A younger woman rides atop her trusted animal companion via the apocalyptic desert of her shattered world. What’s she on the lookout for? What occurred to this world? Will she be the one to put it aside?
Once I first noticed the early trailer for Avatar: Seven Havens, through which Pavi rides her cat-monkey Geet via the Harshlands, I used to be instantly reminded of Raya and the Final Dragon. (That’s due partially to the truth that my eldest daughter has watched the Disney film dozens of occasions during the last 12 months or so.) The opening pictures are strikingly related, proper right down to how they’re framed: Each heroes cross the desert from left to proper in a large shot. Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) rides Tuk Tuk (Alan Tudyk), a cheerful, bear-sized creature with a tough shell that may curl right into a rideable ball. The visible and cinematic similarities are solely the start.
If Seven Havens has you looking forward to extra animated epics about younger heroes touring via a damaged world, Raya and the Final Dragon is a superb film to look at, and it’s straightforward to steam on Disney Plus.
Raya and the Final Dragon sends its hero throughout a fractured world
Way back, the individuals of Kumandra lived in concord with dragons. Then the Druun arrived: senseless storm spirits that flip each dwelling factor of their path to stone. The dragons sacrificed themselves to cease the invasion, abandoning a magical gem that saved humanity. The survivors’ struggle over the gem cut up Kumandra into 5 lands: Coronary heart, Fang, Backbone, Talon, and Tail.
5 hundred years later, the gem is beneath the safety of the Coronary heart tribe. Raya is the younger daughter of Coronary heart’s chief, Benja (Daniel Dae Kim). She’s educated her life to guard the gem and is actually a warrior princess. Banja calls a gathering among the many management of the varied tribes within the hopes that they’ll restore peace to Kumandra. Raya is betrayed by Namaari (Gemma Chan), the warrior princess of Fang. A struggle breaks out over the gem among the many 5 tribes, and it shatters into 5 items, ushering within the return of the Druun — therefore the apocalypse we noticed within the opening scene, which happens six years later.
Raya is on a quest to search out Sisu (Awkwafina), the final dragon, and get better the items of the gem within the hopes that she will drive away the Druun as soon as once more. Their journey takes Raya and Sisu throughout Kumandra, the place they meet individuals who have realized to outlive by looking for themselves. Alongside the way in which, she realizes she additionally wants assist from individuals she has each purpose to mistrust.
That’s the place Raya’s story turns into greater than a tour via a fantasy map. Raya has a tough time believing within the dream for Kumandra that her father as soon as had. Sisu, in the meantime, retains insisting that folks may be trusted. Their journey places these beliefs to the check: Kumandra can’t be made complete by one hero accumulating jagged items of a magic stone. The individuals who have spent generations treating each other as enemies have to decide on to work collectively.
That theme resonates strongly in Avatar: Seven Havens. Its world, too, has been fractured by disaster, leaving individuals to outlive in remoted pockets and suffering from storms. Raya and the Final Dragon imagines what it takes to fix a world damaged on this manner. It’s not about defeating an exterior pressure, however about overcoming the worry and distrust that preserve individuals divided. In Kumandra, the Druun can solely be banished when Raya, Namaari, and members of different tribes select to belief one another and convey the gem again collectively.
Seven Havens continues to be on its strategy to discovering this reply, however even the most recent batch of episodes launched Oct. 23 make it clear that breaking down the boundaries between fractured pockets of society is the important thing to therapeutic the world. Even should you’re unfamiliar with Avatar or have no real interest in the parallels, Raya and the Final Dragon nonetheless delivers a strong, self-contained fantasy journey that’s enjoyable for all ages. The one purpose it stays so ignored is that it was initially presupposed to be launched in late 2020, however the pandemic led to a delayed hybrid launch in theaters and on Disney Plus.
At 107 minutes, Raya and the Final Dragon is a brisk journey with colourful landscapes, entertaining motion, and a likable forged. Awkwafina provides Sisu a goofy heat that by no means undercuts her earnestness, and Raya’s chain sword is simply plain cool. However the journey’s actual payoff is watching Raya study that she will’t put Kumandra again collectively by herself. That specific lesson can also be essential in Seven Havens, and the way in which it contrasts with the opening scene of each tales retroactively makes them that rather more poignant. They each start their journey alone within the desert, however Raya ends her journey with associates and family members by her facet. We assume that’s the place Seven Havens is headed, too. In spite of everything, isn’t that the majority vital factor anyone can do within the midst of an apocalypse?