![]() Listen to our 2013 interview with Howard here. The score is by veteran composer James Newton Howard, no stranger to animated films with hits such as Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), Treasure Planet (2002), Dinosaur (2000) or Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) on his extensive resume. While the pace is a little scatterbrained and rushed to reach the focussed and emotional heights of, say, Moana (who can compete with the genius of Musker & Clements, anyway?), it nonetheless presents a series of engrossing landscapes and characters – including the My Little Pony-like dragons. While the film’s efforts to be as diverse as possible, and to draw on relatively transparent, naïve rhetorics can come off as a bit insistant, it it is very much a product of its time – perhaps a necessary optimism pill in a time where politics and a raging pandemic divide people. It is not accidental, I think, that the world is named Kumandra – a short step away from the African spiritual Kumbayah. ![]() The film is a cute affair with a wide, humanist message about unification. In a premise that resembles The Dark Crystal (1982), it’s a fantasy epic about a a young woman who must find and assemble a magical dragon gem to unite her world, and protect it from the threat of the Druun monsters that turn everyone into stone. Originally intended for theatrical release, it will now premiere exclusively on Disney+ (for premium users) on March 5. Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) is the latest tentpole animation from Disney, directed by Carlos López Estrada and Don Hall.
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