The creators state that Raya and the Last Dragon alternate ending was too deep

Disney’s latest animated film, Raya and the last dragonDiscovers a single hero, a mindless flock who eats everything in his path to save Komandra’s fictional world from Durun. At the beginning of the film, Raya is a lone warrior in a mission to resurrect the last dragon.

But behind going, behind the filmmakers Raya Chuna is intended to dispel a narrative.

“She thinks she is going to awaken a dragon, and the dragon will solve all the problems in the world. And the dragon does not. Screenwriter Adele Lim explains that the dragon does something much deeper.

Sisu, the mysterious final dragon of the film’s title, instead inspires Rai to bond with those he once considered an enemy. The idea of ​​connection and trust gave the film its creative direction, and the filmmakers revealed several big options – including the ending that ultimately fit where the story was wound, Lim and producer Osnat Schurer reported Told the door.

[Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for Raya and the Last Dragon]

Picture: Disney

Drona, who surrounded Komandra and stoned civilians, has no agenda of any kind. They are a faceless, thoughtless entity who want to turn humanity into ashes and cannot be murdered by conventional weapons but they did not start as such. Schurer says that the Faceless Villains were more emotional and struggling in the early stages of the film.

“The more we thought about it, the more we dug deeper into the kind of story we wanted to tell, we knew that it’s important that it’s about humans,” Schurer says. “It’s about the characters. It is about Raya vs Namari. It is about two sides of the same coin.

The decision to complicate Namari as a character and develop his unique relationship with Raya – impresses Drun himself. At one point, Neymari controlled Drun and was more of a traditional Disney villain. But Lim says that while she worked deeply into the character and chose to relate to Raya, she evolved into a more granular and ultimately sympathetic character. The more fanatical rogue villain did not suit his story.

Raya and Namari have a unique relationship for a Disney film. Although Disney Villains such as Criella De Vil and Melficant remained popular, recent studio films have done away with traditional baddies, such as overpopulating anti-threats in natural forces. Frozen 2 And Moana Or twist in whodunnit Big hero 6 And Zootopia. In the past, when Disney villains had an existing relationship with the protagonist, it was usually accompanied by unbalanced power dynamics, such as Mother Gothel and Rapunzel Tangled Or in scars and simba King lion. But Namari and Raya start on par with children. As they get older, they are less direct enemies and more dramatic foams.

Picture: Disney

“They used to know each other as children and now see each other as enemies. They are also secretly drawn by each other, ”says Lim. “It was a very new, exciting relationship for the entire creative team.”

Re-engaging Drona as an overwhelming force without an agenda, making him a more formidably powerful enemy for Raya and Namari. Non-adequately, it became a very timely force to deal with in 2021.

“We even talked about them like a plague,” Schuyler says, clarifying that the perspective was discussed “years and years ago”.

But when the film’s threat shifted as to the dynamics of the character, there was a major plot that the filmmakers knew would happen from the beginning: Rai needed to lose Sisu. Indeed, in the film’s climax, Neymari accidentally shoots Sisu. The last dragon is gone and the human characters need to find out if they can even defend against the druins without the dragon magic that protected them for this long.

“Acharya explains that it breaks Raya’s original expectation that Sisu will come and a wave will go astray and everything will be alright.” “The solution lies among us. We need to learn to trust each other and be united. We knew that the dragon would have to be taken out of the picture. “

Sisu was always about to die, but there was nothing back and forth as to whether he and the rest of the dragons would actually return. Director Don Hall states that there was a version where Sisu was in fact the very last dragon, with no possibility of others returning. The filmmakers had long wondered whether the dragons coming back would undermine the film’s final message. But Shyoror insisted from the beginning to have a happy ending, wishing for a big Disney moment that made your “song of the heart”. Eventually, after much back and forth, they decided to embrace a happy ending – something that really speaks more to the film’s cultural ethos.

“We were digging psychologically. If we are the solution, then why are we bringing back magical mystical creatures?” Shurer explains. “The place we arrived is a place that is connected to a more Southeast Asian and South Asian perspective, which is when we find a solution for ourselves that we earned the right to reveal to the mystic.”

Raya and the last dragon Disney Plus is available on Premier Access.