Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

[esteban²]

Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins Set For Disney Directing Debuts With Asian-Themed Film With Female Protagonist.

Disney veterans Paul Briggs (above right) and Dean Wellins are set to make their feature film directorial debuts at Walt Disney Animation Studios with a fantasy-adventure animated film currently in development.

The film, which according to Deadline, has “an Asian element running through it and a female protagonist,” is being written by Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim.

Osnat Shurer, producer of Moana, is overseeing the project.

No plot details were revealed in the Deadline piece, but it’s reported the film has “thematic similarities” to Moana though it’s not a musical.

Wellins, whose first feature animation credit was the 1994 film The Pagemaster, has animated on movies like Treasure Planet, Osmosis Jones, The Iron Giant, and The Princess and the Frog, and worked as a story artist on Zootopia, Big Hero 6, and Tangled. More obscure credits include serving as head of story on Chris Sanders’ American Dog, which later became the Disney film Bolt, and directing the rarely seen Disney short Tick Tock Tale. Wellins was also a co-director on Disney’s Rapunzel before it got turned into Tangled.

Briggs started as an inbetween artist and effects animator at Disney during the nineties, working on Hercules, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear. He worked as a story artist on Bolt, Tangled, and Winnie the Pooh, before serving as head of story on Frozen and Big Hero 6. He also worked as a story artist on Zootopia.

The year of release is not known yet.

[Monterey Jack]

Name the last Disney flick WITHOUT a "female protagonist"

[esteban²]

Wreck-It Ralph?

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Name the last Disney flick WITHOUT a "female protagonist"

"Muh Disney films have too many Wahmen"

[Monterey Jack]

I have no problem with female protagonists, but it's getting kind of absurd by this point. Where are the Disney adventure films for little boys?

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

I have no problem with female protagonists, but it's getting kind of absurd by this point. Where are the Disney adventure films for little boys?

Take your pick.
https://disneymovieslist.com/list-of...disney-movies/

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

I have no problem with female protagonists, but it's getting kind of absurd by this point. Where are the Disney adventure films for little boys?

Right. Because boys can never enjoy a single Disney film that has a female character. I mean how could they? Girls have vagina's, and boys have penises. That's just wild to believe they could enjoy something featuring a character that doesn't have the same parts as them.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by mwynn

Take your pick.
https://disneymovieslist.com/list-of...disney-movies/

He actually has a point though. Going througb the recent catalogue and high profile releases especially of animated movies, bar Coco, most animated movies have been female led with a "Princess". Just exclude team ensembles like Incredibles etc. and focus on the main characters, most are female.

Not saying this is a negative, but it certainly shows imbalance.

I enjoyed pretty much all the Disney animated movjes though despite a female led lead.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

He actually has a point though. Going througb the recent catalogue and high profile releases especially of animated movies, bar Coco, most animated movies have been female led with a "Princess". Just exclude team ensembles like Incredibles etc. and focus on the main characters, most are female.

Not saying this is a negative, but it certainly shows imbalance.

I enjoyed pretty much all the Disney animated movjes though despite a female led lead.

It is not imbalance if most of the catalog until recently featured all male lead characters.

[esteban²]

Originally Posted by esteban²

Wreck-It Ralph?

I forgot about Big Hero 6.

So far, there will be 9 WDAS movies this decade. If I'm being narrow minded, 4 of them can be considered as being "princess movies", 3 can be seen as "boys movies" and 2 are fifty-fifty. There's no reason to complain.

But I think all of them are for everyone, to be honest. As a kid, I wasn't thinking in terms of girls and boys when I saw "The Little Mermaid" or "Aladdin".

[shinobipopcorn]

Disney needs to make something like Momotaro: it's a Japanese tale (fits the Asian quota), has a male lead, plenty of animal sidekicks, and can be funny in the right hands.

[Creed]

Cassandra Stelle - Raya
Awkwafina - Sisu, the Last Dragon

Saw a clip of the movie and the animation is GORGEOUS! No action scenes shown though, definitely want to see what the action looks like. #D23Expo
@DisneyD23

[DanTheMan]

Yes! More original animation. More cast diversity and cultures explored.

Awkwafina is red hot right now.

[Poya]

Not trying to make this into a competition but while Constance Wu is being egotistical and throwing others under the bus because she wants to be a movie star, her CRA co-star Awkwafina got by with simply her talents and humbleness. She deserves all the love and respect. I can’t wait for this. That image gave me hope it would be hand drawn.

[esteban²]

Now we know this project is called ...

And, indeed, it's writte by Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim.

At Saturday’s Walt Disney Studios panel at the D23 Expo, reps from Disney Animation announced that the company’s next animated film will be Raya and the Last Dragon, an original movie.

Raya will be an epic fantasy adventure with southeast Asian themes, writer Adele Lim said at the panel. The film is set in a realm called Lumandra, described as “a reimagined earth inhabited by an ancient civilization.” Five clans form the land of the dragon, and Raya is determined to find the last dragon.

Cassie Steele is the protagonist Raya and the rapper Awkwafina (Nora Lum) plays the dragon, named Sisu. “She’s not like any other dragon that you’ve seen before; she’s a water dragon,” Awkwafina said.

Raya and the Last Dragon’s development goes back to 2017, when Disney shelved Gigantic, a re-telling of Jack and the Beanstalk that would’ve taken place in 15th century Spain and focused on the young hero befriending an 11-year-old giantess. “We are focusing our energies on another project that has been in the works,” Ed Catmull, the Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios president, said at the time.

The then-untitled animation project had a Nov. 25, 2020 release date announced when Disney revealed its theatrical release plans through 2022. Raya and the Last Dragon will follow two Pixar flicks: Onward in March 2020 and Soul the following June. Disney Animation will also release Frozen 2 on Nov. 22, 2019.

[Chaotic]

Originally Posted by Poya

Not trying to make this into a competition but while Constance Wu is being egotistical and throwing others under the bus because she wants to be a movie star, her CRA co-star Awkwafina got by with simply her talents and humbleness. She deserves all the love and respect. I can’t wait for this. That image gave me hope it would be hand drawn.

All the big stars in CRA (Golding, Awkafina, Gemma Chen) have or are getting a big role and not Wu. Im guessing she had to fight to get top billing over J-Lo in Hustlers.

[Creed]

Originally Posted by Chaotic

All the big stars in CRA (Golding, Awkafina, Gemma Chen) have or are getting a big role and not Wu.

Yikes. She only has Hustlers, and the appeal's more towards Lopez and the rest.

[Chaotic]

Originally Posted by Creed

Yikes. She only has Hustlers, and the appeal's more towards Lopez and the rest.

I wonder if she had to fight to get top billing for that movie. She sounds like a spoiled crybaby from what ive heard.

[Creed]

Originally Posted by Chaotic

I wonder if she had to fight to get top billing for that movie. She sounds like a spoiled crybaby from what ive heard.

Yeah, the whole Fresh Off The Boat drama.

[Kanica88]

I was thinking the other day why this hasn’t gotten a tralier yet? Maybe soon.