Disney has also partnered closely with their Southeast Asia Story Trust, a coalition of specialists in various fields, including visual anthropology, linguistics, botany, choreography, architecture, martial artists and others. Producer Osnat Shurer, who previously worked with a team of Oceanic experts for Moana, described the creation of the Southeast Asia Story Trust as a truly organic process. We met a lot of people while preparing for the research trips, and we met people during the research trips. ”
The night markets of Talon, for example, were influenced by floating markets in Southeast Asia, and the environmental team needed the visual density of stalls, boats, lanterns and delicious foods to make the world truly feel. even contains textures such as steam rising from stalls and depicting humidity in the tropical climate. The leader of the modeling environment, John Aquino, was also able to recall memories of growing up in the Philippines.
The core of any world is, of course, the main characters. The film focuses on Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), an 18-year-old woman who embarks on a hero’s journey to find the remaining dragons of Kumandra to restore security and harmony in the land. She is physically strong and brave, but emotionally shut down due to the trauma of losing those closest to her at a young age. Writing the film’s main character, Raya, was a deeply personal experience for screenwriter Adele Lim, who grew up in Malaysia.
“As a Southeast Asian woman, Raya’s character has a special meaning to me,” Lim said. ‘There’s a history of strong female leaders and warriors in the region, and I personally grew up in a family of wonderful women who inspire me and also scare me a little every day. It is therefore important that Raya’s actions and attitudes embody the same spirit. And you can see it in her leadership and her fearlessness, love for family, the sense of responsibility she accepts for other people. ”
For Qui Nguyen, co-author and martial arts consultant, Raya’s individuality and characterization were of particular importance, given the stereotyping and drawing version of Asian American characters in the past. “When characters like me appear in action movies, they are always portrayed in one particular way: stoicism, serious, strange to give an honor to our family,” Nguyen said. ‘Raya is an action star who actually sounds like us too. She’s nice. She’s funny. She’s smart. ‘
The team went through dozens of possible names for their title hero in consultation with linguists from the film Southeast Asia Story Trust. When Lim first heard the name ‘Raya’, she responded immediately, emotionally. “In Malay, it means ‘celebration’ and evokes this joyful time where people gather for lots of food,” she said.
Raya’s costumes also went through numerous repetitions – including a sampot, a traditional Cambodian garment made of a rectangular fabric tied at the waist – to match the final design to her character journey and were based on traditional Southeast Asian garments. . Instead of putting her in the limited clothing style that female stars have worn in the past, Raya’s dress code, and even her hairstyle, was designed with her fighting spirit in mind. “Because she’s a fighter, she has to be really agile,” said Amy Smeed, head of animation. During the film, Raya is seen fighting with swords, downsizing dungeons and dodging obstacles.
Raya’s hairstyle is streamlined and kept functional, with two braids that keep her line of sight clean. It also helps the audience to see her facial expressions more clearly. The animators also work with dr. Steve Arounsack, associate professor of anthropology at California State University, Stanislaus – a visual anthropologist who was part of the Southeast Asia Story Trust, and very involved in many of the film’s design elements – to create Raya’s hat, the slope of which ‘ n stupa corpse.
As a consultant and co-screenwriter for martial arts, Qui Nguyen worked to ensure that the action scenes in the film have a coherent martial style, realistically based in true Southeast Asian martial arts. Raya’s fighting style is mainly based on the Indonesian martial arts style pencak silat, as well as the popular Thai fighting style of Muay Thai. “Even though it’s a fantasy, the one thing we did not want to do was make our fights fantastic,” Nguyen said. ‘Nobody runs on top of the trees or shoots fireballs. Every punch, kick and block is grounded in the right physics. ”
Both screenwriters, Lim and Nguyen, are delighted to have added an action star in Southeast Asia to the Disney canon. “As a writer and parent, my goal is to create for my children the superheroes I could never see,” Nguyen said. ‘To finally be here and share with the world our completely original hero who looks like my family, it’s an absolute dream come true. It’s a very powerful thing to know that my two Asian American sons will now always have Raya and her ragtag crew who will represent them in the larger Disney universe. ”
Raya and the Last Dragon opens in theaters and at Disney + with first access on March 5th.