There’s a lot to love about Disney Animation’s Raya and the Last Dragon. The story plays out in the stunning and highly detailed fantasy world of Kumandra, a place where the human population has divided itself into five factions - Tail, Talon, Spine, Fang and Heart - putting them all at great risk of falling victim to an invading plague called the Druun. The only way to defeat the Druun once and for all? If Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) manages to collect all five pieces of the dragon gem, one from each land, and reunite them. In order to do that, Raya must engage in some intense combat scenes and explore the curiosities that make each land of Kumandra unique.

With the movie now available to watch on Disney+, I got the chance to chat with writer Qui Nguyen and directors Carlos López Estrada and Don Hall about their experience making the movie, which included a whole bunch of bold ideas they thought would never pass the Disney filter. Nguyen began by calling the process a “constant game of dare.” He continued:

“It began with us going to basically a small room together and going, ‘Hey, so what do we do?’ It’s like, ’Well, here’s a crazy idea.’ And it kind of just became three mischievous little boys going, ‘[Laughs], this would be stupid if we did this! It would be dumber if we did that! Alright, let’s go pitch it! Let’s see what happens!’ And, lo and behold, they let us do a lot of it from the shooting style to the jokes that we were making, the kind of heroes we were creating. It felt like a nice, fun adventure to be taking with two of my buddies here.”

Raya and the Last Dragon
Image via Disney Studios

Getting into specifics, Hall took a moment to highlight the film’s fight scenes, which are some of the most fierce and beautifully composed fight scenes I’ve seen in animation:

“Specifically the fight scenes knowing they’re pretty intense and not just for animated film, even for a live-action film. I think they would stand up to any live-action film. And never got one ounce of pushback. I think because they were integrated into the story and so well crafted and choreographed by Qui and [stunt coordinator] Maggie [Macdonald] and the animators, never got one ounce of pushback. But that was always in the back of our heads, ‘Is this movie gonna be too violent?’ But never, not one bit of pushback.”

From there, López Estrada narrowed it down even further, pinpointing one especially out there component that doesn’t necessarily advance the plot, but certainly does add something fun and stunning to the film, the Toot 'n' Boom beetles. López Estrada began:

“Yeah, we were worried about the fight scenes, we were worried about some of the more darker thematic elements. You know, a lot of people get turned to stone. But there was one thing that we were positive that was not going to make the filters and those were the farting beetles. [Laughs] This was Qui. This was all Qui!”

Raya-and-the-Last-Dragon-movie-image
Image via Disney

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While Nguyen was hesitant to take full credit, López Estrada insisted that it’s something that came from Nguyen’s mind. López Estrada made a point to note that that creativity is “a good thing,” something I’m very happy to further emphasize. Hall also revealed that when the idea first emerged, they were actually farting gofers but, along the way, they turned them into bugs instead. López Estrada continued:

“[Nguyen] presented it to Don and I, and we were like, ‘Look, that’s hilarious. It’s obviously never going to pass any filters. They’re not gonna let us, but sure, just keep it as a placeholder.’ And then we presented to Jen [Lee], our CCO and she was like, ‘Alright, let’s go for it!’ And then we presented to other people across the street, just big corporate Disney. No one had one note and all of a sudden, here you have these characters whose main contribution to the movie is that they fart.”

While the Toot 'n' Booms are quite the delight, there’s loads more to Raya and the Last Dragon that’s well worth celebrating, so do check out my full conversation with Nguyen, López Estrada and Hall at the top of this article to here more about their experience bringing this story to screen.

Raya and the Last Dragon Movie
Image via Disney

Qui Nguyen, Carlos López Estrada and Don Hall

  • Nguyen on writing a movie that honors how hard it is to trust someone.
  • López Estrada never thought his second film would be a major Disney animated feature.
  • Hall discusses the benefits of helming an animated feature alongside another director; the similarities and differences between working with Stephen J. Anderson on Winnie the Pooh, Chris Williams on Big Hero 6 and now López Estrada on Raya.
  • They run through elements of the movie that they feared they wouldn’t be allowed to do, like adding farting beetles to the mix.

KEEP READING: 'Raya and the Last Dragon' Screenwriter on Asian Representation: "No Story's About Us Without Us"