Kelly Marie Tran is Disney's latest superhero princess in Raya And The Last Dragon. We talked to her about being Vietnamese American and where in Kumandra she'd like to put down some roots.
Image: Disney
Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon is a film that’s so different from most other movies of its kind, it didn’t even have to be fully formed for writers and actors to jump at the chance to be part of it.
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“It was one of those things where I heard ‘Strong female protagonist,’ ‘Asian inspired dragon’ and I was like, ‘I’m your chick for this. Like a thousand percent,’” co-writer Adele Lim, best known for adapting
Crazy Rich Asians, told io9. Lim was brought onto the Disney animated film a few years into development when only broad strokes were in place for what would become
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Though it was in production years before the pandemic changed everyone’s way of life,
Raya And The Last Dragon truly feels like the first Disney blockbuster of the COVID era. Accidentally or not, this lavish animated production resonates with the collective grief of the world it’s being released into, inviting everyone to sit with that pain, even as it hints at brighter days to come. Helmed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, together with co-directors Paul Briggs and John Ripa, the film is still very much a Disney princess story (with nods to a Disney acquisition). But with its muted palette and infusion of Southeast Asian cultures,