Raya and the Last Dragon

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🎙️ EPISODE 343: 03.29.2021 *Review starts @ ~ 8:18 My daughter put on Despicable Me 3 right after we watched this one together for the first time. And my first thought was, wow that is a much better movie than this. There is a plague of self-seriousness that is afflicting the culture at large, and I hope we can break free of it soon. Look, I'm not saying there aren't big problems with the culture at hand, and in terms of plagues, this one is very low on the list, much lower, for example, than the, you know, ACTUAL PLAGUE we're still dealing with. But in some ways, everything's related. This movie was apparently a WFH creation, which begs the question, do we really need to leave the house, ever, for anything? And this is totally fine don't get me wrong. It doesn't hit like Frozen or Moana or the Pixar jams, but it comes close at times. It's Rose from Star Wars (you know, ROSE!! everyone's favorite.... it's ROSE!!!!!!) and Awkwafina as a sassy dragon and maybe the cutest creation they ever dreamed up: hey, it's Tuk Tuk!

it's Tuk Tuk!

This was completely competent plot-wise, very fun and twenty or thirty minutes too long. I appreciated the nods to anime which lent it an originality often missing in these movies, as well. But sometimes I just wanna watch Trey Parker do a funny voice and use bubblegum as a weapon and not think about big societal issues buried into the message of a Disney cartoon. Especially when I'm vegging out with my kids. And maybe that's on me. Maybe I'm part of the problem. I don't see it that way at all, but like a lot of things now, it doesn't matter one way or the other.

(Ed Note: Sorry my brain is at like at 5% functional level right now. My points are less abrasive and more coherent, somewhere, deep inside myself. Just can't seem to wrangle them out lol. What I'm saying is definitely skip the audio portion of this review? Yes. Also: I might record an addendum to this at some point, if I can find the time, to better clarify my thoughts.)

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 343A - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 344 ⫸

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