Asian Representation: A Critique of Raya and The Last Dragon

By Leslie Quan

After much anticipation for Disney's Raya and The Last Dragon, I finally had the chance to watch it this past weekend. Overall, I really loved the movie and I was thrilled to see animated characters that look like me. 

Raya and The Last Dragon takes place in Kumandra, a fantasy land inspired by the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. As a Vietnamese American born to parents who emigrated from Vietnam, it was refreshing to see that smaller Asian countries are being represented on the big screen.

While I was watching the end credits, I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of Asian American involvement with the film. However, after a bit of research, I learned that the film lacks Southeast Asian representation in the cast. Many of the cast members are of East Asian heritage despite the fact that the film's setting is meant to represent Southeast Asia.

This made me realize that it's not just about filling a role in order to ensure Asian representation, but it's about accurately representing Asian Americans and their heritage as well as their culture. Incorporating more Asian Americans into movies and TV series isn't a quota that has to be filled. In fact, it never should be. Unfortunately, having as many Asian Americans in one film in order to promote Asian representation isn't promoting Asian representation at all. 

Since Disney based the fictional land of Kumandra on Southeast Asia, then it seems appropriate for them to curate a list of voice actors and actresses who have roots in Southeast Asia. The filmmakers and production team even traveled to a handful of Southeast Asian countries in order to do background research on the culture. They even created the Southeast Asia Story Trust, a group of cultural consultants for the film. However, it seems like Disney fell short of recruiting Southeast Asians for Southeast Asian roles for a film based in Southeast Asia.

Even though I can respect Disney for trying to create a new Disney Princess whose heritage and culture stems from Southeast Asia, I wish that they took more consideration into appropriately casting the actors and actresses to reflect the culture and heritage that they are taking inspiration from.