Screenshot: Disney
It’s not every Disney movie that leaves you thinking about food.
Raya and the Last Dragon is a lush, gorgeous work of animation with epic fight scenes, a doubting heroine, and a giddy water dragon—and it’s a movie that remembers that people need to eat, and that eating together is meaningful. Watching the enterprising young chef Boun (Izaac Wang) dole out his dishes to a gaggle of newfound friends, I missed more than ever the experience of food as community, as a reason and a way to come together.
Early in the film, Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) uses food as an example of how different elements create a magical whole. He adds something from each of his world’s five lands—shrimp paste, lemongrass, bamboo shoots, chilis, and palm sugar—to a bowl of soup. Every piece is necessary for the dish to be complete. It reflects his dream for their broken world: That the five clashing nations of Heart, Talon, Fang, Spine, and Tail can reunite as Kumandra, the single harmonious world they once were.