The grab-bag approach to extremely different regional cultures has also been subject to raised eyebrows. The casting has been met with some blowback online from critics who say that while they are happy to at least see Asian-looking faces on screen, Disney missed the opportunity to cast actual ethnic Southeast Asians in the film their disparate cultures supposedly inspired. In English, the film’s voice cast features “Star Wars” standout Kelly Marie Tran, who is of Vietnamese descent, and a host of other stars of East Asian descent - Awkwafina, who is Chinese- and Korean-American, Gemma Chan of “Crazy Rich Asians,” who is of Chinese descent, and ethnically Korean A-listers Daniel Dae Kim and Sandra Oh. “Raya and the Last Dragon” tells the story of a young girl who must go on a quest to find a dragon in order to unite the five diverse clans of her fictional land of Kumandra, a place Disney said is inspired by Southeast Asian cultures from China’s neighbors Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In the main China poster for the film, Disney sought to reel in local viewers by deeming “Raya” “the new visionary original from the gold medal team of ‘Frozen.’” The “Frozen” series is well-known to local audiences it grossed $48.2 million there in 2014 while its sequel earned $122 million in 2019. “Raya” will mark her first time dubbing an animation. Nevertheless, she is currently ranked rather low on industry tracker Maoyan’s big data-informed list of the country’s top celebs, falling at 83 out of 100.
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