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Representing the first Southeast Asian princess in Disney history is an honour Kelly Marie Tran takes very seriously.
The Vietnamese American actress, who voices the lead character in Raya and the Last Dragon, never saw an animated heroine on screen that looked like her growing up. She hopes this historic character serves as an inspiration for other young girls.
“I am so overwhelmed about what this means to me but also what it means to a lot of people. After the first trailer came out, just seeing how emotional people were to finally see themselves represented in this world … This is a big deal,” Tran tells Cineplex in a recent interview.
Raya and the Last Dragon, which is available to watch on the Cineplex Store beginning April 2nd, is the story of a lone warrior tasked with tracking down the last dragon Sisu (played by Awkwafina) after an evil force threatens her land of Kumandra.
Not only is Raya the first Southeast Asian princess, but the film is also the first Disney animated feature to have a Southeast Asia-inspired setting.
((L-R): Raya and Sisu. © 2021 Disney. All Rights Reserved.)To create Raya and the Last Dragon two teams of filmmakers did extensive research throughout the 11 countries of Southeast Asia, consulting with anthropologists, architects, linguists, artists, and locals to bring the region to life.
They wanted to make sure everything from the clothing to the food to the martial arts were representative of the culture.
“I think that people are going to be pretty overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the fighting but also the authenticity of the fighting rooted from this part of the world,” says Tran.
A Disney princess who’s also a skilled martial artist? It’s something that makes Tran love her character even more.
“She’s a bad ass,” Tran says with a laugh.
(Kelly Marie Tran pictured wearing a dress by Thai Nguyen. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2021 Disney. All Rights Reserved.)After the extensive research that was conducted to make Raya and the Last Dragon as authentic as possible, all the filmmakers needed was their Raya. Co-writer Qui Nguyen says once they heard Kelly Marie Tran, who rose to fame as Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, they knew their search was over.
“There was a version of her that existed on the page but then not until she came to the booth and started working with all of us that Raya really came to life,” says Nguyen.
Carlos López Estrada, one of the directors on the film, adds Tran was able to bring the perfect blend of emotion and humour to the role.
“I think it was (the soul that embodied the whole movie) but it was also the comedy (and) the humanity that Kelly has more than anyone on the planet and because she has also improvisational skills, she was really able to add so much to any of these scenes,” he says.
Creating Raya and the Last Dragon – from home
Along with being the first Disney animated film to be inspired by Southeast Asia, Raya and the Last Dragon is also historic for being made almost entirely from home.
When the COVID-19 pandemic put much of the world under lockdown in March 2020, more than 450 animators, crew members and actors like Tran were forced to do their job remotely.
Tran built a makeshift recording studio – a fort with boxes and insulation blankets – from her home in Los Angeles. She admits it took some getting used to.
“It was definitely different doing it in an isolated space but at the same time there was sort of this comfort of being in your own space,” she says.
Working from home was also challenging for the crew. Don Hall, who shares directing duties with López Estrada, has worked at Disney for more than 20 years. He says much of the culture is embedded in the togetherness of being in the same building and it was a big foundational shift to emulate that apart.
While the technological hurdles were dealt with relatively quickly, the mental hurdles of adapting to a new way of working took a little longer.
“That took a little getting used to, but I have to say everybody rallied, everybody just launched themselves into the making of this film with just so much creative vigour, everybody was really, really into it and I think for us, they inspired us to keep going,” says Hall.
Raya and the Last Dragon’s timely message of trust
Raya’s epic adventure to restore peace to her land also has a timely message of trust and unity.
The divided land of Kumandra is not so different from the current state of the world, says López Estrada.
“We’re so divided and so fractured and we just really feel like the movie is going to contribute to that conversation in a way that’s very optimistic, he says.
“Hopefully (it’s) going to inspire audiences young and old to have these conversations of what it could possibly take to see eye to eye, to co-exist with someone, who has entirely different world views than our own.”
(Raya, a lone warrior whose wit is as sharp as her blade, must track down the legendary last dragon to restore her fractured land and its divided people. © 2020 Disney. All Rights Reserved.)The lone warrior Raya also must learn to trust again after a traumatic incident as a child shattered her own.
“Raya comes from a place where she very much views the world and other people as dangerous and scary,” says Tran.
As she sets out on her mission, she learns to see people for what they are and not what she thought they would be – a message Tran hopes resonates with audiences.
“What if we really looked at every human being as a new person and take away all the labels, we just put on them subconsciously, what would happen then? I really hope that people question their own biases coming out of this movie,” she says.