It's not an "I, Raya" thing, or even a "Raya and Sisu" thing - it's about all of Kumandra working together as a big "we"to save the world. Characters also include a street-savvy 10-year-old entrepreneur named Boun, the formidable giant Tong and a thieving toddler Noi with her band of Ongis. That certainly fits the theme of the film: The five lands need to start trusting each other to fight the Druun and bring back their countrymen who've been turned to stone. 'Raya and the Last Dragon' features the voices of Kelly Marie Tran as Raya, a warrior whose wit is as sharp as her blade, and Awkwafina as the magical, mythical, self-deprecating dragon named Sisu. If we examine her name in the context of other languages, we find even more meaning: For example, "noi" means "we" in Italian. Noi has a name with obvious meaning, as "noi" means "little" or "small" in Thai. Sisu's inner strength enables her to carry out her siblings' wishes, despite her insecurities. Despite this, when the Druun attack, Sisu's older brother Pengu chooses her to wield the magical Dragon Gem.
However, in Finnish, Sisu means "strength of will." Throughout the film, we see that Sisu feels weak compared to her brothers and sisters. Sisu, short for Sisudatu, doesn't seem to be a one-to-one translation from a particular language.
It’s a fine line between representation and appropriation, but Disney is at least prepared to try to tread it.Two of the film's more interesting names are those of Sisu the dragon and Noi the con baby. Maybe generically “south-east Asian” is progress compared to generically “Asian”? Some on Twitter have expressed delight at their culture being seen by Hollywood. As does some Japanese anime: Kiki’s Delivery Service, for example, takes place in a generic “Europe”. How would we feel about a movie land that smushed together, say, England, France and Germany? Then again, Frozen, with its pan-Scandinavian setting, comes close. In contrast, Disney’s European tales tend to be more specific: Brave’s Scotland or Beauty and the Beast’s France. Not to mention Black Panther’s Wakanda, although its geographic obscurity was part of the point, and faithful to the comic books. Disney has some form in composite fictional realms: see Aladdin (set in “Agrabah”, AKA “some Arabic kinda place”), or Moana’s Polynesian isle of “Motunui”. Congratulations to the cast and crew of DisneyRaya for their CriticsChoice and. But the issue is compounded by Raya’s fictionalised setting, which effectively smushes together a highly diverse region. Disneys Raya and the Last Dragon is now on Blu-ray & Digital. In its defence, many of Raya’s team are south-east Asian, including the writers Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim.
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