.Parents need to know that Raya and the Last Dragon is an animated Disney adventure about a warrior princess on a mission. I loved how by the end of the film Raya has a whole troupe of misfits. Obviously Awkwafina is a ton of fun, but ever other random side character who joins the adventure has personality as well. It is it's own unique world with it's own unique set of characters and environments, and it was a fun place to explore. Some people have drawn comparisons between this world and the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and while there are some similarities, to dismiss it outright because of that is pretty minimialistic. What did work for me though is GORGEOUS visuals and a stunning world. That on top of its aggressively heavy-handed messaging that just didn't work for me personally keep it from being an all time classic. Not saying that as a bad thing, the formula works, but sometimes Raya can feel a bit like it's going through the motions of an adventure rather than feeling like a true adventure. Ancient lands, swashbuckling hero, magical sidekick who speaks in pop culture references, all that stuff is here. Think of Raya kind of like a modern take on Aladdin.

The raya and the last dragon movie