While the overall depiction of Kumandra in Raya and the Last Dragon is a win for Disney, it highlights a longstanding problem with the studio's worldbuilding. Kumandra, a fantasy world made up of five regions inspired by countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand, is a rich tapestry inspired by Southeast Asian culture, animated in stunning detail. But the movie's focus on showcasing Raya's home comes at the expense of the heroine herself. After explanations of Kumandra's history and politics, much less time is left over for the development of the studio's first Southeast Asian princess.

Disney has a spotty track record when it comes to portraying non-Western cultures. Movies like Aladdin and Mulan from the 1990s take an almost imperialist standpoint, framing non-American countries as primitive, uncivilized, and foreign. Even current remakes of the movies missed opportunities for cultural collaboration. In the early days, Disney's attempts at embracing diversity didn't have the benefit of a truly diverse writer's room, so they frequently missed the mark. In the animated Aladdin, the fictional world of Agrabah is described in the film's opening minutes as "barbaric". Often, representations of the East and Middle East were stereotypical, cherry-picking elements of the culture most fascinating to Westerners and reducing them to their most simplistic forms.

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Kumandra, created with the guidance of Southeast Asian historians and anthropologists, bucks that trend in some ways. Like Moana, it depicts a more realistic version of a culture American audiences may be unfamiliar with. Unlike Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon doesn't make that culture an integral part of the heroine's journey. By putting so much focus on worldbuilding, Disney neglects to explore Raya's Southeast Asian heritage more deeply. The well-researched clothing, cuisine, and climate of Kumandra end up feeling a little too much like cultural appropriation.

Raya and the Last Dragon

Disney’s best fantasy worlds appeared in movies like Moana and Black Panther, where the setting was inextricably linked to the character’s journey. In Moana, the Polynesian princess is an islander through and through, heavily influenced by her duty to her people. As Moana rediscovers her people’s history as wayfinders and her own connection with the ocean, the audience gains an understanding of how her experiences as a Polynesian woman affect her identity.

Similarly, Black Panther shows how growing up in Wakanda shaped T’Challa’s understanding of the world, society, and politics. Wakanda is a haven of African language, religion, food, and art, but it’s also T’Challa’s home. It influenced his values, family dynamics, and interactions with non-Wakandan people. T’Challa’s story shows audiences what it’s like to be an outsider in the Western world and explores the loyalty the king feels to his fellow Wakandans.

To truly reflect Southeast Asian culture, Disney would be better to balance worldbuilding with character development. Raya and the Last Dragon should not only display features of Kumandra as a civilization, but also show how those differences mold the main character, Raya. The princess’s identity as a Southeast Asian warrior is an important part of who she is. The film starts to explore those ideas with Raya’s quest to find the dragon Sisu and her beliefs about how dragons influence nature, but doesn’t go far enough. As a result, Raya’s character can seem flat and underdeveloped. As Disney’s first Southeast Asian princess, Raya will be a model for girls all over the world. However, it’s hard to pinpoint anything about her that’s intrinsically tied to her heritage.

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